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Dispelling Christmas myth

DEAR EDITOR:

A common myth persists, as evidenced in a Jan. 8 letter, that the Christian holiday of Christmas replaced an ancient pagan solar festival. The actual truth is quite the opposite.

The Roman festival to the Unconquered Sun, Sol Invictis, was instituted by the Emperor Valerian in the latter half of the third century to combat the already existing Christian feast of Nativity, the Birth of Jesus.

The dating of Christmas on Dec. 25 has nothing to do with the winter solstice; rather, the Church celebrates the birth of Christ nine months after the feast of His conception on March 25.

The conception of Christ in March is based on the fact that Jesus Christ is six months younger than John the Baptist, who was conceived on Sept. 23 (see Luke 1:26). The Church remembers John’s conception in September because it knows his father Zacharias, a priest, was offering incense during the Day of Atonement (see Luke 1:9-10).

No doubt the indiscriminate adoption of many customs has obscured much of the original practice and meaning of Christmas. A good example of this is the popular understanding of Santa Claus.

How many people really know that the person of Santa Claus derives from Saint Nicholas, the fourth century bishop of Myra in Lycia, on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey?

To my knowledge, there weren’t any reindeer, elves or sleighs in fourth century southern Turkey; yet, St. Nicholas famously was imprisoned for the faith, defended the faith at the Worldwide Council at Nicea, in 325 A.D. and displayed extraordinary love and charity for his flock. To state categorically that Santa Claus is pagan in origin is absolutely false. The real Saint Nicholas came first and was paganized later, just as the real Christmas came first and subsequently has been paganized.

Our western cultural history interwoven with Christianity is a tangled web. Many in our society do whatever they want, whether genuine or counterfeit, in the name of Christianity, particularly at the time of Christian feasts. Without looking around at others, it behooves Christians first of all to ensure in their own lives that the true meaning of Christmas has everything to do with Jesus.

THE REV. JONATHAN

H. CHOLCHER

St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church

Warren

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