The complex history of the celebration of Christmas
Whatever its historical vicissitudes, the celebration of Christmas has roots going back at least 18 centuries and is deeply ingrained in our society and many others.
Every pub has one: the bore who fancies himself as a debunker of tradition, the complete man of the Renaissance, who looks disparagingly at the Christmas decorations and declares authoritatively: “It’s all just a rehash of pagan practices, the winter festival to cheer people up during the short days in December; it’s really about the winter solstice, you know.”
Yes, we know, thank you very much. We know that the early Church routinely Christianised pagan festivals, to avoid alienating people by abolishing their established holidays. Nor were such conversions confined to festivals. In Rome, for example, there are two adjacent churches popular with tourists: the Pantheon and Santa Maria sopra Minerva.