OCR Text |
Show Christmas Celebration Unthinkable For Early Christians The celebration of Christmas brought back the birthday party. To the early Christians, It was unthinkable to celebrate one's birthday much less the birthday birth-day of Christ. Birth meant the assumption of original sin and frequently the beginning of a life of persecution and perhaps martyrdom. Birthday festivities, moreover, were a pagan custom. The Phar-yah Phar-yah of Egypt and Herod celebrated celebrat-ed their birthdays, as the Bible relates. But it was sacrilege even to suggest that a Devine Being tiad a birthday. Iln the 300", however, this attitude at-titude was beginning to change. The Bishop of Rome declared December De-cember 25 to be the anniversary of the birth of Christ. But it took another pagan ritual rit-ual to help establish Christmas. The ancient people of Europe had been accustomed to celebrating celebrat-ing the winter solstice, when the sun seems to return to the Northern North-ern hemisphere, In late December. Decem-ber. The pagan feast commemorating commemorat-ing the victory of light over darkness was simply replaced by the Christian festival honoring the "Light f Life." |