...And Man will live forevermore because of Christmas Day!

Dear Diary,

It is Christmas Day today. Never mind that it is not the actual day that Christ Jesus was born… its significance is just as great. If you know the origin of Christmas, you will know that Christmas is derived from pagan festivities which occurred during the Winter Solstice, stretching from the middle of December to the beginning of the new year.

Winter Solstice celebrations included:
1. Saturnalia which was practised by the Romans and involved honouring Saturn, their Sun god for agriculture
2. In Persia, Mithra, the Sun god, was believed to have been born out of a rock on 25 December, and was celebrated as the Nativity of the Unconquered Sun
3. The Teutonic tribes in Northern Europe began their New Year festivities honouring their "All Father", Odin or Woden.


It was only in the 350 A. D., after the Roman Emperor Constantine had established Christianity as the national religion that Christmas was set on 25 December officially by Pope Julius I. During Jesus’ time worship of Mithras continued to be popular in Rome. After Jesus’ death, Christianity began to replace pagan religions. However, many Pagan converts to Christianity refused to discontinue their pagan practices. Many of these Christians worshipped Mithras on Sunday (named after the sun god), and attended the annual feast. Sighting this as a problem, church leaders decided to Christianize pagan customs, in order to attract pagans and allow converts to observe their old traditions in a godly fashion. In 336 A. D., we have the first record of the Feast of Nativity being celebrated in Rome on 25 December. Some Christian sects have remained adamant about not celebrating Christmas including many independent churches, charismatic Christians and the Bible-Presbyterians. Traditionally, Eastern Orthodoxy retained 6 January (the Epiphany or the Three Kings Day) for commemorating the birth of Christ. As a good Anglican Christian and like any other traditional Christians, Christmas is important to me as a day each year to commemorate the love of God and the miracle of the virgin birth.

The word Christmas is derived from "the Mass of Christ", referring to the worship service practised by Roman Catholics. Sometimes the word is shortened to Xmas where "X" is Chi, the first letter in Greek for "Christ". It was commonly used from the 16th century onwards. That is why we must know that if we were to celebrate Christmas without acknowledging the “Christ Jesus” who came down as an infant and to eventually die on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, Christmas is just another secular pagan festivity. The very essence of it will be nothing. I am reminded of an incident at the recent Celebrate Christmas in Singapore (CCIS) in Orchard Road. The Nativity Story (the birth of infant Jesus) was shown as a play to the passers-by. For greater effect, they agreed that all the lightings surrounding the area should be switched off when the infant Jesus is born, except for the light illuminating him. Well, apparently… the play came to this moment and a confused guy from the lighting crew switched off the lights… in fact, he switched off “all” the lights, including the one illuminating the infant Jesus. The audience stood and watched. There was a period of awkward silence until someone whispered in the stillness of darkness… “Hey, I think you just switched ‘off’ Jesus…”

That was just a genuinely innocent mistake… but in our lives… have we also switched “off” Jesus from our lives? Personally, I know I have somehow neglected the things of God recently. Sigh… I just got so caught up in the busyness of my life. We must remind ourselves constantly of what really matters in our lives. Not just about the issue of God…. In anything, we must always weigh the importance of things and give them the due priorities. However, before we prioritise everything, we must ask if the thing we hold dearest has any eternal value.

May you have a blessed Christ-centred Christmas and a fruitful well-prioritised New Year ahead.

God Bless,

Andrew