By Douglas Anele

The purported birth of Jesus of Nazareth, commemorated every December 25 as Charismas, is the most popular religious celebration in the world. Even in non-Christian countries such as China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey and Iran, reverberations of Christmas are unmistakable.

Across major towns and villages in Nigeria, there is increased tempo in activities as millions prepare for the occasion. Of course, markets, shopping malls and supermarkets witness huge upsurge in patronage, because customers seem very eager to spend money for enjoyment and for meeting social expectations.

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Contemporary Christmas is definitely one of the triumphs of capitalism and rampaging consumerism. With increased economic activity during the festive period, there is a quantum leap in the incidence of criminality, especially armed robbery, advance fee fraud, kidnapping, etc. Expectedly, thousands of city dwellers travel to the villages during Christmas.

For Ndigbo particularly who constitute the most centrifugal and gregarious ethnic nationality in Nigeria, yuletide holidays afford them the opportunity to meet loved ones they had not seen for years and participate in community meetings and other cultural activities. Again, unmarried men and women use the occasion to hook up with potential spouses. But the major problem with travelling for Christmas in Nigeria, especially to the south east, aside from dilapidated roads, is that transporters arbitrarily increase transport fares, thereby making things more difficult for the masses.

As a corollary, prices of everything rise very steeply, whereas in developed countries prices of goods and services go down considerably so that everyone would enjoy the festive season. The average businessperson in Nigeria is solely interested in maximising profits – he or she is not bothered about the effects of arbitrary price increases on the poor. To be candid, for many people Christmas time is a period of stress every December.

Yet, because of old habits and the religious significance of the occasion, very few people make the required behavioural changes to reduce the collateral stress and inconveniences that come with Yuletide. In my opinion, Christmas is overrated. Businesspersons and the clergy deliberately hyperbolise it for selfish material benefits. And because most people are gullible in religious matters, they fail to see the folly in stressing themselves unnecessarily just to “belong.”

Since about ninety-nine percent of Christians are ignorant about certain important facts concerning their religion, including Christmas, it would be useful to explain how the festival originated and highlight some problems with the received tradition embodied in New Testament. According to “The Truth about Christmas,” published in Awake December 2010 edition, Christmas celebrations evolved from non-Christian sources.

Tradition has it that Jesus was born on December 25, and his birthday is celebrated on that date. ‘Christmas’ means “Christ’s Mass,” that is, the mass commemorating the feast of Christ’s nativity, or birth. The Christmas Encyclopaedia states that the choice of 25th December as Jesus’ birthday had no biblical precedent, but was a pragmatic adaptation from Roman festivals held at the end of every year, about the time of winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.

Integral to those festivals were the Saturnalia, in honour of Saturn, god of agriculture, and the combined festivals of two sun gods, Sol and Mithra from Rome and Persia respectively. Both birthdays were celebrated on December 25, the winter solstice, based on the Julian calendar.

The evolution and adaptation of these celebrations into Christian practice began around 350 A.D., when Pope Julius I proclaimed December 25 as Christ’s birthday. Subsequently, the nativity celebration gradually absorbed and supplanted all other solstice rites, while solar imagery became increasingly prominent in depicting the notion of “the risen Christ” or sol invictus. In addition, the ancient solar disk metamorphosed into haloes around the heads of Christian saints. It must be observed that for most New Testament scholars the entire paraphernalia of Christmas, together with the date, Christmas tree and so on are rooted in ancient superstition and rituals, which predated the birth of Christianity itself.

Now, despite centuries of historical research, there is little solid historical evidence to back the veracity of the gospels’ narratives concerning the birth of Jesus. Indeed, eminent historians and philosophers, such as Arnold Toynbee and Bertrand Russell, have questioned the historicity of the character named Jesus in the gospels. But even if we ignore the historical problem and presume that the gospels’ accounts are accurate, it is still a fact that Christmas celebration was never recommended in the Christian scripture.

Actually, it is virtually impossible to ascertain precisely from the gospels the actual date Jesus was born; they merely gave imprecise geographical and seasonal indications of the birth and early circumstances of Jesus. Luke 2:8, for instance, suggests that when Jesus was born, shepherds were living out of doors herding their sheep at night near Bethlehem.

However, the cold rainy season in the area of Jesus’ nativity usually begins in October, during which shepherds, especially in the colder highlands such as those around Bethlehem, bring their flock into protected shelters at night. The coldest weather, sometimes accompanied by snow, occurs in December, thus making that period inappropriate for shepherds to tend their animals at night. From the foregoing, it is unlikely that Jesus was born in December.

The four gospels that contain the story of Jesus’ origins and birth not only contradict one another but also, at times, violently disagree. Moreover, their accounts are considerably vague. Consider this: of the four gospels, two – Matthew and Luke – contain stories of the birth of Jesus, and they are at odds with each other. Matthew portrays Jesus as an aristocrat, connected to the Davidic bloodline through Solomon. On the other hand, Luke says that Jesus’ family, though connected to the house of David, was of a somewhat less exalted stock. But where did the legend of “son of a poor carpenter” originate from?

To be continued