The Feast of Stephen
and Other Christmas Traditions
By John Loeffler
Good
King Wenceslaus went out
On the Feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even.
OK, Christians of the world: ‘Church History’
for one hundred. When is the Feast of Stephen and to whom does it refer? (Pause for hemming and hawing.)
The answer is: It’s December 26, the day
after Christmas, when the death of the Church’s first martyr, Stephen, is
traditionally commemorated. Trivial, yes, but most Christians can’t give me the
correct answer.
My preoccupation with this began a year ago,
when I found myself sitting in an evangelical church in early December listening
to the singing of Christmas carols. “Could the Church have lost its mind?”
I 
thought.
It has become so much like the world.
In the ancient Church, Christmas was
celebrated on...Christmas. Everything prior to that was a preparation for the
big day but Christmas itself wasn’t celebrated until midnight, December 24th,
when the Christ child was welcomed into the world.
Christ wasn’t actually born on December 25th.
The actual date is a subject of debate. But in 336 A.D. the Church set the date
at December 25th (Julian calendar) to offset the pagan celebration of the
winter solstice at the Saturnalia, much as churches today have “harvest parties”
to offset what has become the increasingly occult holiday - Halloween.
Following the time of the apostles, the early
Church began to develop organization and worship in five major centers around
the Mediterranean: Jerusalem (naturally), Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople
and Rome.
Distance caused the different liturgies to
diverge in the selection of prayers, requirements and customs, but after the
Great Schism between the Roman and Orthodox Churches in 1054, the liturgical
form of worship was still retained. The Western Church followed the Roman rite
(the Mass) and the Orthodox Churches followed the liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. Both still today have major portions of their
rites in common.
The Roman Church developed a hierarchical
structure centered around the papacy and the bishops.
The Orthodox Churches developed a more networked approach, centering around the bishops, all of whom were in affiliation with each
other in what were called “autocephalos” or independent churches, who
reported to a Metropolitan.
During the Reformation, the Lutheran Church
retained the form of the Roman liturgy and much of the Church structure but
corrected what it believed were non-biblical errors that had crept into the
Roman Church over the centuries. The Anglican Church likewise retained the Church
structure and worship.
Other Christian groups opted to throw out
all of it in favor of different, more simplistic and often stark forms of
worship. In retrospect, they may have thrown out the baby with the bath water,
retaining only key dates such as Christmas, Easter and possibly Pentecost. Some
introduced a few new ones, such as Reformation Sunday.
In trying to counter the secularization of
its holy days, the Church is having a difficult time because it has forgotten
the origins of its celebrations.
Advent
In Western Churches the four Sundays prior
to Christmas were called “Advent,”
coming from the Latin verb “advenire,” meaning “to come towards.”
The church was decorated in purple, along
with the priest who wore the same color, signifying penance. Prior to December
25th, the church was in a period of penance, preparation and anticipation of
the Messiah’s birth. Fasting was observed several times a week. All of the
hymns and prayers reflected this repentance and preparation; a period of
darkness into which the Lumen Christi (the light of Christ) must come.
Scripture readings from the Old Testament and the Gospels matched the season, such as the Old Testament prophecies about the
Messiah and Gospel passages about the
ministry of John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ.
Hymns included On Jordan’s Bank the Baptists Cry and O Come Immanuel but never
a Christmas carol. Christ had not yet arrived.
Then Cometh Christ’s Mass
For centuries the Midnight Mass on Christmas
Eve was a radical change from the previous four weeks — this liturgical text
became the centerpiece of a number of Baroque and classical compositions.
Christmas itself
means “Christ’s Mass” — the mass celebrated on Christmas Day. The church was
decorated and ablaze with lights. Colors had shifted from purple to gold and
white and the traditional green/red themes. Much incense was used. Christ had
finally come. This was a time of great celebration, and hence the use of the word “feast” to designate the day.
Other Christmas Traditions
The Middle Ages saw
the beginnings of liturgical dramas (often called “mystery plays”) designed to
portray biblical stories surrounding Christmas. Recall that the majority of the
population of Europe at the time was illiterate and so the mystery plays
provided a method of teaching biblical things. Over the centuries the mystery
dramas started to become profane and secular in nature (sound familiar?) and so
performances in churches were eventually banned.
Also,
manger scenes (or “crèches” as they were called in French) began to appear, and
it was a Christmas custom for every family to visit the crèche.
The Advent Wreath
The custom of the Advent wreath evolved in
northern Europe. The wreath has four candles: three purple and one pink. In
some cases, three red and one white candle are used.
One candle is lit on each Sunday of Advent
at dinner time and the family sings O
Come Immanuel prior to the blessing. The third Sunday of Advent is a different
color, signifying that while we are still in 
darkness,
there is hope and the light of Christ is coming.
In the Western Church it was called “Gaudate” (gow-day-tay) Sunday,
meaning we should rejoice, for there is hope.
In America, the tradition has started of
adding a white candle in the center on Christmas Day to signify that the light
of Christ has come into the world.
Some Lutheran churches reverse the Advent
wreath process, using a ring of candles, one for each Sunday of Lent prior to
Holy Week. Sunday after Sunday one less candle is lit until finally, on Good
Friday, the center Christ candle is extinguished.
There are as many Christmas traditions as
there are countries and centuries. Many had strictly Christian origins. Others
are a mix of vestiges of pagan custom adapted into Christianity. This, and the
observance of Christmas itself, has been the source of much debate, which is
not the subject of this article.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
The Twelve Days of Christmas ranks as part of the regular Christmas carol fare. So what
are they? They are the days when Christmas was traditionally observed, between
December 25th and January 6th. January 6th was the Feast of the Epiphany, when the
three Wise Men finally arrived, thus the twelve days when Christmas was
celebrated.
In some places presents were given each day
of the twelve days instead of tearing into a big wallop of presents on December
25th. Traditionally the Christmas tree went up on December 24th in the evening
and came down on January 6th.
The Feast of the Holy Innocents is
celebrated on December 28th, commemorating the children who were killed in
Bethlehem as Herod sought to destroy the child Jesus.
Santa Claus
Santa Claus means Holy Claus, short for
Nicholas. The word “santo” is “holy” in Latin as well
as its descendent tongues, such as Spanish and Italian. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, St. Nicholas was born in the
ancient city of Patara. As a youth he traveled to
Palestine and later became Bishop of Myra. He was imprisoned during the
persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian and was later an attendant
at the First Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.
Legend says that he showed unusual kindness
to the poor and the weak; oftentimes leaving things for them while they were
asleep. In the Middle Ages he became patron saint
of charitable fraternities, 
children,
and other things as well as patron saint of the City of Moscow, Russia. After
the Reformation, the legend of St. Nicholas died out everywhere except in
Holland. It migrated to the U.S. with Dutch Reformed Christians.
Later in Germany, St. Nick would traditionally
arrive on his Feast Day, December 6th. A man dressed as St. Nick would go
door to door loaded with a giant sack. To those children who had been good
during the year, he gave presents. To those who had been bad, a lump of coal
was their lot. “How did he do that?” the kids would wonder.
Other Traditions
The Night before Christmas was first published in 1822 and picked up widespread
popularity and republishing. During Queen Victoria’s reign in England, tree
decorating was well under way. Martin Luther is reported to have been the first
person to actually put lights on a Christmas tree. (One can only speculate
whose house was the first to burn down as the result of a Christmas tree.)
In 1880, Woolworth’s first sold manufactured
Christmas tree ornaments and they caught on very quickly.
In Mexico and southern parts of the United
States, Las Posadas has been a major
tradition, which is now spreading in popularity. Las Posadas
sees children going door to door asking for shelter, just as Joseph and Mary
did when Mary was about to give birth to Jesus. The answer from the person who
answers is always a negative head shake and the response, “no posada” (no
shelter). Candles placed in paper bags (luminarias)
serve as chains of lanterns on the ground leading up to the doors to show the
expectant couple the way.
Rudolph, the genetically mutant reindeer, is
a latecomer and has absolutely no religious significance whatsoever. In 1939, Santas at Montgomery Wards gave away 2.4 million copies of
a booklet called Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer. It was written by Robert May, an advertising executive in the
store. In 1949, western singer Gene Autrey did a
musical rendition of the poem and it became an overnight best-seller.
Christians today tend to fight the ongoing
secularization of their holidays. Some have rejected anything to do with them,
saying they are not biblically ordained. Others have tried to go back to
keeping the Jewish feasts instead. It should be pointed out that the New Testament doesn’t really ordain
anything other than the Lord’s Supper. But it does not prohibit it either, and
under grace Christians are free to honor different days if they wish.
Those families who want to keep Christ as the
center of Christmas may find it easier to do by understanding the various
symbols that have been used to celebrate Christ’s birth through the ages and
using them to retain the uniqueness inherent in the mystery of the incarnation:
the birth of the Son of God.
John
Loeffler is host of the weekly syndicated talk show
Steel on Steel, which can be heard
at www.steelonsteel.com. Online subscriptions to the show or by tape are available.
John also produces and co-hosts The Financial Sense Newshour with Jim Puplava at www.financialsense.com. He can be reached at (800)
829-5646. This article was published on www.newswithviews.com.
