ah, the holiday season. it is now no longercomplete without at least a few news commentators or family members expressing their dismayabout just how secular it has all become. they speak of putting the christ back in christmas.and it makes sense. christmas is afterall a christian holiday… or is it? in 325ad, the roman emperor constantine calledfor the now famous council of nicaea to deal with all the inconsistencies going on in christendom.it was from this they decided things such as which books would be in the bible, andwhich day many holidays would be celebrated. here the date of christmas was decided tobe december 25th. why have a holiday at this time? well… it was already a holiday.the romans had a december festival called
saturnalia. it was meant to honour the godsaturn, and in doing so bring back a bit of the “golden age†of their past. slavesand slave owners shared meals, and many of the trappings of class would be put asidefor a while. the council of nicaea put christmas here to preserve the holiday season. so, iguess that means happy holidays came first. many of what we call christmas traditionscome from this festival. kissing under the mistletoe was a saturnalia custom the churchactually tried to ban. decorated trees, wreaths, and other greenery were part of the festivities.and on december 19th, the romans had a day called sigillaria where they exchanged gifts.other christmas traditions come from pagan folk customs. the act of carolling comes fromthe anglo-saxon tradition, but is suspected
to be much older. people actually would meetto sing in orchards, and were called wassailers. santa? well he’s actually a fun amalgamation.many parts of his story come from sinterklaas, the racially problematic dutch character whovisits children on december 5th. he was based on saint nicholas, an ancient 4th centurygreek saint known for gift giving. the magic really occurred when he mixed withtraditions from the most christian of people, the pagan norsemen. they had a god calledodin the allfather, who rode through the sky on an 8-legged horse named slepinir. oftenchildren would leave boots by the fireplace filled with carrots and hay for this horrificbeast. odin himself is always portrayed as an old man with a white beard. dutch colonistsin manhattan kept this pre-christian tradition,
and merged it with sinterklaas and st. nicholas.bing bang boom you’ve got santa claus. there are a few more holiday traditions thatneed be mentioned. fruitcake you can blame on the ancient egyptians who buried them withtheir pharaohs. someone should check if they’re still edible. and that yule log comes froman ancient european tradition of running an all night bonfire to ring in the new year.and elf on the shelf? ...let’s just not talk about elf on the shelfi guess what i want to say here is christmas is a beautiful blend of cultures, traditions,and religions alive and dead. given how jolly a season it is, and the diverse origins ofchristmas traditions, maybe we can stop the war on christmas, and let everyone have funwith it. maybe in a few centuries we’ll
have all sorts of fun new traditions. andfor those who see it as an important religious holiday, that’s okay too! but that doesn’tmean we shouldn’t all enjoy it. what’s your favourite weird christmas tradition?let me know down below! be sure to share this with your friends thisseason, and subscribe for more jolly history videos.from all of us here at step back, have a happy non-denominational holiday season!
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