Here is an old material I have kept for some time credited to anonymity. I guess this is the best time for me to share this with you.
Much about Christmas remains veiled and puzzling. It harbors a mystery of faith and has a somewhat checkered history.
More than 300 years after Jesus’ time, Christians celebrated his resurrection but not his birth. The later Christmas festival was banned in 17th century England and early America. The observance begins in fourth-century Rome, timed to coincide with a midwinter pagan festival honoring the imperial army’s sun god, Mithra. The December date was taken over to celebrate Jesus’ birthday.
But the day he was born is unknown. Even the precise year is uncertain. However, it was not in the year AD 1, as the calendar’s Anno Domini (Year of the Lord) suggests. Its dating system was derived from an error about the year of Christ’s birth by a sixth-century monk in Rome, Dionysius Exigus, in working out the starting point of the Christian era. Scholars since have calculated that Jesus’ birth came in about 6 or 7 BC, meaning paradoxically “Before Christ.” The revised time was determined partly by the fact that Herod the Great ruled Judea when Jesus was born, and history records that Herod died in 4 BC.
In what month the birth occurred or on what day has been a matter of speculation for centuries. Possible dates include Jan. 6, Feb. 2, March 25, April 19, May 20, Oct. 4, and Nov. 17. A British physicist and astronomer, David Hughes, has calculated that the date was Sept. 17, 7 BC, based on various scientific evidence, including that of a conjunction of two planets, Jupiter and Saturn, in the constellation Pisces on that date. He concludes in a book that this extraordinary celestial display was the “star” seen by the distant wise men.
The 17th-century German astronomer, Johannes Kepler, had calculated a three-planet conjunction, including Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, in the same constellation in 7 BC. In any case, various months and days have been used over the centuries in different parts of the world to celebrate the occasion. Some Eastern Orthodox churches still do it on Jan. 6.
Christmas was banned in 17th-century England when Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan followers gained temporary rule, forbidding what was called the “heathen celebration of Christmas.” The holiday was similarly banned in colonial New England. Christmas wasn’t made a legal holiday in Massachusetts until 1856.
For all of Christmas’ clouded chronology and legal background, however, the biggest mystery is in its message – that God has entered the human race in love for it, on with it, and one of it.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth,” the Bible says. That is the mystifying core of Christmas, an awesome concept that has challenged hearts and minds since. It holds that Jesus was very human, sharing the nature of all people, yet also truly God. “Emmanuel – God with us,” Scripture says. “The light of the world.”
No, it’s not about an overweight man wearing red pajamas with a stocking on his head or Mariah Carey belting out her “All I Want for Christmas” hit. And it’s not about godchildren hunting down their godparents and all that…it’s about God’s love for us that we celebrate so may we never forget.
Francis Kong’s “Inspiring Excellence” podcast is now available on Spotify, Apple, Google, or other podcast streaming platforms.