Christmas is a part of many peoples households this season, but before Christianity started to spread the holiday was celebrated in a very different way. In many northern European countries, as well as Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt the solstice was celebrated.
The Norse celebrated the solstice, also called Yule on December 21st (or whenever the solstice fell that year) through early January. A Yule tree would be carefully picked and brought home with great fanfare, when brought home it would be burned from trunk to top while people feasted around it. They would celebrate the ending of the short winter days and the coming of longer, warmer days with more sunlight.
Celtic druids often used this time of the year in the same way the Norse did, they lit a yule log and collected mistletoe for the solstice. Instead of these practices continuing we now have a chocolate yule log or ‘bûche de Noël’ as a popular Christmas dessert or pudding.
In Ancient Rome instead of Christmas they celebrated Saturnalia, which was on December 17th. This was held in the honor of the god Saturn, who watched over agriculture and harvest. During this week long celebration many sacrifices and gifts were made, as well as special privileges for slaves. Often, gifts would be from one person to another consisting of writing tablets or tools, cups and spoons, clothing, or food. Slaves would be treated as free people during the duration of the festivities, allowing them to feast and celebrate as they please. Feasts were made in honor of the god, to celebrate the start of new planting and harvest seasons to come.
In Ancient Egypt they celebrated the coming of one of their gods, Ra, the god of the Sun. Like Rome they would celebrate an oncoming planting season. Alongside this they would celebrate Ra and his rebirth cycle. As these were the shortest days in the year he would be seen less, as the sun was out less. Thus their celebration of his longer appearances.
By the Middle Ages Christianity had become a much more popular religion, and had mostly taken over paganism. Though in this process many pagans did not want to convert to Christianity, and they often had trouble with pagans giving up their old holidays and practices. To ‘fix’ this problem Christians decided to take over pagan holidays, including their solstice holidays. Instead of burning large trees for twelve days trees would be displayed in homes and decorated. Many Christian Churches were built over or around Pagan Worship sites, and Pagan Symbols were incorporated into Christianity. Instead of saying it was for the solstice and the end of short winter days they declared it was for the birth of Jesus Christ, though many scholars argue that he was most likely born sometime in spring near April.
There are many other religious practices and folktale practices that have been taken to create what we know of Christmas today, though if I wrote all of that down it would take me quite a while and it would take much too long to read.
