My family has been trying to come up with a tradition for ourselves over the past few years in light of the fact that we are Orthodox Christians and our extended family, save our newly converted brother James and his family, are Protestants. Basically, we have been following both kinds of traditions, creating a confusing mish-mash of a Nativity season. For example, my tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving, yet it stays up until the end of January to get the 12 days in! And the Nativity Fast is constantly broken for pre-celebratory Christmas feasting--which should take place after 12/25. And then, we travel, and miss the services we so love. The list goes on...So this year I am really trying to make the "switch" in terms of how we celebrate the Nativity. It will be hard, but it is time to jump the fence, as it were.
Here are some things I am going to incorporate this year:
First, I want to explain the meaning of the Nativity Icon to my kids--here is a good explanation.
Also, what are the Twelve Days of Christmas? Here is an interesting article that explains:
"The very religious family will perhaps keep the Christmas tree up until January 6 or 7, and may attend Theophany services. But then everything is packed away and Christmas is forgotten until next year. What is lost in all of this is the fact that the Church's observance is a much longer, slower - more lifelike - process of growth. The celebration of Christmas, from the point of view of the Church, starts with the Christmas fast on November 15, and concludes on February 9, with the leave taking of the feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple. At the center of this celebration is not a mere one day observance, but a twelve day celebration of the fact that God has for the first time manifested and identified Himself fully and completely with the world."
So, how can we incorporate the 12 days? I think this year we will put the tree up much later in the season-closer to the actually event. (So we'll decorate around December 6-20.) Then we'll keep the decor around, opening small presents throughout the 12 days. I would also like to have a celebration (a.k.a. party) during this time...
And what about gift giving? Well, history shows us that (found here):
"Early Christians did not practice gift giving because they did not want their religion to be associated with pagan festivals or practices. The Middle Ages mark the point at which gift-giving became a part of Christian Christmas celebrations: kings demanded gifts from their subjects and common people exchanged gifts with one another. St. Nicholas’s Day (Dec. 6th) became gift-giving time for children. Christmas gifts were not emphasized in colonial America but children expected small gifts and the wealthy were expected to give to the poor: Christmas was regarded to be more a time of joy than of gift giving. In the 19th century the Christmas-gift custom became widespread in America, accepted by both children and adults."
HM! So, what is appropriate and right???? Any ideas?
What else? Well, I also want to refute this belief that has sprouted up amoung many Christians--that December 25th is a date derived from pagan worship--that the church replaced a pagan festival with Christmas. Here it is explained simply, much like the explanation my priest recently gave, which is held by many Christians as the truth about the origin of the 12/25:
"There is a very widespread theory that Christmas began in Rome as a response to pagan festivities centering around the winter solstice, which was locally considered to be 25 December. The pagan celebration, which was first established by the Roman emperor Aurelian in AD 274, was called The Birth of the Invincible Sun. However, there is evidence that, some years earlier, Christians had made a sincere attempt to calculate the actual date of Jesus’ birthday.
In ancient Judaism, there was a common belief, which ancient Christians inherited, that the prophets of Israel died on the on the same date as their birth or conception. (This may be behind the long-standing Christian custom of referring to the date of a martyr’s death as their “birthday in heaven.”) According to ancient western calculations, Jesus was crucified on 25 March, so they assumed that 25 March was the date of Jesus’ conception. The Annunciation is still commemorated on that date to this day. Nine months after 25 March leads to 25 December, which would be the birthday of Jesus Christ if all those assumptions and calculations were correct. They aren’t correct, but the fact remains that the date has a Christian origin."
-Ken Collins (emphasis mine)
Here are some interesting recipes I'd like to try out, although many of them are very ethnic in nature--which is great, but where are the American Orthodox Christmas Recipes? I should invent some!
And what about St. Nicholas? Why talk about this Saint at all? Well, I like these reasons from the St. Nick site:
To tell the story of a Christian saint, whose model life inspires compassion and charity
To reveal the true identity of Santa Claus and Father Christmas
To focus on giving more than on receiving
To emphasize small treats and family fun
To provide a bit of special festivity early in the waiting weeks of Advent
To offer a spiritual dimension to gift giving
To help keep Jesus the center of Christmas
I also like the activities and ideas on the above site. The idea of identifying where this whole "Santa Claus" (like the secular version of him) thing came from with my kids is very appealing. I thought this was an interesting quote about Santa--hadn't thought of things this way:
"Consider the myth of Santa Claus: he is all-knowing; someone who knows all the acts of children and supposedly holds them accountable for the wrongs they do; he lives forever; he is a creator of good gifts; he magically flies all over the world visiting all the homes of all the children in a single night; he travels up and down chimneys without aid; he lives in a secret place. Aren’t these the acts of a supernatural person, like God? Doesn’t his folk tale detract from the reality of Christ and the miracle of His birth? And aren’t we guilty of lying and sinning against God when we repeat the tales of Santa Claus to others and propagate his legend?"
From http://www.biblebb.com/files/christmas00.htm
Anyway, lots more to read about, like Christmas Trees, appropriate gift-giving, feasting and fasting...but maybe another time. This post is long enough already!
Comments
Nov. 25, 2005 - Untitled Comment
Posted by grelihm
I have to admit it, we have already put up the tree
But I do have an article exhorting us to not precelebrating Christmas: http://paideaclassics.org/index.php?sid=&cart_id=&show=faq&ref=52
Nov. 25, 2005 - very good thoughts
Posted by you are several steps ahead of me and its quite helpful to see your brainstorming about this season. I appreciated all the links you gave too. We've never gotten a tree before Dec. 10th anyway, so I guess I'm a little bit there :) But seriously, I'm laying low this season and still trying to take in Orthodoxy. I will happy if my hubby and kids attend Nativity services with me and anything else will be icing on the cake.
edited to add: there's something fishy going on with your link to the Nativity Icon Explaination. It took me to a Microsoft website. When I put my cursor over it, I can see the link addy and just typed it in myself, but clicking on your link didn't work right.
Deb
Edited by debdillon on Nov. 25, 2005 at 7:01 PM
Nov. 26, 2005 - Hello ~
Posted by Harriette
Hi - wonderful post on Orthodox Christmas! My husband is cradle Orthodox, as are our children, I was raised prostestant and married into the faith. We are Antiochian (formerly "Eastern") Orthodox and have special foods that we make for Christmas and other occasions.
thank you for the links ~
I saw on one of your earlier posts about your family visiting IKEA - this is so amazing - we have family that was visiting for T-giving and they HAD to go to this store (we did not....) - but now you're the 2nd person to mention this in recent days......looks like we'll have to go now....
Blessings to you and your family,
Harriette Jacobs
Nov. 26, 2005 - Re: Christmas tree
I got an idea that we can do regarding the Christmas tree and not 'precelebrating Christmas.' Right now, our tree is an artificial 'pre-lit' tree. But most of the lights don't work. We haven't put on new light strings, though we have started to hang ornaments on it. So it is presently 'unlit.' We could wait to light it until Nativity and have that symbolize the coming "Light of the World." That way we have something to hang up our ornaments now, have them as a forshadow of what is to come (Christ transforming mankind back into His likeness--His Saints), yet not precelebrate Nativity, the coming of the Light!
Edited by grelihm on Nov. 26, 2005 at 9:34 AM