A Festive History of Christmas

Andy Thomas is an author and presenter specialising in unexplained mysteries and the paranormal. At our Christmas meeting he gave a fascinating talk on the origins of Christmas traditions.

He explained that the date of 25th December has been significant for thousands of years. We learnt that for the ancient people the Winter Solstice was very important and that it is thought that Stonehenge was built to watch and celebrate it. It is now believed that the Winter Solstice had more significance than the Summer Solstice.

From the 21st December the sun appears to ‘stand still’ for four days before finally moving on 25th December. The literal meaning of Solstice is ‘stand still.’ Therefore the 25th became a celebration of the sun finally moving and heralding a return to lighter days.

We also learnt that Christmas nearly didn’t survive! It was banned in 1647 by the Puritan Government of the day because the drinking, feasting and jollity didn’t fit in with their beliefs. However, it was reinstated by Charles II who liked Christmas. Later, during the industrial revolution, people worked seven days a week so there was no time for Christmas celebrations. Thanks to Charles Dicken’s social observations of the poor in his famous novel ‘A Christmas Carol’, and the Christmas tree traditions of Prince Albert, Christmas started to emerge again as a popular celebration.

Surprisingly though, we’re not the first to claim that the celebrations can become too ‘commercialised.’ there is evidence that the Romans grumbled about it too!!