Tomorrow is Saint Patrick’s Day. What was the origin of this day, and who was Saint Patrick?  And what in the world does it have to do with leprechauns and shamrocks?

Who was Saint Patrick?

Patrick (c. 387 – 17 March, 493) was a Romanized Celt who grew up in Britain. There are two letters written by him in Latin that have survived and are generally accepted as genuine.  The more important of the two, his Confession,  gives a brief outline of his history and his missionary work.  (You can read it on line here).

His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest, but young Patrick didn’t take his faith very seriously.  At about age 16 he was captured by Irish raiders and taken back to Ireland as a slave.  There he was put to work as a herdsman, and was often alone outdoors.  During this time prayed daily and his faith grew.  After six years he heard a voice speak to him in a dream telling him that his ship was ready.  He fled his master and walked 200 miles to the coast where he found a ship that could take him back to Britain, although he had quite a few adventures before he finally arrived at home.

A few years later he had a vision calling him to return to Ireland as a missionary.  He began a period of religious training and was ordained as a priest before returning to the land of his captivity.  Now in his mid-40’s, God used his familiarity with Irish language and culture to open a door for the Gospel.  He made missionary journeys throughout Ireland and baptized thousands of people and started hundreds of churches.  After his death, his missionary bands continued to spread the Gospel in Ireland.  A century later the Irish church began sending missions teams to Britain, which was by then dominated by the newly arrived pagan Anglo-Saxons.  Soon afterward they began to send missions teams to Continental Europe as well.

Saint Patrick’s Day

Like many saint’s days, Saint Patrick’s Day is the date of his death, March 17.  Patrick became known as the patron saint of Ireland and his day gradually became a celebration of Irish culture.  Although the color blue was originally associated with Saint Patrick, it soon shifted to green, perhaps influenced by the shamrock that he is said to have used as an illustration to teach pagans about the Trinity.  Today the color green is an important part of Saint Patrick’s day, to the point that the Chicago River is dyed green every year on this date.

Unlike Valentine’s Day, we have some real information about the man whose name is associated with this day.  I have no interest in leprechauns or shamrocks, much less green beer, but I find the story of Saint Patrick to be inspiring.  He returned to share the Gospel with the people who had enslaved him, and was use by God to start a movement that resulted in thousands of people coming to Christ.  That’s something worth celebrating.

For further reading:

• Patrick the Saint — stories and legends about Patrick
• Who was Saint Patrick? at History.com
• Wikipedia article on Saint Patrick
• Saint Patrick’s Confession

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Valentine’s Day is a celebration of romantic love, usually accompanied by an exchange of cards, flowers and candy.  On several occasions as I was doing my Valentine’s shopping I found myself in a checkout line with several men each buying flowers or candy for his wife or girl friend.  I think that this must be one of the biggest days of the year for sellers of flowers.  An estimated 1 billion cards are sent each year, compared to 2.6 billion at Christmas.

Who was St. Valentine?

Why would I write about Valentine’s Day in a series on Christian holidays?  The older name for “Valentine’s Day” is “Saint Valentine’s Day.”  Who was Saint Valentine and what does he have to do with the day we celebrate in his name?  Was this originally a Christian holiday?

There were three martyrs named Valentine honored by the ancient church, all of whom are supposed to have died on Feb. 14.  It is seem likely that the three were confused and assigned to the same date.  The most well known of the three was Valentine of Rome, who was martyred in AD 269.   When pope Pope Gelasius I established Valentine’s Day in 496, he included Valentine among those  “… whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.”  So even at that time not much was know about him.  Most of the stories about his life are of a relatively late date, and according to the Catholic Encyclopedia are “of no historical value.”

The most common legend is that Emperor Claudius II had forbidden the young men of Rome to marry because he thought that single men made better soldiers, and he needed a lot of soldiers.  Valentine defied this order by performing secret weddings for young people who wanted to marry, and eventually was caught.  He was executed when he refused to renounce his faith.

According to one legend, St. Valentine sent the first “Valentine” himself.  He is said to have become friends with the daughter of his jailor, and some say that he had healed her of blindness.  Before his death he is said to have written her a letter, and signed it “From your Valentine.”

The Roman Connection

Another strand of the history of this day is the Roman festival of Lupercalia.  This was a fertility festival dedicated to the Roman god Faunus, equivalent to the Greek god Pan, which was celebrated on Feb. 13-15.  According to legend, all the single women in a village would put their names on slips of paper into an urn, and the single men would each draw out a name.  The couple was then paired for a year.  When Pope Gelasius declared Feb. 14 Valentine’s Day around 496 the Roman “lottery” system for dating was banned as unchristian.

Have you ever wondered where Cupid came from?  He was the son of Venus and Mercury (Aphrodite and Hermes) and was the Roman god of erotic love and and beauty.  It seems that Roman culture has had a large influence on this day.

What can we Learn?

The legends about St. Valentine do not appear before the Middle Ages, so they do not provide any reliable historical information.  We do know that there was a martyr named Valentine, but we don’t really know anything about his life.  On the other hand, the Roman connection seems to have influenced this holiday a great deal.

Putting all of this together, it seems that the early church established a Christian alternative to a pagan festival in Rome.  Their goal was to steer people away from the sensual and erotic elements of the Roman feast and focus instead on a man who had given up his life for his faith.  But it seems that they were only partially successful, and the unwanted elements continued to creep back in.  The modern holiday takes much from pagan sources, and only its name from a Christian origin.

For further reading

• Valentine’s Day on history.com
• Wikipedia article on Valentine’s Day
• The history of Valentine’s Day (doesn’t mention the Roman connection)

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Have you ever wondered about the “twelve days of Christmas”?  In the U.S. many people think that the “twelve days of Christmas” are the 12 days leading up to Christmas.  Some holiday advertising makes this assumption.  But that is not correct.  Actually it refers the twelve days beginning with  Christmas and ending the day before the feast of Epiphany on January 6.   Today is the sixth day of Christmas.

Epiphany, which means “appearing,”  has been celebrated in the church from at least the 4th century.   This feast is usually connected to the visit of the Magi, although there is nothing in the Bible to indicate that the Magi appeared on Jan. 6.  In the Eastern Orthodox churches Epiphany is a celebration of Christ’s baptism and is considered the third most important feast of the year after Easter and Pentecost.

While we end our Christmas celebration after Dec. 25, in the Middle Ages they had 12 days of continuous feasting and merrymaking.  Sometimes small gifts were given to children each day.  The twelfth day of Christmas (Jan. 5) marks the end of the Christmas season and was the traditional day for taking down Christmas decorations.  Shakespeare’s play The Twelfth Night is named after this day.

The well known English Christmas carol The Twelve Days of Christmas has often perplexed people, but it makes more sense when we understand that it refers to the twelve days beginning with Christmas.  Although some have suggested that the song was a cryptic way to teach Christian doctrine in a time of persecution, that theory has a lot of problems. It is more likely that the song originated as a memory game played on the twelvth night.

Christians in past ages put a lot more emphasis on fasting and repentance than we do, but they also spent more time rejoicing. The OT believers also had feasts that went on for a week or more.  There is something to be said for God-centered rejoicing.  Perhaps we can reclaim the twelve days of Christmas, called Christmastide in the liturgical churches, as a religious holiday.  Now that we are done with the shopping frenzy and gift giving, we can pause to reflect and give thanks for what God has done for us in sending His Son.  Perhaps it is too soon to be done with Christmas just yet.

For further reading:

• The Twelve Days of Christmas (Dennis Bratcher)
• Wikipedia on The Twelve Days of Christmas
• The Season of Epiphany

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There are many Christmas customs that have nothing to do with the birth of Christ.  What about the the most distinctive Christmas symbol of all, the “jolly old elf”?  Some Christians have pointed out rather ominously that “Santa” has exactly the same letters as “Satan.”  Santa, along with the associated gift giving frenzy, is a major distraction from the real meaning of Christmas.  Yet the name “Santa Claus” is derived from the Dutch for “Saint Nicholas.”  So what is the source of our idea of Santa?

Saint Nicholas was a bishop who lived in the 4th century in Asia Minor, which is the area that is now modern day Turkey.  We don’t know a lot about him, but some reports say that he attended the Council of Nicea in 325 AD.  He died on Dec. 6, 346 AD (some sources say 343).  According to the custom of the early church the date of his death, December 6, was established as Saint Nicholas Day.  There are many stories and legends about Nicholas protecting and caring for the poor, including giving gifts to poor children and tossing coins into the windows of poor families.  A famous story tells of how he tossed three small bags of gold into the window of the home of a poor family so that their three daughters would have the necessary dowry in order to be married.

But Santa is a long ways from Saint Nicholas.  Here are some of the other influences along the way:

Saint Nicholas in Europe

In Europe Saint Nicholas was know, among other things, as the benefactor of children.  He was portrayed as a bearded man wearing bishop’s robes.  Ideas about Saint Nicholas may have been influenced by beliefs about Odin, a major god of the Germanic people before Christianization.  He was pictured in the 13th century as riding an eight legged horse that could leap great distances.  Children would place their boots filled with carrots, straw and sugar near the chimney for Odin’s horse.  Odin would reward these children by replacing these things with gifts or candy.  This may have been the origin of the custom of hanging stockings by the fireplace for Santa to fill.  In Europe children were given sweets and small gifts on Saint Nicholas Day, Dec. 6.

In the Netherlands and Belgium Saint Nicholas was called “Sinterklaas.”  He was depicted in a bishop’s robes and wearing a bishop’s hat. The connection with Saint Nicholas is much more obvious in the Christmas traditions of Europe than in the United States.

The British Father Christmas was described from the 17th century onwards as a bearded man wearing a long green fur-lined robe.  Scrooge’s second visitor in Dicken’s A Christmas Carol is described as having a similar appearance. But now the red robe has become predominant due to the influence of the American Santa.

Santa in the United States

European immigrants to the United States brought with them their Christmas customs.  Dutch immigrants brought  Sinterklaas with them, which  was Americanized into “Santa Claus,” a name first used in the American press in 1773.  Other influences made Santa into a peculiarly American tradition.

The famous poem The Night Before Christmas (1823) added to considerably to the physical description of Santa, making him heavy set and smoking a pipe.  But he is described as an “elf,” his sleigh is called “miniature” and reindeer are described as “tiny.”

Commercial artist Thomas Nash further changed Santa’s appearance in his drawings from 1862-1886.  He made Santa into a full sized human rather than an “elf.”

A famous Saturday Evening Post cover in 1925 came up with a drawing of Santa that is closer to the modern image, including the red suit.

For 35 years beginning in 1931, Coca Cola used Santa in their ads.  This helped to solidify the image of a rotund Santa in a red suit in the American consciousness.

Conclusion

What shall we say about Santa Claus?  Although there is a Christian influence in the historical origin of Santa, the concept has changed so much that it seems impossible to try to make Santa into a Christian symbol.  Some have suggested that we celebrate the memory of Saint Nicholas on Dec. 6 and forget about Santa.  While we might not celebrate saints’ days, at least we can learn something important from Saint Nicholas.  This Christmas we could certainly do worse things than give gifts to the poor, especially poor children.

For further reading:

• Wikipedia article on Santa Claus
• Wikipedia article on Saint Nicholas
• The Origin of Santa Claus (Lutheran)
• Who is Saint Nicholas? (good source for Saint Nicholas legend)
• Saint Nicholas and the Origin of Santa Claus (Catholic)

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In recent years it has become the norm in public to wish people “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas.”  I can understand the concern about offending the minority who adhere to other religions or no religion at all.  But it is sad to see even this slight connection between our winter holiday and the birth of Christ severed.  A few years ago I was making a purchase in December and the cashier looked at me and said “Merry Christmas.”  I looked her in the eye and replied “Merry Christmas.”  Maybe she was going against company policy by using the “Christmas” word, but it made my day.

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First of all, it is unlikely that Jesus was born on December 25.  The Bible does not tell us the date of Christ’s birth.  The ancient church did not celebrate Christ’s birth at all, choosing instead to focus on His death and resurrection.

It has been suggested that Jesus couldn’t have been born in the winter because the shepherds were outside with their flocks.  But the winter is quite mild in Judea so this can’t be ruled out.

In the second century arguments were made for several other dates for Christ’s birth, including April 24 or 25, May 20, August 28 and November 17.  But the alternate date that gained the greatest following was January 6.  Interestingly, the earliest authors do not  mention any sort of celebration on the date of Christ’s birth. In the third century Origen thought that it was sinful to celebrate Christ’s birth as though he was a human king.

December 25 also happened to be the date of the Roman imperial holiday celebrating the birth of the sun god Sol Invictus.  Under the Julian calendar the winter solstice was on December 24, so the 25th was the beginning of the return to longer days.  Is it a coincidence that the celebration of Christ’s birth took place on the same day? As a practical matter, it made sense for the early church to give believers an alternative to celebrating the popular pagan holiday.  It’s difficult to imagine that this did not influence their choice of December 25 as the date to celebrate Christ’s birth.

Another factor was the idea that the Old Testament prophets died on the anniversary of either their conception or their birth.  There is no biblical basis for such a theory, but it was a popular idea at the time. Based on the date of Good Friday in AD 354 this lead to the date of December 25 for Christ’s birth.  But since Easter is based on the lunar calendar, the same calculation made in other years would lead to a different date for Christmas.  Why did they choose that particular year for the calculation? This looks to me like an effort to justify the earlier choice of December 25.

Choosing the date of a pagan feast to celebrate Christ’s birth was not without its dangers.  There was the possibility that some Christians would try to combine the two, bringing elements of pagan religion into the church.  On the other hand it provided a Christian alternative to a popular celebration.  In much the same way today many churches hold their youth group meetings on Friday evenings, in part to provide an alternative to going to parties.

We do not need to know the real day of Christ’s birth in order to celebrate His coming.  God has in fact sent His son into the world as our Savior, and we can celebrate that without knowing the exact day.  Our own Christmas celebrations are influenced by many other non-Christian cultural factors, but that is a topic for another post.

For further reading:

• The Birth of Jesus Christ on Bible.org
• Wikipedia article on The Chronology of Jesus

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Advent is the name given to the period of preparation leading up to Christmas.  It begins on the 4th Sunday before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve.  In churches that use a formal liturgical church calendar, Advent is the beginning of the Christian year because the Church begins with Christ. The word “Advent” comes from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming.”  It is a celebration of Christ’s first coming, and at the same time a preparation for His return.

Beginning in the 4th century, Advent was a time for fasting and self-reflection similar to Lent.  Gradually this aspect of Advent has been dropped, although the Roman Catholic Church and the more liturgical Protestant churches  still encourage solemnity and discourage too much festivity.  Believers from the ancient church would be shocked at our lack of seriousness during the days leading up to Christmas.  We may think that they were too austere, but we could benefit from more time spent in spiritual reflection and confession of our sins.

The season of Advent is also about hope.  We look back on the longing of the OT saints for the coming of the promised Messiah, and we look forward to Christ’s return.  It is in times of suffering and turmoil that hope is most important.  If our hope is based only on our own abilities and resources we are bound to be disappointed.  But if our hope is in God we can remain confident through the storm.  When we feel overwhelmed by the difficulties of life and the evil in the world we can join creation in groaning for Christ’s return (Rom. 8:18-25).

Even before Thanksgiving, preparations for Christmas are all around us, but nearly all of them have nothing to do with the birth of our Savior.  What does Black Friday have to do with Jesus? Even most Christians give little thought to spiritual preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth.  We have to get our shopping done and send our Christmas cards like everyone else.  C.S. Lewis has written a wonderful essay contrasting Christmas and Xmas (or Crissmas and Exmas as he puts it), which he describes as two entirely different holidays celebrated on the same day. I encourage you to read it and reflect on the difference between the two.

For further reading:

• The Season of Advent by Dennis Bratcher (Christian Research Institute)
• Happy(?) Advent – ChristianHistory.net
• Wikipedia article on Advent

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I am beginning a new series on holidays, focusing especially on Christian holidays.  This will give me the opportunity to explore the origins of some of our major holidays and share reflections on them from a Christian perspective.  Learning about the historical background behind some of our holidays can help us understand the origins of some of our holiday customs and provide perspective to evaluate our holiday practices.

Our English word “holiday” comes from “holy day.”  In medieval Europe the primary occasions for taking time off work and celebrating were religious festivals.  Many of our major holidays have a Christian origin, but they have also incorporated elements from pagan practices.  For example, the date on which we celebrate Christ’s birth just “happens” to coincide with a pagan Roman festival. Was that a brilliant evangelistic move or dangerous compromise with the world?  It’s not always easy to make that determination, but I hope that you will carefully consider both possibilities.

I will begin this series with Advent, because according to the traditional liturgical calendar used in the Western church Advent is the beginning of the Christian year.  The “Western church” refers to Catholics and Protestants in distinction from Eastern Orthodox churches which follow a different calendar.  Obviously the terms “east” and “west” here are used from a European perspective.

In the early church, the most important Christian festival was Easter.  Christmas began to receive more attention somewhat later, and these two major holidays along with the periods leading up to them formed the most important portions of the Christian year. In addition to these, early Christians began to honor martyrs by holding a feast on the day of their death. Churches that follow the liturgical calendar often use a lectionary, which is a list of Scripture passages to be read each Sunday.

Some Protestant churches follow the liturgical calendar, although they don’t recognize nearly as many saints days as the Catholic church.  Some Protestant churches recognize only Christmas and Easter, while others also include Advent and Lent. Since none of these things are commanded in Scripture we have the freedom to shape our practice according to biblical principles to edify the church.

For further reading:

• Seasons of the Christian Church (Nazarene perspective)
• The Liturgical Year (Wikipedia)
• The history of the Christian year (Catholic perspective, the first few sections are helpful)

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[I originally wrote this article in February 2007.  I have now moved it into the holiday series so that it will be linked to all the other holiday articles.]

Lent is a time of soul-searching and repentance in preparation for the celebration of Christ’s death and resurrection on Good Friday and Easter. In the Western Church, Lent consists of the 40 days before Easter, not counting Sundays. The first day of Lent is Ash Wednesday. The day before Lent begins has become a day of feasting and revelry before the solemn fasting of Lent. Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday, because it was the last day for feasting before the Lenten fast. Some people call the festival Carnival, which is Latin for farewell to meat. [Update: Another theory of the origin of Carnival is given by the Oxford English Dictionary, where the word is derived from Latin carnem levare (removal of the meat) or carnem laxare (leaving the meat) (cited in the Wikipedia article on Ash Wednesday).] Obviously the sensuality and excess of Mardi Gras has no place in the life of a Christian, and Mardi Gras is in no sense a Christian holiday.

The English word lent derives from the Germanic root for Spring (specifically Old English lencten; also the Anglo-Saxon name for March – lenct – as the main part of Lent, before Easter, usually occurred in March). Formerly Lent was referred to by the term quadragesima (or the “fortieth day” before Easter). This nomenclature is preserved in Romance, Slavic and Celtic languages (for example, Spanish cuaresma, Portuguese quaresma, French carême, Italian quaresima) (from Wikipedia)

The history of Lent

The earliest reference to a period of fasting and prayer before Easter is in the writings of the 2nd c. church father Irenaus of Lyons (c.130-c.200), who wrote of a period lasting only two or three days. Apparently at that time there was a variety of practices, with some fasting for one day while others fasted for two. But the interesting thing is that it seems that there was a widespread practice of fasting before Easter. He also argues that the practice already has a long history, so it is possible that it goes back to the 1st century.

A few years later, Tertullian also makes reference to a period of fasting before Easter.

The first mention of the ancient term for Lent, tessarakoste, occurs in the fifth canon of the Council of Nicea (325 AD). A few years earlier in 311, Athanasius wrote to his flock that they should practice a period of 40 days of fasting prior to the stricter fast of the Holy Week (the week before Easter). In 339 he wrote another letter urging the people of Alexandria to observe 40 days of fasting as a custom that was universally practiced “to the end that while all the world is fasting, we who are in Egypt should not become a laughing-stock as the only people who do not fast but take our pleasure in those days.”

Thus there is clear evidence that a period of fasting before Easter was practiced at least during the 2nd century, and that by the 4th century there was a wide-spread practice of a 40 day fast. The reason for 40 days is probably to be found in the biblical significance of that number in the lives of Noah, Moses, Jonah, and Christ.

Is Lent Biblical?

When someone asks “Is Lent biblical?,” the answer depends on what you mean by “biblical.” If you mean “Does the Bible specifically require Christians to practice Lent?,” then the answer is “no.” Of course in that sense of the term, customs such as church choirs or Sunday school would also be “not biblical.” But if you mean “Is the practice of Lent founded on biblical principles,” then the answer is certainly “yes.” The three main practices of Lent from ancient times have been (1) reflection on the significance of Christ’s death along with prayers of repentance and confession, (2) fasting as a means to focus more wholly on God, and (3) giving to assist the poor. All of these are very biblical practices. We are not required to do them specifically during the 40 days prior to Easter, but we can benefit adopting some of the customs of earlier generations of Christians all the way back to the 2nd century.

At this point I should also make it clear that Lenten practices, like any spiritual disciplines, do not make us acceptable to God. We are acceptable to God only through coming to Him by faith on the basis of Christ’s death on the cross for our sins (Eph. 2:8-9). Spiritual disciplines are means through which God works in our lives helping us to grow to spiritual maturity, which is being conformed to the character of Christ (Eph. 4:13; Rom. 8:29). Thus, these practices are for our benefit, and not a way to “earn” anything from God. Sometimes Christians in earlier generations lost sight of this fact.

How to practice Lent

We should view the season of Lent as an opportunity to reflect on the significance of Christ’s death, examine our hearts, and confess our sins. It can be a time of spiritual cleansing and renewal. It is not a “law” that we must follow, and there is a great variety of practices that we can try out. Based on the historic practice of Lent, try doing something in each of these three categories:

1. Fasting

Give up something for God. Fasting is not a means to “earn” something from God, but rather a way to learn to curb your appetites and focus more completely on God. There are many varieties of fasting, and I do not have the space to discuss this important topic here. For further information see my FAQ on Christian Fasting.

2. Prayer and Meditation

Read over the Gospel accounts of Christ’s arrest, trial, and crucifixion. Reflect on His suffering, and the tremendous love that it represents. Reflect on your own sin and what it cost Him. Take out some time for prayers of confession and repentance. Do some spiritual “house cleaning.”

3. Giving to the poor

Use the money that you save by not eating to help the poor. Consider doing some volunteer work. How can you show the love of Christ to others?

For further reading (most of the information in this article is taken from these sources):

• A summary of Lenten practices
• Why many churches don’t observe Lent
• Christian History newsletter on The Beginning of Lent
• The Catholic Encyclopedia gives a thorough overview of the history of Lent
• A brief introduction to Lent from a Reformed perspective
• The Season of Lent by Dennis Bratcher
• Devotions for Lent

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