Christmas..
What magic this word holds for the ear, and what worlds it carries to the listener..
With it he remembers the greatest event in all history, and his spirit revives as he recalls its meaning..
And with it he remembers, at the same time, sweet traditions he has been used to keeping since childhood; he grew up with them and they grew up with him, and perhaps he never knew that they are older, in some cases, than Christmas itself.
For the first Christians, in keeping the day of the Nativity, had recourse to many of the traditions the ancients used to practice, and practiced them, adding to them nothing new but the spirit; and that addition was enough to create those traditions anew.
The Date of Christmas
Why was December 25 chosen as the day on which to celebrate Christmas?
It is well known that the day on which Christ was born is not historically established, which led the Church in its earliest age to celebrate it at different times according to the different churches: as it was sometimes celebrated in December, it was at other times celebrated in January, or in April, or in May.
Since all the churches had to agree on a fixed day for Christmas, the old pagan feasts and their dates were taken into account. The northern peoples used to keep a feast for the sun, giver of light and life, and they kept it on the shortest days of the year. The Hebrews celebrated the feast of Hanukkah at a time not far removed from the feast of the sun. And the Romans kept the feast of the Saturnalia for a whole week, running from December 17 to 24, decorating their houses with trees during it and offering gifts. Add to this that December 25 was the feast of Mithras in Rome.
These considerations, taken all together, may have had their effect in fixing the day of Christmas among the early Christians. The fixed date came into general use toward the end of the fourth century, when St. Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople, approved it, giving as his reason that the pagans were then in festival, and so the Christians too could keep their feast without provoking others. Rome officially recognized the date of the feast in the year 336.
Christmas Carols and Plays
It is not known exactly when the use of hymns and carols began as part of the celebration of Christmas;
for the use of music to celebrate the birth of Jesus was practiced almost from the beginning. The French historians say that one of the bishops of Rome was the first to introduce singing and chanting into the service, and that was in 192. In the fourth century the writing of Christmas carols and their setting to music became widespread. The poets had recourse to certain pagan hymns, altering and recasting them to fit the new occasion.
As for the Christmas plays, they came into being in the eighth century. Their action turned on scenes chosen from Holy Scripture, and they were performed in the churches and in the town squares. Certain parts of the plays were chanted, which further spread Christmas music and carols. It is not known for certain which came first: the carols or the Christmas plays.
Then came the year 1223, in which the Pope gave St. Francis of Assisi leave to set up a stage on which the story of the Nativity might be played. He built a stage near the church, and used real people and animals in the performance, not mere images. That scene made such an impression on the souls of the beholders that its repetition, and its passage from country to country, became inevitable.