The origin of Christmas

It’s the most wonderful time of the year… We know the song, we decorate everything and give presents to our most beloved.

But, where does Christmas come from?

With reading an article from a good friend, and a reference to a really interesting website I found some interesting history about this day.

Everyone thinks December 25^th is the day when Jesus was born. Sorry, no… There were a lot of pagan gods were born on that day.  From its early Babylonian roots, the celebration of the birth or “rebirth” of the sun god on December 25^th came to be celebrated under various names all over the ancient world. It is a fact that the winter solstice occurs a few days before December 25^th. The winter solstice is the day of the year when daylight is the shortest. So you could say that with the rebirth of the sun god, the daylight is born as well…

But thousands of years before there was a “Santa Claus” there was another supernatural figure who would supposedly visit a tree and leave gifts every December 25^th, his name was Nimrod.

Semiramis (a women who later in history became known as the goddess Astarte/Asherah/Ashtoreth/Isis/Ishtar/Easter in other pagan religions) claimed that after the untimely death of her son/husband (yep, she married her own son) Nimrod, she saw a full-grown evergreen tree spring out of the roots of a dead tree stump, symbolizing the springing forth of new lift for Nimrod. And, on the anniversary of his birth, she said, Nimrod would visit the evergreen tree and leave gift under it. I can’t help but stating the obvious and say that this all sounds so very familiar!

From this original fable peddled by Semiramis (the “Queen of Heaven”) came the tradition for pagans to go out to the holy “groves” and leave gifts for Nimrod (who later came to be worshipped as “Baal”) at an evergreen tree. But, this last doesn’t sound like a Christian holiday…

Later, in Egypt, the son of Isis was born at the same day, at about the time of the winter solstice. The very name by which Christmas is popularly known –Yule day- proves at once its pagan and Babylonian origin. ‘Yule’ is the Chaldee name for an ‘infant’ or ‘little child’, and as the 25^th of December was called by our pagan Anglo-Saxon ancestors, ‘Yule day’ or the ‘Child’s day’, and the night that preceded it (Mother night) long before they came in contact with Christianity, that sufficiently proves its real character.

But “Christmas”, where is that coming from then?

The word itself is nowhere to be found in the entire bible. In fact, the word wasn’t even invented until about 1000 years after Jesus died.
Well, for starters, Jesus wasn’t born in December. Way too cold for shepherd to be out with their sheep at night in Israel. Bases on the Scriptures, it appears that it is most likely that Jesus was born in the fall, most likely during the “feast of Tabernacles”, the Feast of Ingathering or Sukkot, celebrated in the month of Tishrei, which varies from late September to late October.

Why December 25^th then?

When the Roman Empire legalized Christianity in the 4^th century, most of the other religions in the empire were celebrating the birth of their gods on December 25^th. One of the biggest festivals was known as Saturnalia. A festival during which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of their god Saturn.
Saturnalia was typically characterized by gift-giving, feasting, singing and lots of debauchery. The priests of Saturn would carry wreaths of evergreen boughs in procession throughout the pagan Roman temples.

In 350 Pope Julius I declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on December 25^th from then on. There appears to be little doubt that Pope Julius was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans to convert to Catholicism.

When the Romans Catholics decided to make December 25^th a “Christian holiday” in the 4^th century, they simply adopted a long standing pagan holiday and kept most of the same pagan traditions!

In “The Two Babylons”, Hislop describes some of these ancient traditions surrounding the Christmas tree…

“The Christmas tree, now so common among us, was equally common in pagan Rome and pagan Egypt. In Egypt that tree was the palm-tree; in Rome it was the fir; the palm-tree denoting the Pagan messiah, as Baal-Tamar, the fir referring to him as Baal-Berith. The mother of Adonis, the sun-god and great mediatorial divinity, was mystically said to have been changed into a tree, and when in that state to have brought forth her divine son. If the mother was a tree, the son must have been recognized as the ‘Man the branch.’ And this entirely accounts for the putting of the Yule Log into the fire on Christmas Eve, and the appearance of the Christmas tree the next morning…”

That sure puts a different spin on Christmas traditions, now doesn’t it?

November 11th - The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

On November 11th there is “Armistice Day”, the day that we remember the fallen soldiers during the World Wars.
In Belgium the biggest ceremony takes place at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. But how was this Unknown Soldier chosen?  And did you know that Bruges played an important role in this?

The Belgian Government decided in 1922 to identify an Unknown Soldier. These remains would be buried at the Congress Column in Brussels. This structure was designed by Jozef Poelaert and is a reference to the founding of Belgium and is a tribute for those fallen for the country.

To avoid that the identity of this body would be revealed (or known at all) a special procedure was developed. At five different military cemeteries, at locations where battles took place, one random coffin was exhumed, every time of an unknown Belgian military.
These coffins were then taken to the train station of Bruges, where a blind veteran would tap on one coffin. That would become the Unknown Soldier. This all took place on November 10^th 1922.

So on Friday morning, November 10^th 1922 the representatives of the military authorities waited at the platform of the train station of Bruges. At that moment, the train station was still located on ‘t Zand. The train they were waiting for brought the 5 coffins, coming from Luik, Namen, Antwerp, the battlefield at the Ijzer and the zone of the Liberation Offensive in Flanders.
The clarion played at 9.15am at the moment the war veterans bring the coffins to the funeral chapel, installed in the waiting area. While several veterans stand guard with the coffins, there is a service in St Salvatorscathedral in honor of the fallen soldiers.

Around 4pm Renold Haesebrouck, the blind veteran is picked up at his house in Assebroek (a borough of Bruges), he arrives at 4.31pm in the train station, welcomed by the minister of Defence. One by one the veteran touches the coffins, then takes place in the middle of the funeral chapel and says: “The fourth coffin from the left contains the remains of the Unknown Soldier”, while pointing to the coffin with his cane.

In the morning of the next day (November 11^th) 8 veterans (4 with the left arm lost, 4 with the right arm lost) take the coffin out of the funeral chapel to the train waiting. The national anthem is played when the train slowly moves out of the station.

The coffin is brought to Brussels, placed in the tomb in between the two bronze lions in front of the Congress Column.  At 11.25am every in Brussels stopped moving for one minute. No more clarions playing, traffic stops, everywhere everyone stops working and stands motionless for one minute.

But what happened with the other 4 coffins?
or that we return to Bruges. After a small ceremony in the train station, the four coffins are placed on gun carriages and transported to the military cemetery in Assebroek. Along the way to the cemetery, people line up to bring a salute and show their respect for these soldiers.

At 11am the coffins are placed in the graves. Two canons fire and everywhere people who hear this stop working for one minute.
There is no plan or register of where these graves are. Only after looking really hard the four simple graves are found. Two by two, with a simple cross to mark them. On the crosses you can read the words: “Unknown, military, died in the service of Belgium”. No column, no lions, no eternal flame or Royal salute…

Lace – the product of Bruges

When people visit the city of Bruges, they’re often confronted with shops filled with lace. Before I tell you the story/legend of these beautiful artful pieces let me give you a little warning. When you want to buy real, handmade lace you mustn’t go to these shops in the center. I know that the little sign sometimes says “handmade”. But the only thing about all this, the sign that says “handmade” is the only real handmade thing in all this. I’ve even seen lace with a little label that stated “made in China”… So careful with overpaying on the lace!

But, I promised a story about lace!
The story can be found several times in books, but strangely there’s never a year or century that mentoines when this story takes place.
We know that the first spinning wheel was invented somewhere around 1035. It was in… China (pure coincidence, really). Leonardo Da Vinci painted a spinning wheel in 1480, but the wheel as we know today was invented in 1520-30 by a German engineer. So we can assume our story doesn’t take place before the 15^th century.

A widow named Barbara had 5 children, and they all had to work hard to survive financially. They were masters with the spinning wheel so the device was in constant usage. Her oldest daughter, Serena realized pretty quickly that all this hard working wasn’t sufficient and despite all their efforts they were still hungry and poor.

Every evening Serena fiercely prayed in honor of Our Lady, making a promise: if by some miracle the family would get a better life, she would resign from any joy and hope her heart cherished.
The following spring Serena gets a day off to rest from all the hard working, so Serena decides to go for a relaxing walk in the woods with her best friend Arnold. When the young people take a resting moment, spiders descend on the lap of Serena and start walking up and down her lap. Serena doesn’t know what’s happening but notices soon there’s a pattern in the work of the little spiders. Shapes of birds, animals and flowers are seen in the work. The spiders finish their work; Serena and Arnold make a little frame with small branches to carefully take the work back home.
This is the miracle Serena prayed for and she starts to copy the work of the spiders. Soon she get tangled in all the different wires, but Arnold makes little bobbins so it’s easier to work.
The inspiration comes quickly and Serena soon starts to make own designs. Rich people notice the beautiful work and pretty soon the lace is one of the most desired items in the city.
With the growing demand and the high pricing of the lace, more prosperous times come to the family.
However, the friendship between Arnold and Serena grew into more romantic feelings. When Arnold takes up his courage and asks Serena’s hand, and although she says she loves him deeply, Serena tells Arnold she can’t marry him. He doesn’t know about the promise Serena made in her prayers and she doesn’t tell him.

A year later Serena decides to remember and celebrate the moment of the miracle. So she goes back to the place where it all began. Arnold follows her without her noticing. Arriving at the spot of the miracle, Serena sits down and starts to pray to Our Lady. Not accepting Arnold’s proposal hurt her and Arnold so she asks for help. Again spiders descend on the lap of Serena and start making another work. This time it has the shape of a bridal bouquet and the text “Serena, I relieve you from your promise”.
Seeing this, Serena starts crying and Arnold (who was hiding in the bushes close to her) comes out to help her. She tells him about her promise and shows him the new work. Now Arnold understands why she couldn’t accept his proposal, goes down on one knee and asks her again. This time she says ‘yes’ and soon the young couple marries.

This story can be seen on some bas-reliefs in the Steenstraat (the shopping street of the city), number 40. I put these reliefs with this text, enjoy !