5 hard facts about Christmas How do I tell my child that Jesus was born before Christ?
How do I explain to my boy why sometimes the Christ Child brings presents and sometimes Santa Claus? Should I tell him that Jesus was born seven years before Christ and not on December 25?
But you only realize how contradictory the festival of festivals actually is when you have a four-year-old to whom you read Christmas books. Why do the Christ Child and Christmas angels bring presents here, but then Santa Claus turns up?
What will the boy say when he is told that Jesus Christ was neither born in the year 0 nor on December 25? And if that is not complicated enough for you, you will capitulate at the latest when you have to teach the child that Jesus is the incarnation of God, who will be crucified by mankind and then rise again ...
It would be presumptuous to offer the reader a solution for the latter case. And the other questions may also be a little too complicated for children - but that does not mean that they cannot be answered in a way that is easy for adults to understand. So here are five aspects of Christmas that you can reflect on on Christmas Eve.
Jesus cheated on his year of birth
He is the son of a celebrity - and he simply made himself younger: if vanity were a sin, Jesus Christ would look old. But isn't vanity a sin? Anyway, the year 0 does not stand up to scientific scrutiny.
It is the Star of Bethlehem that makes the discrepancy as clear as the celestial body that showed the Magi the way to the stable where God's Son was born. However, the Star of Bethlehem can only be seen every 805 years - as a combination of Saturn and Jupiter in the zodiac sign of Pisces.
It was thanks to the astronomer Johannes Kepler that it was discovered that Jesus had made himself seven years younger: According to this, the Savior was actually born in the year 7 BC.
The first written mention of Christmas...
... took place on December 25, 1686 years ago, in the year 336. At least that's what Furius Filocalus, whose name could have come from an "Asterix" comic, wrote: A rich, Christian aristocrat named Valentinus commissions the scribe to make a calendar for him.
In this "Chronograph of 354", he describes how Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ for the first time 18 years earlier. This work is the only complete Roman calendar from the 4th century. However, it hardly discusses the procedure, but rather notes the date.
"Our calendar from 354 is already a Christian one," wrote historian Josef Strzygowski about the "Chronograph" in 1888. "It is natural that it had to change over time, so that the five pagan festivals, which are still indicated in the paintings, had to disappear and make way for new types created by Christianity."
In other words, Christian festivals were unceremoniously placed on pagan holidays in order to outshine them. "The Feast of the Epiphany [aka Epiphany] was moved to January 6, Februa [the Roman festival of ritual purification] was replaced by fasting, the Feast of Venus in April was replaced by Easter, Isiaca in November was replaced by Advent, and the merry Saturnalia in December was finally replaced by the cheerful Christmas festival."
The Saturnalia were feast days in honor of the Roman god Saturn, which were celebrated in the second half of December.
Questionable birthday date
When could the Son of God have been born? The early Christians celebrated the birthday on different dates: on January 6, because the Epiphany, also known as Epiphany, is the feast of the Epiphany. Others commemorated Jesus Christ on April 19 or 20, on May 20 or November 18.
Finally, December 25 was chosen for the feast: The birth of God's Son brings sunshine into the world of mankind. So it is fitting that Christmas replaces Sol Invictus. On the day of the winter solstice, when the days get longer again, the Romans celebrated the birth of the invincible sun god Sol, who used to be called Mithras.
On that holiday, unbelievers were also invited, and Christians apparently learned from this. Later, the date was justified by the fact that Jesus' conception was exactly at the beginning of the year - which corresponds to March 25 in the calendar of the time. If you add nine months to this, you end up on December 25.
According to the Gospel of Luke, however, the date is relatively easy to assume. Because of the story of Zechariah, whose family Abijah has the eighth lot according to Chronicles 24:10. This means that he has temple service eight weeks after the Feast of Pessah.
His wife Elizabeth becomes pregnant, and when the birth of Jesus Christ is prophesied to Mary, Elizabeth is in her fifth month. The formula is therefore: temple service + 150 days [fifth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy] + 270 days [nine months of pregnancy] = Jesus' birthday. The temple service was probably in the middle of the month of June, and the conception was then at the beginning of December.
This means that the birthday is more likely to have landed in the period of the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles and should be placed somewhere between the end of September and the end of October.
Christmas tree and presents
While the feast, gifts and candles could have been inspired by the Saturnalia, the custom of displaying something green at the winter solstice probably comes from the Germanic tribes: This was apparently to demonstrate fertility and strength. The first written mention of the erection of a fir tree dates back to the 16th century.
The pagan custom had been adopted in Alsace, the trees were displayed in the living room and decorated as a sign of personal prosperity: for some with nuts and apples on a few fir branches, for others with glass decorations on the stately fir trees, which were rare at the time. The Advent wreath with fir greenery was not invented until 1860.
Santa Claus is the basis for the Christ Child and Santa Claus. The fact that he asks children whether they have been good goes back to two parables on the church lectionary on December 6. Presents were soon added - and the Reformation, which rejected the veneration of saints such as St. Nicholas.
In Switzerland, giving presents to children was postponed until the 19th century to New Year's Day, whereas in Luxembourg, presents are still given on December 6. However, probably prompted by Martin Luther, giving presents on December 25 gradually became the norm in the 16th century.
Christ Child vs. Santa Claus
In addition to a new date, a new presenter was also needed: Protestants replaced Santa Claus with "St. Christ", which was based on the idea of the Christ Child as the bringer of grace, but originally meant Jesus Christ. Over the years, however, this fact disappeared - the sexless and selfless child prevailed.
In Switzerland, the Christ Child was then also called the New Year's Child, corresponding to the gift-giving on New Year's Day. On the other hand, Santa Claus mutated, became secularized and was given elves, sleighs, reindeer and beards at the beginning of the 19th century. He experienced his final commercial triumph in global Christmas culture from 1931, when Coca-Cola used Santa Claus for its advertising.
In the end, I have to admit that Christmas is much more complicated than I can explain to my four-year-old today. Instead of explanations, I'll have to come up with the standard excuse, which the occasion thankfully provides:
Wondrous things happen at Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
