There is time, season or moment for everything. Time to work, time to celebrate and relax, and here comes once again another season for charismas celebration. Most homes, offices and especially churches should have decorated or preparing to decorate with holly wreaths, mistletoe, and Christmas trees; Christmas lights and echo with the sound of Christmas carols; and postboxes and emails will be filled with greeting cards.
Almost universally, shoppers will pack the high streets, gift-hunting for their friends and loved ones. Children especially will look forward to receiving gifts from Santa Claus, that benevolent, bigger-than-life father figure who supposedly visits them once a year.
The question really is, is this religious? Is it enshrined in the holy bible? The likes of Santa Claus, holly wreaths, mistletoe and Christmas trees. Has Jesus (PBH) or His disciples celebrated Christmas? or Jesus'(PBH) instructed that we should commemorate the day of His birth.? Is there any proof that He was born on December 25th. None of these things are mentioned in the Bible!
The historical fact is that Christmas appears to have already been celebrated in the last year of Emperor Constantine. By the end of the fourth century, then Christian chose for themselves December 25th for the celebration of Christmas. The Eastern European churches also chose to celebrate it on January 6th. In other words we the African churches could also perhaps choose to celebrate it on the birth date of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah or June 4th or even better still 31st December!
To win more souls for the church, Christians at that time turn the pagan celebration of the winter solstice into a day of adoration of Christ. Just like now the so called modern churches have also adopted serious drumming and dancing all in the name of gospel, example is the adoption of azonto known as “chrizonto” in the church. Another possibility is that this was one way for the Christians of that time to cling even closer to Christ who was their light and sun, and the 25th of December was chosen to provide an antithesis to the Roman pagan feast.
By the 3rd century of the Christian era, there was opposition in the churches to the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays. But by the fourth century, things changed. The Roman Almanac, the Chronograph of 354, contained a list of Christian feasts and made reference to the feast of the nativity of Christ. This is one of the earliest records of this feast. This information goes back to an earlier writing of the year 336 A.D. the Encyclopedia Britannica state that, “Christmas customs are an evolution from times that long antedate the Christian period-a descent from seasonal, pagan, religious and national practices, hedged about with legend and tradition”
Nativity story according to gospel writers and the events surrounding the birth of Jesus, never once have they indicated that this event should be celebrated. Jesus told his disciples to remember his death by partaking the Holy Communion, but he was absolutely silent about remembering his birthday. The New Testament has also no evidence that the early church ever celebrated Christmas.
If we worship God under HIS instructions through his divine revelations and GOD want us to celebrate charismas or Christ’s birthday, wouldn’t He have instructed us to do so in the Bible?
According to Luke 2:8, Jesus would not have been born in winter at all. Luke states that in the night that He was born, “there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night”. In October or November, the winter rains and cold weather begin in Southwest Asia (including parts of Israel and West Bank). Up to this time, the flocks would have been in the open fields. But once the rainy season begins, the shepherds can no longer be out in the field until the winter months are over.
In the very old days, for reasons of agriculture and the like lots of people depends on the sun for light, and heat. Consequently, People would watch with kin interest the sun’s yearly course through the heavens. It was thought that feasts and celebrations were held at different times of the year to help the sun move round the solar system. In the Northern Hemisphere, the end of the calendar year became a significant time. As winter approached, the days became shorter and shorter as the sun dipped lower and lower in the sky.
It would seem that the sun was deserting the earth. Then at the winter solstice, the turning point came. The sun began to return. The days began to lengthen again. Then Midwinter is celebrated to commemorate the rebirth of the sun. The Romans use to have a weeklong celebration known as Saturnalia (an ancient Roman festival of feasting and revelry in celebration of the god Saturn and the winter solstice), which started on December 17th and ended with a feast also known as Brumalia, the birthday, or rebirth of the sun. The feast fell on December 25th.
Once more, after the expansion of the Roman Empire in the early centuries, they adopted the paganism practices of its conquered people. Example was the worship of the Mithraic sun god, initially from Persia, whose birthday was celebrated on December 25th. When this deity was introduced to Rome in the beginning of the third century, it gave a concrete expression to sun worship. The cult was reinterpreted according to the philosophical and popular ideas of that time. In 274 A.D., it was incorporated into the imperial cult, when Emperor Aureian made sol invictus (“the invincible sun”) the imperial religion and instituted the pagan feast of Dies Natalis Solis Invincti, the Day of the Unconquerable Sun, on December 25th.
Yes charismas could be worth celebrating, but one should know the reason why he or she is celebrating it, as a believer, celebrating this as Christian has therefore no biblical basis or origin or connection. Celebrating it just for entertainment is up to individual. The fact remains that the origin of charismas is paganism.
May ALLAH bless you for having the time to read this?
ADAM HABEEB GAFFARU
INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIST
UN MEDINA
ACCRA-GHANA
Cell: 0244439185
Email: [email protected]