Understanding Christmas

For Chinese translation, click here. 中文翻译，点击这里

In Canada, Christmas is by far the most celebrated holiday of the year. Christmas has different meanings for different groups of people in Canada. If someone is non-religious, then Christmas is primarily a time to show love to family and friends with the practice of gift-giving (often with much talk of Santa Claus). If someone understands the religious meaning of Christmas, then the celebration has a strong historical and spiritual significance. In fact, gift-giving is an essential part of the historical beginning of Christmas and Christianity.

This year I learned something new about one Christmas tradition.  It is common to set up a “nativity scene” (also called a “manger scene”) as part of the Christmas decorations. This is a reminder of the original/first Christmas.

The baby, Jesus, was born to poor parents when they were travelling away from home, and since all the inns/hotels were full, they had to take overnight shelter in a farmer’s barn. This became the place where Jesus was born. The word “nativity” relates to a birth place. The word “manger” is the long V-shaped structure in a barn where the farmer would put the hay (and other food) for the animals to eat. The soft hay would make a soft bed for the newborn baby.

In our home we always have a small replica of such a manger scene, and in our church we have a much larger version (as shown here as Photo 1).

In our travel to New York City in late December this year, we saw this beautiful manger scene set up in St Patrick’s cathedral. A tour guide explained that it was a very famous monk, Saint Francis of Assisi, who first started the idea of displaying a nativity scene as a teaching aid for Europeans long ago (when most people could neither read nor write).  I really enjoy reading and learning of St Francis, so it was an important new understanding for me. (The famous American city, named San Francisco, is named after St Francis and is the Spanish way to write and say his name.)

And finally, on stage in the Radio City Music Hall, we saw a theatrical representation of this same idea with the star, the baby, shepherds, and wise men.

I think that understanding Christmas is essential to having some understanding of Christianity. Further, most scholars agree that to have an understanding of some of the best values and practices of Western culture, it is essential to understand the influence of the teachings of Jesus who was born in this humble way.

The birth of Jesus was predicted by ancient religious teachers in the part of Asia we now call The Middle East. People, however, were not expecting their “promised king” (called The Christ, or The Messiah) to be born in a barn and then laid to sleep in a manger. They expected their king to be strong in traditional ways: to succeed in raising large armies to subdue their neighbours and to establish a kingdom or empire of much power and strength. In contrast, this child born of low and humble parents grew up to be a much different type of leader. In the process he created a whole new way to view the world and change the way we should live.

How important is this birth event in the history of Western culture? The birth of Jesus, the Christ/Messiah, was considered the start of a whole new era, so the governments of the day created our present calendar system by choosing the birth year of Jesus to be Year 1. When we write the year 2009, for instance, we may write it as 2009 AD (where “AD” is Latin for Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of Our Lord”). Dates prior to the birth of Jesus have historically been written in the West as years BC (meaning Before Christ).

Yes, the birth of Jesus Christ is the reason for Christmas. Christians believe he was the great gift of God to the world. It is the reason why we continue to share gifts with one another at this time, reminding us of the love we should share with others to make this a better world.

Published: 2009/12/31
Latest update: 2016/12/01