So, a few facts before we get to our solstice-centered story this morning: Long before lights and cell phones and t.v.’s and illuminated our homes, the darkness and cold and retreating sun made many people depressed and even rather scared. So, when the ancient people started to see the sun return – as it will on Friday, after the shortest day of the year – these people celebrated the event with big dinners and singing and even exchanging gifts (sound familiar?) Some of their symbols of revelry are still with us – holly and ivy and wreaths and decking the halls with greens (as we will in a moment). A tradition they also had is one we’ve maybe heard of: kissing under the mistle-toe.
Another fact: The early Christian church did not celebrate Jesus’ birth at all. In other words, there were no Christmas Eve services and no pageants and no ministers trying to make sense of it all! Only over centuries, and only after these solstice feasts turned really wild and really out of control, did Christians seek to offer an alternative, calling it “Christ’s Mass,” or Christmas.
Another fact: nobody was as hard on Christmas as the Puritans, the folks who built the pews you are sitting in, who thought that Christmas wasn’t biblical and Jesus wouldn’t have approved of any birthday celebrations. They ordered shops to stay open on Christmas, banned holiday cakes and candles, and also managed to have the Massachusetts Congress declare Christmas illegal from 1659-1681. Bah-Hum-Bug!
And last, some final facts to make us Unitarians feel good. Christmas as we know it didn’t really get going until the mid-1800’s, and that was largely because of one story – A Christmas Carol – written by Unitarian Charles Dickens.
(Source: azspot)
