The ignored origin of Christmas

By Herbert Vego

HAVE you ever wondered why there is nothing in the Bible to show that Jesus Christ ever celebrated his birthday, which we now know as Christmas?

Let us unfold its history which, ironically, is not well-known.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “The church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336, during the reign of the emperor Constantine. As Constantine had made Christianity the effective religion of the empire, some have speculated that choosing this date had the political motive of weakening the established pagan celebrations.”

At the same time, however, it was an attempt to appease the pagans, who were celebrating December 25 as the birthday of Ba-al or Sol, the sun god.

Until then, Christmas had never been observed. Otherwise, why did the apostles say nothing of it?

Jesus could not have been born on December 25, wintertime in his birthplace in Bethlehem, because “there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night” (Luke 2:8).

That could not have occurred in the month of December. The shepherds always brought their flocks from the mountainsides and fields and corralled them not later than October to protect them from the cold, rainy season.

It was an ancient custom among Jews of those days to send out their sheep to the fields and deserts in the early spring, and bring them home at commencement of the first rain.

Even outside of the Bible, there is no mention of the apostles and early Christians celebrating Christ’s birthday; not even in the Catholic Encyclopedia, which on the contrary reveals, “Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church.”

The Romans had been pagan. Until the fourth century, Christians were few in number. But with the advent of Constantine as Roman emperor, they accepted Christianity by the hundreds of thousands.

Since these people had grown up in pagan celebrations, December 25 eventually crept into the new religion as the birthday of the Son of God.

It was only in the fifth century, to quote the Encyclopedia Americana, that “the Western Church ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”

As a familiar saying goes, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

Oh, well, Rome must have roamed around the world.

-oOo-

NO MORE ‘TWINKLE, TWINKLE LITTLE STAR’

THIS writer saw how the residents of Barangay Ticud in La Paz, Iloilo City rejoiced on the day (last Friday afternoon) that MORE Power switched on “full power”. One of the women jumped with raised hands.

“No more twinkle, twinkle little star,” MORE Power President Roel Z. Castro joked during the switch-on ceremony indicating that the more than 800 households thereat had become sufficiently energized.

Until then, Ticud had been tapping electricity from the primary lines of the neighboring Barangay Ingore. This resulted in low voltage, disabling the residents from acquiring electrical appliances. They could not even enjoy “speed three” of electric fan because it could only spin at lower speeds.

The P2.1-million rehabilitation program would solve the low-voltage problem of the growing community of power consumers. The distribution utility had installed primary power lines, 23 concrete primary poles, 11 secondary poles, and three 50-KV transformers.

Castro revealed before representatives of the rehab beneficiaries that their barangay captain, Joel Jaboneta, initially contacted him in May this year to request for installation of the above facilities that had been denied them by the previous distribution utility.

Jaboneta vowed to enforce strict enforcement of “legal connections” to ensure viability of service.  Power pilferage could mean operational losses on the part of MORE Power.

Ticud is the second power-rehabilitated barangay.  The first was San Rafael. The next target is Barangay So-oc in Arevalo district.

As revealed by MORE Power’s Customer Care Department head Ma. Cecilia “Maricel” C. Pe, the number of power consumers has grown from 63,000 to more than 83,000 since the company replaced Panay Electric Co. (PECO) on February 29, 2020. The number could reach 100,000 soon.