Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day. Together, both days are considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations in Christendom and Western society.

Christmas celebrations in the denominations of Western Christianity have long begun on Christmas Eve, due in part to the Christian liturgical day starting at sunset, a practice inherited from Jewish tradition and based on the story of Creation in the Book of Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was morning – the first day." Many churches still ring their church bells and hold prayers in the evening; for example, the Nordic Lutheran churches. Since tradition holds that Jesus was born at night (based in Luke 2:6-8), Midnight Mass is celebrated on Christmas Eve, traditionally at midnight, in commemoration of his birth. The idea of Jesus being born at night is reflected in the fact that Christmas Eve is referred to as Heilige Nacht (Holy Night) in German, Nochebuena (the Good Night) in Spanish and similarly in other expressions of Christmas spirituality, such as the song "Silent Night, Holy Night".

Many other varying cultural traditions and experiences are also associated with Christmas Eve around the world, including the gathering of family and friends, the singing of Christmas carols, the illumination and enjoyment of Christmas lights, trees, and other decorations, the wrapping, exchange and opening of gifts, and general preparation for Christmas Day. Legendary Christmas gift-bearing figures including Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Christkind, and Saint Nicholas are also often said to depart for their annual journey to deliver presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve, although until the Protestant introduction of Christkind in 16th-century Europe, such figures were said to instead deliver presents on the eve of Saint Nicholas' feast day (6 December).

SYMBOLS AND CUSTOMS

Candles

Candles have always been symbolic of the sun's light and warmth, and in ancient times they were lit to dispel the darkness of winter at the time of the WINTER SOLSTICE (December 21 or 22). Early Christians preferred to see them as symbols of Jesus' "light," which replaced the darkness of paganism. Some scholars think that the custom of lighting candles on Christmas Eve came from the Jewish "Feast of Lights" or HANUKKAH, which was held around the same time of year and featured the lighting of candles or lamps.

Throughout the Middle Ages, it was customary to light one large candle on Christmas Eve, in both the church and the home, to commemorate the Star of Bethlehem. The candle may also have been symbolic of the Holy Child, whom Simeon called "A Light to lighten the Gentiles." These giant candles burned continuously throughout the Christmas season, right up until TWELFTH NIGHT. In Scandinavian countries, keeping the "Yule candle" burning was very important. Sometimes there were two candles representing the head of the house and his wife. If one of them went out first, it meant that the other partner would live longer. A similar belief prevailed in Scotland before the Reformation. If the Christmas candle was extinguished before midnight, it meant that a great disaster would befall the family. In Ireland, the Christmas Eve candle is often so big that a large turnip must be carved out to serve as a candlestick.

Luminarias

Luminarias (pronounced loo-mee-NAR-ee-yahs) means "lights" or "illuminations" in Spanish. The word also refers to the small bonfires that illuminate the dark nights of the Christmas season throughout the American Southwest. These bonfires are made from piñon pine logs that have been stacked in log-cabin fashion to form a box about three feet in height. Although one may spot luminarias throughout the Christmas season, they are most common on Christmas Eve, when the little bonfires blaze in front of churches, homes, and in public plazas.

Some believe that luminarias can be traced all the way back to the fires that warmed the shepherds to whom the birth of Jesus was announced. Others say the custom came from Native American traditions, which Spanish missionaries later incorporated into the celebration of Christmas. Still others think that Spanish missionaries brought the custom with them to Mexico. Whatever its origins, the earliest historical record of the practice in the New World dates back to the sixteenth century, when Spanish missionaries, sent to evangelize the native peoples of Mexico, wrote that on Christmas Eve the people celebrated by singing, drumming, and lighting bonfires on church patios and on the roofs of their flat-topped houses.

In some areas of the United States, luminarias are not bonfires but glowing paper bags filled with sand holding small candles. The custom of outlining buildings, patios, sidewalks, and public squares with these paper-bag lights on Christmas Eve started in the Southwest, where these lanterns are called farolitos, which is Spanish for "little lanterns" (see CHRISTMAS). It has since spread all the way to New England. In some areas the two customs-small bonfires and paper-bag lanterns-remain distinct, while in others both "luminarias" and "farolitos" refer to the homemade paper lanterns that line the streets on Christmas Eve.

In Louisiana along the levees of the Mississippi River, bonfires built out of logs, cane reed, old tires, and bamboo are lit on Christmas Eve. Derived from the feux de joie (fires of joy) that burned in France on Epiphany Eve, the eve of ASH WEDNESDAY , and NEW YEAR'S EVE, these fires were brought to Louisiana after the Civil War by Marist priests. When Christmas became the predominant winter holiday, the bonfire tradition was shifted to December 24.

Reindeer

More than 600 years after St. Nicholas' death, Russians carried his legend back from Constantinople, and he became Russia's patron saint. From there, his story spread to Lapland, home of the reindeer, which may explain why the modern Santa Claus lives at the North Pole and gets around in a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer. In reality, of course, he often arrives by car or helicopter at the local shopping mall.

Clement Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" popularized the names of Santa's reindeer: "Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer and Vixen! On Comet! On Cupid! On Donder and Blitzen!" But to children everywhere, Rudolph is the most beloved. He first appeared in a complimentary Christmas store souvenir given out by Montgomery Ward during the holidays in 1939. The little book was written by Robert May, a Montgomery Ward ad man known for his light verse. It tells the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, a variation on the ugly duckling motif. Illustrated by May's friend Denver Gillen, the story of Rudolph sold 2.4 million copies in Montgomery Ward stores that first year. The poem appeared in book form in 1947, and when the singing cowboy star Gene Autry recorded a musical version of the tale in 1949, it reached the top of the Hit Parade. What began as an advertising gimmick soon became a popular emblem of the modern American Christmas. Nowadays Rudolph can be seen on television, in store window displays, and on front lawns and rooftops everywhere.

Santa Claus

The original Santa Claus was Nicholas, the legendary saint who was bishop of Myra (Turkey) in the fourth century. He was usually shown wearing the furtrimmed robes of a cleric, with a beehive (symbolizing industry) and a bulldog (fidelity) at his side. He was a gift-giver but also a disciplinarian, bringing switches and rods for children who misbehaved. December 6 was his feast day, and in many countries, it is on this day-not Christmas Eve-that St. Nicholas arrives to hand out his presents and punishments.

The Christian story of St. Nicholas was brought to Europe, where it got mixed up with the Germanic religion and its chief god, Woden (or Odin), who rode an eight-legged white horse. The Dutch Sinter Klaas, for example, wears bishop's robes and rides a white horse. In other northern European countries, St. Nicholas has been integrated with ancient gods to become a spirit of winter rather than a Christian saint.

Martin Luther substituted the Christ Child for St. Nicholas as a bearer of gifts, and moved the day of his arrival from December 6 to Christmas as part of an effort to remove the last vestiges of paganism from the Christian church. In some parts of Europe, it is still the Christ Child who brings gifts, which is why he is called Kriss Kringle (from the German Christkindl).

The American Santa Claus is actually a combination of three figures: (1) the English Father Christmas, a winter deity wearing a crown of holly who replaced St. Nicholas after the Reformation (see CHRISTMAS); (2) the German St. Nicholas, brought to the United States by German immigrants during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; and (3) the Dutch Sinter Klaas, who was brought by Dutch settlers to New York. But it wasn't until the publication of Clement Moore's poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" on December 23, 1823, that the American Santa Claus was transformed from a tall, thin bishop to a jolly, overweight, pipe-smoking figure wearing a fur-trimmed red suit. His elf-like image was reinforced by Thomas Nast, an editorial cartoonist who did numerous illustrations of Santa Claus based on Moore's poem. Washington Irving made his own contribution in A History of New York, when he described St. Nicholas as "laying a finger beside his nose" and dropping gifts down the chimney.

Most American children believe that Santa Claus comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve to fill the stockings they've left hanging on the mantle. This custom can be traced back to a folk legend in which three daughters decided to help their father escape poverty by selling themselves into prostitution. A wealthy man named Nicholas visited their house on three successive nights, and each time he tossed a ball of gold through an open window. The three gold balls, which landed in the stockings the girls had hung by the fire to dry, saved them from a life of sin.

Some scholars have traced this tradition back even farther, to the ancient Norsemen's winter solstice festival in honor of Herthe, goddess of the home. Before the holiday feast, a fire of fir boughs was laid on an altar of flat stones in the belief that Herthe would appear in the smoke to bring the family good fortune. The Norse altar stones became our modern hearth stones, and Santa's trip down the chimney was an updated version of Herthe's appearance in the smoke.

Yule Log

Traditionally burned on Christmas Eve and throughout the Christmas season, the Yule log gets its name from the pagan Norsemen, who observed a 12-day winter celebration called Jól, which means "wheel" and probably refers to the turning of the sun at the winter solstice. There is also an old English word, geol, which means "feast." In pre-Christian times, the entire month of December was known as geola, or "feast-month." The name was later attached to the Christmas feast known as Yule in England and Jul in Scandinavia.

It was common in ancient times to light bonfires at the winter solstice to scare off winter's demons and to brighten the darkest time of the year. But the Yule log, which appears to be a survival of this custom, is burned indoors and is more of a domestic than a public celebration. In its purest form, the Yule log is a whole trunk of a tree, selected and cut on CANDLEMAS (February 2) and dried throughout the year. The usual practice in England was to light the Yule log with a fragment of the previous year's log, which had been kept in the house throughout the year in the belief that it would offer protection against fire and especially lightning. Because it was usually an oak log, it's possible that this belief is a relic of the ancient Aryan religion, which associated the oak tree with the god of thunder.

The English Yule log is said to have come from the Druids, the ancient Celtic religious order. The Druid priests prayed that the oak or fruitwood log burned in their midwinter festival would flame, like the sun, forever. Both the log and its ashes were considered symbols of good luck and strength. Even in more recent times, bringing the Yule log into the house was often accompanied by great ceremony. The youngest child would pour wine on the log before it was thrown into the fire, and then a remnant of the log would be saved and used to kindle the new log on the following Christmas Eve. It was considered bad luck if the fire went out before New Year's Day. Yule log ceremonies are most elaborate among the Serbs and Croats, where two or three young oaks are cut down for every house (sometimes one log for each male member of the family). As the logs are carried in, lighted candles are held on either side of the door, and as the father of the family crosses the threshold with the first log, someone throws corn at him or pours wine over the log. The log itself may be a symbol of the spirit of vegetation, and burning it may be symbolic of sunshine, whose influence is needed during the coming year. The corn and wine are probably symbols of the sun and rain the crops need to grow.

A number of superstitions surround the Yule log in Europe. In southern France, people put the log on the fire for the first time on Christmas Eve and then continue to burn it a little bit each day until TWELFTH NIGHT (January 5). If it is kept under the bed, it will protect the house from fire and thunder and will prevent those who live there from getting chilblains on their heels in winter. The unburned remains are also believed to cure cattle of many diseases and to help cows deliver their calves. If the ashes are scattered over the fields, it will save the wheat from mildew.