Galen Watson's Blog: The Psalter - Posts Tagged "feast-of-fools"

Thanksgiving is over. Whew! Dishes are done; aspirin and antacid swallowed; lost football bets paid; and millions of post-feast diet resolutions promised. If you finagled Friday as a bonus day off, then you enjoyed a long weekend recovery from a tryptophan induced coma or clan overdose. Unless, of course, you weathered Black Friday swarms to get a head start on the Christmas shopping list. Now it’s time to dust off Christmas decorations, check bulbs on strings of lights, and shop for a tree. How did it come to this—the frenetic holiday season with stressed out shoppers and retail blockbuster business? Naturally, Christmas is a boon for America since most of our economy is based on consumption. It didn’t used to be that way. A generation ago, much the economy was manufacturing, but that’s long gone. We don’t make stuff anymore; we eat it. And, wasn’t there something else about Christmas that was supposed to be important? I remember now, the Christian remembrance of Jesus’ birth.

Of course, no one knows when Jesus was born; the Bible doesn’t say—not even the year. Neither do early Christian writings, although people have been trying to calculate the precise day for a few thousand years. Even scholarly, retired Pope Benedict XVI wrote that he was likely born between two and seven years earlier than his traditional birthday. In earliest Christianity, there was no celebration of Christmas, nor were birthdays even celebrated, since they were reviled as pagan rites. Third-century Christian writers Ireneus, Tertullian, and Origin of Alexandria dismissed birthday fêtes as profane, and condemned the practice. But, in about 200 A.D., Clement of Alexandria wrote that different Christian sects had placed Jesus' birth variously at May 20, March 21, April 15, April 20, and April 21. None of them mentioned December 25.

That changed, however, as Romans merged pagan holidays with the empire’s newest religion, Christianity. December 25 had long been venerated in past and contemporary pagan religions: Winter solstice, birthdays of competing God-man Mithras and Emperor Constantine’s personal favorite god, Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun). Romans had already identified Jesus with the sun. Fourth century Bishop Ambrose, in a dig at Sol Invictus pagans, called Jesus, ‘the true sun, who outshone the fallen gods of the old order.’ But December also happened to be a favorite religious holiday for Romans: Saturnalia—veneration of the god Saturn. It was a day of gift giving, to mark the spirit of the season. Children received toys. Wax or pottery figurines, called sigillaria, were popular gift items. Today, we call them dolls or action figures. I had a battalion of green army sigillaria when I was a kid. Emperor Augustus had a passion for gag gifts. Candles were especially popular, and they were placed around homes to symbolize fighting against darkness on the year’s shortest days. Outside lighted houses, neighbors built bonfires, drank wine from clay cups, and partied. But, after Rome’s defeat by Carthage at the Battle of Trasimene, the Empire did some soul searching. Romans worried they had lost the true meaning of Saturnalia, and displeased the God. So, many returned to the earlier, more somber Greek rite. Some things never change.

Now, I don’t know whether Christmas originated with the pagan holiday. Seems likely, and many scholarly arguments have been made supporting the link, but also against it. Nevertheless, the very first written mention of December 25 as Jesus’ birthday comes from a mid-fourth century almanac (The Philocalian Calendar) which shows the date as ‘natus Christus in Betleem Judeae’ or Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea. It’s certainly coincidental that the 25th gets its first mention just after Constantine ended persecution of Christians in the fourth century. His favorite god was Sol Invictus, whose birthday--Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, or Birthday of the Unconquered Sun--was December 25. And, Christians were pretty grateful and deferential to Constantine for ending their piteous plight, and elevating them to a televangelist-like, wealthy, official religion; and they looked for ways to repay his kindness, including edited and idealized biographies. Just sayin’. And, in an unforeseen way, we have Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicaea to thank for Ole’ Saint Nick.

Contrary to popular belief, the fourth-century Council of Nicaea wasn’t about church bishops gathering for an agape-type love fest, and to receive divine guidance for church doctrine. Nicaea was about Emperor Constantine uniting the Empire’s factious and fractious Christianity under a single doctrine he could enforce by law – and to try a bothersome Egyptian cleric: Arius. When a frail, 75-year old Arius stood at the council to defend himself, giant Bishop Nicholas of Myra struck him in the face and knocked him to the ground. Furious Constantine banned the violent bishop from the council. But, Nicholas’ sectarian colleagues worked feverishly to rehabilitate his ferocious image. They concocted stories that he was a kind miracle worker and secret giver of gifts, particularly to children. In no time, Bishop Nicholas was transformed from a hot-headed oaf into jolly old Saint Nick, and an enduring legend was born.

By the early Middle Ages, Christmas had become a very minor holiday--Epiphany was the hot-ticket Medieval festival--but its popularity and religio-political significance grew as various kings linked themselves to Jesus by choosing his birthday to be crowned or anointed. However, religious reformer and founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, disdained the fictionalized Saint Nicholas as a trapping of the papacy. So, he took some time off from whipping German crowds into a frenzy--to burn Talmuds, Jewish prayer books, and synagogues; seize Jew's homes and money; and cast them out of cities--to invent his own fiction, Christkindl: the gift-giving Christ Child or Little Jesus. Dark-skinned, Greek/Turkish Saint Nick was transmuted into a northern European, blond-haired cherubic child with angelic wings. But while Christmas’ religious significance now waxed, its Roman pagan traditions of gift giving and riotous revelry had never waned. In 17th century England, the pagan holiday had graduated into an imitation of Saturnalia on steroids with the feast of fools, overseen by the Lord of Misrule. Revelers not only exchanged presents but drank, whored, gambled, sang, danced, and attended elaborate pageants. Dour English protestants—known as Dissenters, Separatists, or Brownists (today we call them Puritans)—were so disgusted by Christmas, it was banned in England from 1647 until 1660. Sourpuss Puritans in the New World—the same ones who drowned or hanged witches and clapped sinners in stocks—banned Christmas in Boston from 1659 until 1681.

In 1823, Clement Clark Moore, American Professor of Divinity and Biblical learning and Oriental and Greek literature, published a poem called A Visit from Saint Nicholas. He blended traditional Saint Nicholas with the Dutch version, Sinterklaas, to create a new, gift-giving ‘jolly old elf.’ The poem was a national success and quickly became a Christmas tradition. We know the poem as The Night Before Christmas. RH Macy Co. capitalized on its popularity and ran an advertisement featuring Santa in 1843. And, in 1862, RH Macy Co. was the first department store to employ a Santa for the Christmas season. Other retailers followed their lead and Santa soon became retailers’ unofficial pitchman. German-born American Illustrator Thomas Nast created the modern image of the Santa Claus we recognize for Harper’s Weekly in the 1860’s -- the same Thomas Nast who created the elephant as the symbol of the Republican political party.

The same lament arises every year: Harken to the true meaning of Christmas, or we’ve lost the original meaning to modern commercialism. But the true meaning of Christmas is an idea with nebulous roots that sprout ever-changing fictions. No wonder Christmas celebrants are confused by the holiday, its symbols, personages, and pagan trappings. And, when Fox reporter-cum-pundit, Megyn Kelly, claimed Jesus and Santa were both white and real, I’m left wondering which factual Santa and Jesus she was referring to? Is it brown-skinned, Semitic Jesus or brown-skinned Greek/Turkish Saint Nicholas? Likely she was referring to Macy’s or Thomas Nast's paler 19th-century creations or Martin Luther’s blond cherub invention.

Nonetheless, Tea Party pitchwoman, Sarah Palin, seems to get the concept as she proffers Christmas as a religio-political, capitalist, nationalist amalgam: “I love the commercialization of Christmas because it spreads the Christmas cheer. It's the most jolly holiday, obviously, on our calendar.” And, ‘it’s about restoring the nation’s principles, following the Founding Fathers’ intentions and spreading the bigger message of Christmas.’ I’m assuming she’s not referring to the Bacchanalian-type revelry so loved by ancient Romans, medieval Europeans, and 17th century Brits. Nevertheless, Roman Emperor Constantine would have loved the sentiment, although America’s immigrant Puritans would likely have hauled Governor Palin to the stocks, pelted her with rotten tomatoes, and sewn a scarlet C for Christmas on her frock.

So get in the spirit of Christmas, whatever it may be. There’s room for every race, nationality, historic origin, and religious persuasion. You can make up your own symbols or Christmas personalities—even Black or Brown Santa and Jesus. Everyone else did. You don’t have to be a Christian, pagan, or even deist. Heck, the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom just ruled God isn’t even a requirement for religion. So make up your own meaning for the fête. In fact, take a cue from Sarah Palin: Season of the Holy, Jolly Capitalist. Buy a lot of stuff, drink lots of wine, make merry, and wake up with a hangover and maxed-out Visa card.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Kwanzaa. Or, as I like to say in a most historic, inclusive, and traditional way, Happy Holidays!