{"id":279325,"date":"2020-12-21T04:24:41","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T09:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=279325"},"modified":"2020-12-21T04:24:41","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T09:24:41","slug":"the-borrowed-customs-and-traditions-of-christmas-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/21\/the-borrowed-customs-and-traditions-of-christmas-celebrations\/","title":{"rendered":"The borrowed customs and traditions of Christmas celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The main ways we understand and mark the occasion seem to be rather similar across the world. It\u2019s about time with community, family, food-sharing, gift-giving and overall merry festivities. (File Photo: Annie Spratt\/Unsplash)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not long to go now before many of us get to spread some good tidings and joy as we celebrate Christmas.<\/p>\n

The main ways we understand and mark the occasion seem to be rather similar across the world<\/a>. It\u2019s about time with community, family, food-sharing, gift-giving and overall merry festivities.<\/p>\n

But while Christmas is ostensibly a Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus, many of the rituals and customs come from other traditions, both spiritual and secular.<\/p>\n

The first Christmas<\/h2>\n

The journey of Christmas into the celebration we know and recognise today is not a straight line.<\/p>\n

The first Christmas celebrations were recorded<\/a> in Ancient Rome in the fourth century. Christmas was placed in December, around the time of the northern winter solstice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is not difficult to spot the similarities between our now long-standing Christmas<\/a> traditions and the Roman festival of Saturnalia<\/a>, which was also celebrated in December and co-existed with Christian belief for a period of time.<\/p>\n

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Saturnalia placed an emphasis on the sharing of food and drink, and spending time with loved ones as the colder winter period arrived. There is even evidence that the Romans exchanged little gifts of food to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Some people still celebrate Saturnalia today with food and drink.<\/span>
\nCarole Raddato\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Christianity took greater hold in the Roman world and the old polytheistic religion was left behind, we can see the cultural imprint of Saturnalia traditions in the ways in which our well-known Christmas celebrations established themselves across the board.<\/p>\n

A Yule celebration<\/h2>\n

Turning an eye to the Germanic-Scandinavian context also provides intriguing connections. In the Norse religion<\/a>, Yule was a winter festival celebrated during the period we now roughly associate with December.<\/p>\n

The beginning of Yule was marked by the arrival of the Wild Hunt, a spiritual occurrence when the Norse god Odin would ride across the sky on his eight-legged white horse.<\/p>\n

While the hunt was a frightening sight to behold, it also brought excitement for families, and especially children, as Odin was known to leave little gifts at each household as he rode past.<\/p>\n

Like the Roman Saturnalia, Yule was a time of drawing in for the winter months, during which copious amounts of food and drink would be consumed.<\/p>\n

The Yule festivities included bringing tree branches inside the home and decorating them with food and trinkets, likely opening the way for the Christmas tree<\/a> as we know it today.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
The decorated Christmas tree can trace its roots back to Northern Europe.<\/span>
\nLaura LaRose\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The influence of Yule on the festive season of Northern European countries is still evident in linguistic expression too, with \u201cJul\u201d being the word for Christmas in Danish and Norwegian. The English language also maintains this connection, by referring to the Christmas period as \u201cYuletide\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here comes Santa<\/h2>\n

Through the idea of gift-giving, we see the obvious connections between Odin and Santa Claus, even though the latter is somewhat of a popular culture invention, as put forward by the famous poem A Visit from St Nicholas<\/a> (also known as The Night Before Christmas), attributed to American poet Clement Clarke Moore<\/a> in 1837 (although debate continues<\/a> over who actually wrote the poem<\/a>).<\/p>\n