It's interesting to see how Christmas and all sorts of regional solstice holidays get mixed together by various cultures across the world. Funny tangent: in Catalonia (Barcelona and the surrounding region) people set up a log with legs and a painted on face [1] and then smack it with sticks saying, essentially, "crap out candy for me!"
For the evolution of holidays, 19th century America is a particularly interesting case. The mixing of various European cultures created some dramatic changes. Second, these changes happened relatively quickly. For example, Halloween evolved from an ancient Celtic harvest festival to the modern spooks & treats celebration between the 1850s and 1890s. Finally, the force of American culture after WW2 spread these recently created traditions around the world.
While Christmas in the USA has an interesting history, the most dramatic is with Halloween. The major thematic development occurred from the 1850s to 1930s, with heightened commercialization coming in the post-WW2 boom. Then there was the rise of adult oriented horror in the 1970s. There are a few good histories on the subject.
I am not a Christian, nor do I think there is a "War on Christmas", but I do find it fascinating that Christmas in America has transformed into an increasingly secularized and commercialized event.
When you think of Christmas, you're probably thinking about Santa Claus and presents, not Jesus. In fact, most Christmastime movies and songs are about Santa rather than Christ, the namesake of the holiday. We also have this lore built up around Santa that was created by film studios and retailers hoping to sell more products. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally made as a coloring book but now it's themes and imagery is what children think of when they imagine the North Pole. To use a wild analogy, it's sort of like how Dante's Inferno became what people think of as "Hell".
Does anyone know of any other religious holidays that have been so thoroughly transformed over time? I'm curious if this has happened to other holidays or if it is just a unique product of American culture and consumerism.
I think Christmas should be regarded as two separate holidays that happen to have the same name and occur on the same date. There is the secular/pagan celebration, which gives everyone an excuse to put up lights, bring green things into our homes, visit friends and family and generally brighten up a dark time of year. Then there's the religious holiday, which has its own customs and traditions. If anything, the commercialization of Christmas is ruining the secular holiday, by changing its focus to consumerism, when it should be about merry-making. The religious traditions, which take place in churches and in homes, are well-insulated from the other Christmas taking place outside.
I'd say the one that comes to mind most after Christmas is Halloween in America. It went from being All Hallows Eve, a time to celebrate the dead, especially saints past, to becoming a commercial holiday to sell costumes to kids and candy to parents.
I can't think of anyone I've ever met or heard of close to me celebrating the religious aspect of this day, just the "fun" part. Not nearly as big a deal as Christmas but still a religious festival that became highly commercial and secularized over time.
Interestingly, like Christmas was, the religious aspects of Halloween were specifically de-emphasized by the dominant religious orders of the time, leading to (re?)seculrization of the holiday. The protestants weren't a big fan of venerating saints, or some of the underlying ideas of the the group of holidays (like the idea of souls resting in purgatory until those days) as those ideas were based in some of the philosophical differences they had with Catholics.
Good luck taking a feast and dress up day from the people though once you remove the religion out of a holiday.
That's true, have to admit that although I don't practice at all anymore I think what I wrote was coming from the memory of my Catholic upbringing... I sometimes forget how vehemently some sects of Christianity can disagree with each other!
Don’t Christmas and Easter both take quite a bit from pagan traditions? I don’t think the secular side is a modern invention; they’ve been mixed for a long time
Of course, the commercial side is a modern invention. But I see that as a separate phenomenon
Also, Easter to a large extent. Easter used to be a bigger deal than Christmas. But the commercialization of Christmas has caused it to overshadow Easter. Now Easter is all about rabbits and ducks and eggs and candy and baskets and that green fake grass and pastel colors and etc. It is even farther removed from celebrating the atonement of Christ than Christmas is of celebrating his birth. Even for Christians. I asked a friend why he thought that was and his response is Christmas has a baby, animals, angels singing, shepherds, stars, and all sorts of cute child friendly stuff. Easter has blood coming from every pore, false trials, mocking and scourging, crucifixion, etc. Not exactly cute and child friendly. All the Easter secular stuff (candy and cute animals) could be seen as an attempt to make Easter palatable and fun like Christmas.
We are not celebrating winter solstice. Most people dont even know there is winter solstice and dont care. And I doubt pagans did tree, santa claus, snowman and gifts.
I bet that the pagans did do a tree and gifts, probably did snowmen too (which is more of a winter thing than a Christmas thing anyway), and they probably did have an associated folk character of some sort, even though it probably wasn't Santa Claus.
Most people barely even experience seasonality now that nearly everything's available in the grocery store year-round (thanks to international shipping) and we have excellent central heating and cooling in our houses and offices. Plus extremely cheap lighting, for that matter, which strongly affects our experience of the Winter months. No smells of burning oil, no rationing the candles carefully, no fires to tend through the night.
A slight tangent, but the commercialisation of Christmas was a source of annoyance back in the 1930s and 40s. Louis MacNeice wrote about it in his epic work Autumn Journal (which he wrote while travelling through Europe just as fascism was taking hold); the excerpt is titled A Week to Christmas. Note: I've substituted the word "logs" in place of the original here, which was an abbreviation of golliwogs.
A week to Christmas, cards of snow and holly,
Gimcracks in the shops,
Wishes and memories wrapped in tissue paper,
Trinkets, gadgets and lollipops
And as if through coloured glasses
We remember our childhood's thrill
Waking in the morning to the rustling of paper,
The eiderdown heaped in a hill
Of logs and dogs and bears and bricks and apples
And the feeling that Christmas Day
Was a coral island in time where we land and eat our lotus
But where we can never stay.
There was a star in the East, the magi in their turbans
Brought their luxury toys
In homage to a child born to capsize their values
And wreck their equipoise.
A smell of hay like peace in the dark stable -
Not peace however but a sword
To cut the Gordian knot of logical self-interest,
The fool-proof golden cord;
For Christ walked in where no philosopher treads
But armed with more than folly,
Making the smooth place rough and knocking the heads
Of Church and State together.
In honour of whom we have taken over the pagan
Saturnalia for our annual treat
Letting the belly have its say, ignoring
The spirit while we eat.
And Conscience still goes crying through the desert
The song is a bit cynical for my tastes, but it seems willfully obtuse to not be able to fathom why someone would be very frustrated with many aspects of modern Christmas.
"In 2001, Lehrer taught his last mathematics class, on the topic of infinity, and retired from academia.[21] He has remained in the area, and in 2003 said he still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz."
Halloween. November 1 is All Saints Day (Catholic Holiday). Saint comes from Latin. The Germanic version is Holy One. So Nov 1 could be All Holy Ones Day. The evening before All Holy One’s Day is Holy Evening or Holy Eve or Hallowed Eve or Halloweve or Halloween. Just like Christmas Eve is the evening before Christmas.
I think we are all familiar with how commercialized Holy Evening has become. Candy and Slutty Nuns anyone? LOL
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ti%C3%B3_de_Nadal