There are puritans (with a small ‘P’) who will tell
you that ‘Xmas’ is all wrong and you shouldn’t use it. Puritans aren’t
always right. Xmas has a very long and distinguished history. From the earliest
times, the first letter of Χριςτος – the Greek form of Christos, has
been used as an abbreviation for Christ, with Χmas as an alternative to
Christmas. An Old English chronicle, dated 1021, containes the words, “On
Xpes mæsse uhtan” (‘On Christ’s mass dawning’) and John Wyclif, in a
sermon for New Year’s Day dating from about 1380, says of the mystical word
VIX,
“For in þis word VIX ben but þree lettris, V, and I, and X. And V bitokeneþ fyve; I bitokeneþ Jesus; and X bitokeneþ Crist. (i.e. X betokens Christ)”
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| The Chi-Rho |
The use of the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ were used in the Chi-Rho
symbol, which stood as a secret sign for the early Christians and conveniently
looked a little like a cross too. In fact, the name of the festival was Dies
Natalis Domini (The day of the birth of the Lord) or, more fully, Festum
Nativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi (The feast of the day of the birth
of Our Lord Jesus Christ), because the early Catholic Church used Latin as
their official language and it wasn’t until the tenth or eleventh century that
the English began to use Christ’s Mass, which was conflated into such words as Christenmass,
kryst-masse, cristmasse, crystmasse, Chrysmas, and Cristmas, and it
wasn’t until the seventeenth century that this was standardised as Christmas,
so, if anything, Xmas is more ‘authentic’ than Christmas.
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| Another Chi-Rho |
These
early Christians did not really celebrate Christmas but in the Constitutions
of the Holy Apostles, which date from 375 to 380 CE, Book V Section
III, On Feast Days and Fast Days, has,
“Brethren, observe the festival days; and first of all the birthday which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth of the ninth month; after which let the Epiphany be to you the most honoured, in which the Lord made to you a display of His own Godhead, and let it take place on the sixth of the tenth month.”
From this, we see that
the ‘most honoured’ feast day was that of the Epiphany, celebrated on January 6th,
and there were advocates for dates other than December 25th, with
various dates put forward for various reasons, but after St Chrysostom (d. 407
CE) the Eastern and Western churches recognised December 25th as the
Feast of the Nativity (although the Armenian Church still uses January 6th,
with those members of the Armenian Orthodox Church in the Holy Land that still
use the Julian calendar opting for January 19th).
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| Figuring things out |
Using a slightly
more convoluted logic, some commentators reasoned that since God started
creating everything by dividing the light and the dark, it made sense that he
must have done this on the Spring equinox, when the day and the night are of
equal length. Furthermore, it also made sense that since his son was the Light
of the World, he would also have been conceived at the Spring equinox, and the
Feast of the Annunciation was March 25th so it made sense that he
would have been born nine months later, on December 25th. Obvious,
when you think it through.
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| The Nativity |
If the date is uncertain, then so too is the year;
once again, there are any number of theories, with Dionysus Exiguus settling on
the Anno Domini mode of reckoning in his Cyclus Paschalis, a
treatise for computing the correct date for Easter, which placed the year of
the birth of Christ, (1 AD) in the Year of Rome 753 (Anno Urbis Conditae).
Due to an oversight, Dionysus got his sums wrong and was out by approximately 4
years, so that the real date of the Nativity would be at some time between 6
and 4 BCE. It made sense for the early Christians to place their celebration at
around the same time as the Roman feasts of Saturnalia and the Kalends (their
New Year), and the related festival celebrating the birth of the god, Mithras.
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| Bas-relief of Mithras found at York |
Roman soldiers stationed in Persia during the first century encountered a minor
sun god called Mithra or Mitra and they took the new religion first back to
Rome and then they spread it throughout the Roman Empire as they were stationed
abroad. Mithraism was a mystery religion and only men were initiated into its
secrets, so our knowledge is necessarily limited, but there are some
interesting parallels with another emerging religion of the time. The priests
of Mithras were the Magi, whom we have already met as the Three Kings. Mithras
was born in a cave to a Virgin on December 25th and was the Light of
the World, the Sun, whose day, Sunday, was the Sabbath. He performed miracles,
including walking on water, and had twelve disciples, who followed him and were
represented by the twelve signs of the zodiac. Mithras was killed and rose
again after three days, during which time he descended into the underworld, and
then ascended in Heaven, from where he will return at the end of the world. His
followers celebrated with a special communal meal, where the food was Mithras’s
flesh and blood, they progressed through seven sacraments during their
lifetimes and he was known to them as ‘Saviour’, ‘Son of God’, ‘Redeemer’ and
‘Lamb of God’.
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| Mithras slays a bull |
This much we know. Classical authors refer to contemporary
writings about the Mithras cult that have since been lost, and some of what we
do have is from Christian polemicists, who sought to portray the ritualistic
elements in an unsavoury manner. We know that the Roman Mithras differed from
the Indo-European Mitra of the Rig-Veda, and although popular amongst the
military, was revered by no more than about 1% of the population of the Roman
Empire. Religions, cults and sects washed in and out of Rome from all corners
of the Empire, from Britain, Gaul, Iberia, Africa, Egypt, Greece, Persia, India
and beyond, and were mixed together, drawing and feeding on each other. It is
no surprise then that there are so many common threads and parallels. It’s a
fascinating subject.
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| Wæs hæl. Drinc hæl. |
So may your god, whoever or whatever you conceive
he/she/it to be, if at all, be with you at this time of the year. Wæs hæl.
Drinc hæl.
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