Banning Jesus’ birth
Gary Clayton looks at attempts made over the centuries to ban Christmas Day and how, in spite of these efforts, it remains one of the most important days in the calendar
According to an old friend: “Christmas sucks!”
Although the festival is celebrated by millions of people worldwide, he points out that the Bible doesn’t give the year of Jesus’ birth; the date wasn’t agreed on in the West until about 350AD, and it’s highly unlikely that sheep would have been in the fields at night if Jesus had been born in the ‘bleak midwinter’, i.e. 25th December.
So, because of all this, I haven’t always been that big a fan, though I guess I’ve mellowed somewhat. But you’d have to ask my wife if that’s true – she loves Christmas!
Though I haven’t necessarily changed my mind about certain aspects of the festival, I do see some merit in celebrating the most significant birth in history, and using the period to worship the Lord; help spread the message of ‘peace on earth’ (Luke 2:14); and spend time with family and friends.
I also find it interesting that, over the centuries, different political regimes have sought to cancel Christmas – although the Puritans who did so in the mid-17th century did it because they regarded it as an excuse for drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling and excess.
Later, in 1793, the revolutionary government in France not only sought to ban Christmas, but killed hundreds of priests, closed churches, and ‘converted’ Notre-Dame Cathedral into a ‘Temple of Reason’.
Catholicism – France’s official state religion – was eventually replaced with the short-lived Cult of Reason; the atheistic ‘faith’ lasted about a year before it was supplanted by the Cult of the Supreme Being, which only lasted six weeks!
Because the Gregorian calendar was thought to be too closely aligned with the Church, it was changed to a Republican calendar. This replaced the traditional seven -day week with twelve 30-day months, each of which was divided into three 10-day cycles, with five or six days added at the end of the year.
The days, dates and months were dedicated to animals, natural elements and descriptions of the seasons. So, to avoid any reference to Jesus’ birth, 25th December is said to have become ‘Dog Day’, taking place on the fifth day of the newly named month of Nivôse or ‘Snowy’. (I wonder if Tintin would have approved!)
But when the revolutionary regime finally collapsed in 1799, Christmas eventually returned.
Then, in 1917, when the Bolsheviks seized control in Russia, Christmas again came under attack, with Stalin eventually abolishing it in 1929 as part of his campaign against Christianity.
Christmas became a normal working day, and the selling of conifer trees a criminal offence. Volunteers were even tasked with going from one apartment to another to check if any trees had been put up in secret. Anyone who broke the rules risked arrest.
And yet, in 1935, Christmas returned, albeit in a far more secular form. It was due to the need for Stalin to improve morale following his disastrous man-made famine which caused millions to perish. The celebrations were, however, moved to New Year’s Eve to avoid religious associations!
The USSR also saw the return of Ded Moroz (‘Grandfather Frost’) – Father Christmas’ slimline Russian rival. Unlike the capitalistic Santa Claus, he is said to have asked children: “To whom do we owe all the good things in our socialist society?” The answer was, of course, “Stalin.”
Decades later, as we’ll see, the more traditional Christmas returned.
Unfortunately, two years before Stalin lifted his original ban on Christmas, Hitler came to power in Germany. He too tried to get rid of Christmas – partly because of its Christian associations, but also because Jesus was Jewish!
But rather than killing it off completely, the Nazis attempted to ‘reclaim’ it by emphasising the Germanic origins of the originally pagan Yuletide festival and encouraging its widespread celebration.
Abandoning Jesus – the ‘Reason for the season’ – members of the Hitler Youth held torchlit parades, stormtroopers sang carols and militaristic marching songs, and women decorated their ‘people’s Christmas trees’ with runic symbols, like those employed by the SS. They also placed sinister-looking sun wheels on top of their trees.
But, when the ‘Thousand-Year Reich’fell apart in 1945 after only 12 years, with Hitler shooting himself in a Berlin bunker, Christmas again returned, as it did in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
So, whatever my friend might think of the festival, with Christmas surviving the Puritans, the French Revolution, the Communists and the Nazis, it’ll probably survive anything – which might not be such a bad thing after all…
GARY CLAYTON
Has been writing/editing for various missionary organisations since becoming a Christian in his early twenties.
