The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-20
The Date of the Great Festival.

Harper's Magazine for December.
What reason could be given for choosing one
day rather than another for the Christmas festi
valF The gospels, always meager in dates. were
quite silent here They gave no hint of the day
OF month OF the nativity. Oral tradition, we
may be sure was equally reticent or indifferent.
There were, indeed, few scattered suggestions
of the date of Christ's birth floating here and
there among the writings of the fathers; but
these were all of late origin. manfestly unhis
Clement, of Alexandria, said that
many Christians regarded the Goth
of May as the day Of the nativity, others pre-
ferred the 10th of April. but he favored the 10Th
of November In the Eastern Church the 9Th or
9th of January was celebrated as the date of
Christ's baptism. and the Nativity was joined
with this on no better ground than forced in
depreciation of Ezekiel i. l-3, as a prophecy of
the Incarnation Others again fixed the 2lst of
March the day of Christ's birth. Between
such varying and slightly supported assump-
tons there was little to choose An historical
date was clearly out of question. Nothing was
left for the church to do but to select some day
on grounds of convenience and symbolic signi6-
canoe. and celebrate it by common consent as
Christmas day.
1t would take too long for me to trace the many
reasons which led to the choice of the 18th of
December 1t ives doubtless connected by a
process OF deduction with the day which had al
ready been generally accepted as the common
date OF the Annunciation and of the creation of
the world. Assuming that the world was made
in the spring, because it was commanded to
bring forth grass and herbs, and that it was
made when light and darkness were equally di-
vided, because 'the evening and the morning
were the first day" it was natural. though some
what naive. to fix upon the vernal equinox lac
cording to the Julian calender, March 25) as the
exact date of creation. He who could question
the value of such a straightforward and scrip
tural argument as this must have had more
logic and less piety than belonged to the early
Christians. And once having discovered by this
easy method the very day on which the world
came into being, and the glorious light sprung
out OF darkness, what more simple than to
sumo that 1t was on the same day on which the
power of the Almighty overshadowed Mary and
the Dayspring from on high began his entrance
into the world? Nothing could be palmer Even
the least imaginative of chronographers could
reckon forward from this fixed point of the AS
sumption nine months. and arrive at Dec. %
as the day of the Nativity. And here another
wonderful coincident meets him. This is the
day of the winter solstice the day when the
worlds darkness begins to lessen and the
worlds light to grow; the day which the ancien Mt
world had long celebrated as the birthday of the
sun.
The earliest mention of the 18th of December
as Christmas day is found in an ancient cata
logue of church festivals about 354 A. d. And
it is surprising to see with what alacrity the
date was received and the Nativity celebrated
throughout Christendom. 1t seems as if the
world had been waiting for this festival of
divine and human childhood, and was ready to
welcome it at once with songs of joy In the
year 360 it was already celebrated in Rome by
vast mutitudes thronging the churches.
Twenty years later Antioch had taken it up
with great popular enthusiasm. And i'll little
more than fifty years from it's earliest sug
gestion the observance Of Dee 25 as the day of
the Nativity had become the universal practice
Christmas. st. Chrysostom, in Christmas
sermon, preached at Antioch. called it the fupda-
mental feast. or the root from which all other
Christian festivals grow.