Cow and Boy Classics by Mark Leiknes for December 16, 2020

Someone should explain syncretism to Billy as well.

Oooh. < hoofslap > doesn’t work well in the 3D universe! >8^0

Victorian England and it has slowly built until now. Mr Macy and the Coca Cola company really gave it a push over here during the Great Depression. And WWII as well.

Actually, Jesus wasn’t born on 25 December (or its equivalent). In the third century, which is when Christians started to think about celebrating the birth of the anointed one, 25 December was the winter solstice (thanks to Julian Calendar slippage). An important event for the Emperor Aurelian and the “Sol Invictus” set. And there was some numerology involving Easter (tricky because it’s a movable feast). If there’s anything to the business about shepherds keeping watch over their flocks (Luke), we would be talking April or so, and in fact that was a competing date, once. But all the birth/childhood matter in the gospels—the only two that have anything at all—is strongly legendary and provably counterfactual in detail. E.g., the business about a Roman census requiring the Holy Family to travel to Bethlehem is a complete fiction.

InquireWithin less than a minute agoChristmas was a relatively minor Christian holiday until recently, Easter being the big one with its message of sacrifice and redemption. Remember that one of the central themes of Christianity for centuries was suffering, loss, and sacrifice (i.e. “Our Lady of Sorrows”). And everyone needed to offer up their suffering in the name of the Lord. This attitude was necessary in a world where even a minor infection could turn into sepsis and kill your children, there was no way to treat painful cavities or things like appendicitis, there were no painkillers, etc. etc. Starvation and privation were everywhere, and people toiled long hours just to survive. The calendar was littered with minor feasts to ease this somewhat, Christmas being one of those.

Christmas coincided with Yuletide festivities however, so there was a lot of merrymaking apart from the religious aspect of it. Dickens captured some of this in A Christmas Carol, but the attitude of Scrooge was common among employers of the day. Christmas wasn’t viewed as much of a holiday and was often seen more as an excuse to get drunk from the wassail cup.

It wasn’t until late in the industrial revolution, when the hardship of survival was beginning to ease somewhat, that Christmas began to resemble the holiday we have today. As others pointed out, retailers and others seized upon and elevated the gift-giving aspect of it. Relentless promotions centering on the St. Nick (or Santa) as described in the famous poem, “A Visit From St. Nicholas” began to take root in the early 20th century. Mass merchandising quickly made the holiday a favorite of generations of children, and now we have the huge celebration that everyone knows today. (Because it’s “always been that way” for most people living today.)