Questions about Christmas
1. Why do we keep Christmas on 25 December?
Christmas is what is known as a fixed or immovable feast, though Christ’s birth has never been understood to have actually happened on 25 December. Around the year AD 200, the scholar Clement of Alexandria wondered if Jesus was born on 20 May (it would have been warmer then for the shepherds!) It is likely that the day was chosen at Rome during the 4th century to provide a Christian alternative to a local pagan festival.
The birth of Jesus is commemorated each year in special carol services, the most famous of which is the ‘Service of Nine Carols and Lessons’ at King’s College, Cambridge. The nine lessons (that is, readings from the Bible) are designed to trace the steady progress of God’s work of redemption in the world, beginning with the call of Israel, and culminating in the coming of Jesus Christ.
2. Why do we have Christmas trees?
Prince Albert (Queen Victoria’s husband) of Saxe-Cobourg brought over the tree and the custom from his native Germany. Many centuries before, the first Christian missionaries to Germany had discovered the pagans there worshipping the spirits who lived in trees. But ever since Adam and Eve, trees have been strong religious symbols.
3. Why was Jesus born at Bethlehem?
Because his mother was there at the time! But this is a moment when human plans and divine purposes interweave. The human thread was the famous ‘census’; bureaucracy is not a 20th century invention. If the population must be counted, we can’t make exceptions for one village carpenter and his teenage bride.
But Bethlehem was where great King David had been born, and the prophets had foretold that from Bethlehem one day would come the Messiah. This is why later, when people met Jesus ‘of Nazareth’ they wondered how he could be the Messiah.
Pages: 1 2
