Christ, the real reason for Christmas

Dec 25, 2017 News

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By Davina Ramdass

With all the hustling and bustling all around the world, many seem to drown out the real reason for Christmas.
While Christians try their utmost best to keep the Holiday as holy as possible… as it should be, it is a fact that they also find themselves doing things unrelated to what the season is all about.
Firstly, Christmas is about the birth of Christ Jesus, who in Christianity is the son of God.
He was born, not on Christmas day, but around this time of the year according to historians. He came into the World through the Virgin Mary, after an angel of God visited her, and told her that she would give birth to the Son of God.
Most Christians acknowledge that Christmas is not the day that He was born, but celebrates His birth on the day. Meanwhile, there are some Christians who choose not to celebrate the birth of Christ; given that God did not say in the Bible that Christians should celebrate births.
It is also a fact that Christmas is the time of the year that people drink the most, rob the most and have the most parties. It is important to acknowledge that it is Christ’s birthday and not your own.
While parties and all the others secular activities are crowded, not as many show up at the Church for the real celebration.
A person might ask, ‘How can you celebrate the birth of Christ in church?’ One actually can celebrate Christmas in the church, given that it is the place that Jesus would want His people to be, especially on the day that is designated as His birthday.
Christmas trees, Santa Claus, the lights, the new mats, curtains and sheets have absolutely nothing to do with the birth of Christ.
What many people are not aware of is that Christmas is actually a commercial period and has a Pagan (ungodly) origin.
The Bible did not document an exact date for the birth of Christ.

HOW DID CHRISTIANS START CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS ON DECEMBER 25?
Roman Pagans are the first to have begun celebrating during the period of December 17 to 25. The holiday was named ‘Saturnalia’. During this period, the Roman Courts were closed and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the week-long celebration.
The ancient Greek writer and Historian, Lucian in his dialogue ‘Saturnalia’ describes the festival’s observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions some of the very things that are dominating the way most celebrate in the 21st century. They include widespread intoxication, going from one house to another singing naked and even raping along with other sexual acts.

In the fourth century, Christianity imported the Holiday with the hope of taking the pagan masses in with it. In doing so, Christians succeeded in converting a large number of Pagans to Christianity by assuring them that they can still celebrate Saturnalia as Christians.
Interestingly enough, Christian leaders renamed Saturnalia’s concluding day, December 25, to be Christmas, the day of Jesus’ birthday.

HOW DID THE CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS BEGIN?
As previously noted there are quite a few things that are Christmas-related in today’s society. Everybody enjoys the Mistletoe, the beautiful trees and all the others, but do we really know why? Most people, when asked this question, agreed that they celebrate the season as part of tradition.
Everybody knows at Christmas, a tree is always necessary to bring that festive spirit. Here are a few of the popular Christmas traditions and their origin:

CHRISTMAS TREE
Just as early Christians recruited Roman Pagans by associating Christmas with Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cults and its offshoots were recruited by the church sanctioning the Christmas trees. Pagans in those days also worshipped trees and brought them into their homes, which they then decorated. This was later adopted by the Church.

PRESENTS
In Pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most depressed citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the festival of Saturnalia. This ritual later expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavour on the basis of gift-giving.

HOW DOES THE CHURCH CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS?
In Guyana and the World at large, there are several denominations of Christians. Like was mentioned earlier, some Christians choose not celebrate the Holiday for various reasons.
Those that celebrate Christmas, usually do so by firstly singing choruses in Church that are associated with the birth the Christ, such as ‘Hark the herald angels sing’ and the many others.
As the days draw nearer to the holiday, some Christians would host concerts, which would include dramatic pieces, poetry, songs and dances, all depicting the story of the birth of Jesus.
In a small village on the Soesdyke Linden High Way, Kuru-Kururu, the Churches that celebrate the holiday would collaborate to spread the joy of the season as they parade through the streets singing Christmas songs. The Churches would also create floats that are beautifully adorned, usually depicting the Stable, where Jesus was born and other Christmas-related scenery.
Among the many other practices, the most important to note is the Christmas morning service. At the Assembly of God, Deliverance Tabernacle in Kuru-Kururu, the Pastor, Gladston Bagot convenes his brief service from 06:00hrs for one hour. He uses the time to remind the believers that Christmas is intended to bring Glory to God and not tummies, among the other unrelated preferences Christians may be tempted to have.
The Pastor of the Church and his family annually extend warm wishes to the congregation before allowing them to have a ‘Merry Christmas’.

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