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Dec.
2003 |
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Christmas
around the world |
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Cherished
traditions have long, colorful past |
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This December, while you’re enjoying twinkling lights
on trees around the neighborhood, or singing “The
First Noel” at midnight Mass, or even watching your
haloed daughter flex her angel wings in the elementary
school’s annual Christmas pageant, you’re
also participating in cherished traditions with a long
and colorful past.
We celebrate Christ’s birth with a mix of beloved
customs involving music, lights, food and many symbols
that seem, if not exactly modern, then somehow American.
But just as individual threads are woven into one beautiful
tapestry, so the customs of countries around the world
and throughout history have become entwined to form our
celebration today. By recognizing those customs and their
meanings, we can deepen our joy this Christmas season.
Additional
resources: |
If you’re interested
in exploring more about the customs of Christmas,
check out these books with your children:
“Catholic Christmas Book of Cherished Christmas
Customs,” Fr. Francis Weiser (The Neumann
Press, 1999)
“The Night of Las Posadas,” Tomie De
Paola (Puffin, 2001)
“Christmas Around the World,” Mary K.
Lankford (Horn Books USA, 1998)
“The Christmas Encyclopedia,” William
D. Crump (McFarland & Co., 2001) |
According to Christmas historian and author Jesuit Fr.
Francis Weiser, although there is no historical record
of the date of Jesus’ birth, in about the year 320,
the church settled on Dec. 25 as the feast of the Nativity,
most probably to replace a popular pagan celebration of
the winter solstice. When early missionaries spread Christianity
throughout Europe, they also introduced the feast of Christmas.
The English name for Christmas means “the Mass of
Christ,” indicating a vital part of the celebration
for Christians that day was — and is — the
Mass itself. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th century
banned many Catholic practices, including the Mass, and
actually quelled the celebration of Christmas for a time;
by 1647, the English Parliament ordained that anyone celebrating
on Dec. 25 would be punished. Yet in many homes, customs
and prayers marking the day quietly continued.
By the late 1600s, however, a change in England’s
rulers led to the restoration of the Christmas celebration,
although as Fr. Weiser noted in “The Christmas Book,”
even in America — where the Pilgrims didn’t
rest during their first Christmas in a new land —
anti-Christmas sentiment lingered. As late as the 1870s,
some New Englanders still considered Dec. 25 as just another
day — and could fire employees who didn’t
show up for work. Eventually the Christmas customs brought
to America by masses of immigrants from Ireland, Germany,
Italy and Poland took root, reviving feelings for the
season.
All over the world, the names for Christmas signify Christ’s
birth: “Il Natale” in Italy; “La Navidad”
in Spain; “Genethelia” (the Nativity) in Greece;
Heilige Weihnachten (Holy Night) in Germany; and “Boze
Narodzenie (God’s Birth) in Poland. Even Frances
“Noel” has connotations since it may have
come from an ancient English word, “Nowell,”
meaning “news,” as in the good news Scripture
says was spread by angels to shepherds in Bethlehem.
Because it is the heart of Christmas, the retelling of
Christ’s birth is one of the most traditional parts
of our celebration. Long before the advent of the printing
press, European churches held plays during Christmas and
Epiphany, telling the story with such props as paintings
of the Madonna or processions of priests dressed as shepherds
and kings. Over the centuries, groups ranging from religious
orders to parish congregations have staged some type of
Nativity drama for public viewing.
From Las Posadas to
a living Nativity
Beginning Dec. 16 many Hispanics —including those
at several parishes around the diocese — annually
celebrate Las Posadas. Pedro Martinez, director for the
Milwaukee Archdiocese’s Office of Hispanic Ministry
believes the tradition came to America with the Spaniards
in 1521.
“Las Posadas is a novena the Hispanics celebrate
in memory of Maria and Jose looking for a place to stay,”
he said, adding that the words can be translated as “finding
a place to stay” or “spending the night.”
Martinez explained that a couple dressed as Mary and Joseph,
often accompanied by a donkey, go from door to door in
a neighborhood seeking shelter while community residents
follow them, praying and singing. Several times the couple
is turned away, but finally they find a house that not
only admits them, but also welcomes everyone inside in
“an explosion of happiness and joy” that includes
refreshments and a piñata filled with sweets for
the children.
Besides the procession, there are prayers and Scripture
readings for each of the nine nights before Christmas.
“It’s like waiting for the coming of Jesus,”
Martinez said.
In Random Lake, a living Nativity is in its fifth year
of production, according to Pam Huiras, a member of Our
Lady of the Lakes Parish, who wrote the script and directs
the performances. Originating as a parish activity for
adolescents, the event has grown to include a cast of
about 30 youth and adults, and has become a joint effort
between Our Lady of the Lakes, a Lutheran church and a
United Church of Christ in Random Lake.
Huiras said the living Nativity, set on a farm complete
with such animals as sheep and a donkey, not only draws
dozens of people, but keeps them returning year after
year.
“It’s such a feeling you get there that brings
you back,” she said. “Being there puts aside
the materialism. It’s really just the true meaning
and the purity, the simplicity of Christmas.”
While the Christmas play that Racine’s St. Paul
the Apostle Parish is staging on Dec. 14 will feature
such traditional songs as “Away in a Manger,”
it will also have a United Parcel Service-type delivery
man character who spreads the news of Jesus’ birth.
Pat Jorgenson, a director of religious education at St.
Paul, said the play, “Special Delivery,” might
have some contemporary twists, but still reflects an ageless
message.
“This makes it more fun for the kids to do and yet
the message comes across because the script, the dialogue
and the music (used) are very faith-centered and connected
to the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ,” Jorgenson
said.
“Kids get to be part of church and demonstrate in
their own very personal way their faith in Jesus. And
it takes them out of all the craziness that the season
sometimes draws us into, the gift-getting, the ‘I
want,’ the rushing here and there, and once again,
centers everything on the church, where it needs to be.”
Retelling the story of Christ’s birth spawned another
beloved, centuries-old Christmas tradition of the crèche.
Once the property of churches — such as the larger-than-life
Nativity display in St. Peter’s Square — small
crèche scenes with figures made of wood, clay,
or even plastic became part of households as well.
Even Pope John Paul II encourages their use, acknowledging
in 1999 that household crèches are “one of
the popular expressions of the glorious expectation of
Christmas.”
One of the most famous crèches dates back to 1223.
St. Francis of Assisi assembled a living display, complete
with an ox and a donkey in a cave near Greccio, Italy.
Rita Bocher believes the saint’s “charisma
did much to spread the joy of depicting the birth of Jesus,”
but he wasn’t the first to create a tableau of the
Nativity.
Bocher, editor of the Pennsylvania-based newsletter, “The
Crèche Herald,” cited depictions of the crèche
on ancient sarcophagi and the catacombs in Rome.
“Did the celebration of the crèche start
in Italy? The Italian peninsula with its great flowering
of religious art in Medieval and Renaissance times certainly
was an early source, but it is hard to pinpoint exact
origins,” she said in an interview with the Catholic
Herald. “The greatest growth in popularity of the
crèche was in the 16th and early 17th centuries
when the Counter-Reformation spurred a revitalization
of spirituality.”
Today crèches are crafted in nearly every country
in the world, and while early missionaries may have ignited
an interest in creating them, now it is often tourists
who provide sales for local artisans, Bocher said. Nativity
scenes are popular souvenirs for visitors, who want figures
in native dress and with ethnic physical features.
“God sent his only begotten Son to all peoples,”
she said. “The ethnic expression of that gift, reflecting
diverse traditions, reminds us of the universality of
God’s love.”
Christmas carols:
familiar folk music
Universally, music has also played a pivotal role in Christmas
celebrations, going back thousands of years; some Christmas
carols, for example, have been translated from Latin texts,
such as “O Come, All Ye Faithful.”“Basically
(Christmas carols) are pieces of folk music, and by that
I mean they were written by the people,” said Dean
Daniels, director of the Milwaukee archdiocesan Office
for Prayer and Worship.
Originally the carols were sung in processions or dances
outside of Mass. When Puritanical laws banned celebration
of the Mass in England, the dances and carols remained,
and were kept alive through oral tradition, Daniels said.
Only within the last 150 years have carols been included
in our liturgical celebrations.
Christmas carols have been found in countries around the
world, but some of the most enduring have come from England
(“God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen”) and France
(“Angels We Have Heard on High”).
One of the most famous carols had its roots in Austria.
When St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf found itself with
a broken organ shortly before Christmas Eve in 1818, parish
curate Fr. Joseph Mohr wrote three stanzas of a carol
he hoped to sing, accompanied on guitar. Organist Franz
Gruber composed the melody, and at midnight Mass, parishioners
were the first to hear “Stille Nacht” or “Silent
Night.” The song eventually got the attention of
a family of Austrian singers, and went with them on tour
to America.
Of course, American composers created a number of notable
Christmas carols as well, among them “O Little Town
of Bethlehem,” “We Three Kings of Orient Are”
and “It Came upon the Midnight Clear.” And
even though they are African-American spirituals, songs
such as “Go Tell It on the Mountain” and “Rise
Up, Shepherd and Follow” have popularly been put
into the genre of carols, Daniels said.
His personal favorite, because of its poetic theological
text and calming melody, is “Lo, How a Rose E’er
Blooming,” a German carol from the 15th century.
That Christmas carols remain so popular doesn’t
surprise him. “They’re simple and they stick
in our brains because the melodies are so familiar to
us.”
Sharing pastries and
peace over Christmas dinner
Because Christmas marks such a joyous event, people from
around the world have long celebrated it as a feast, reflecting
the bounty of God’s love in a table full of choice,
rich foods: breads, meats, cakes and cookies.
Many Eastern European cultures — particularly Polish
— also begin the Christmas meal with Oplatek, large
squares of blessed, paper-thin wafers, often embossed
with Nativity scenes. Families typically break and share
the Oplatek, wishing each other peace and happiness.
It’s a custom that has grown in popularity. Melissa
Rabe, manager of The Li’l Friar Gift Shop on Milwaukee’s
south side, doesn’t know how many Oplatek the religious
goods store sells each year, but said orders of at least
five packages of wafers per customer are common. Requests
come in from as far away as Arizona and Florida.
Oplatek are sold at many parishes around the diocese,
including St. Mary in Hales Corners, where Rabe is a parishioner.
She shares the wafers with her own family, grown to 45
members.
As families have melded, the Polish tradition has spread,
Rabe said. She and her husband bring Oplatek to his German
parents for their Christmas celebration. Although the
custom may have variations among families, its message
of peace stays constant, she said.
“It’s
a wonderful tradition, going up to a person you’ve
possibly been upset with all year long and breaking bread
with them and wishing them peace for the New Year. And
you kind of have to put everything aside to do that.”
Red and green, colors
of the season
Seasonal decorations, such as the Christmas tree, wreathes,
and the evergreen boughs that often grace homes and churches,
also have a history that can be traced back thousands
of years and to many different countries. Some historians
believe the decorations were once a pagan practice that
the church came to accept as its own.
Evergreens were a natural choice as Christmas decorations,
not only because of their availability in December, long
after deciduous trees have dropped their leaves, but because
of their symbolism of the eternal.
“In December — especially here in the northern
climate — everything is so deadened. We have no
green but the evergreen. It’s very much alive, very
vibrant and beautiful,” said Pamela Lenon, a landscape
designer, plant historian and member of St. Francis de
Sales Parish in Lake Geneva. “The greenery is a
sign of hope that renewal will come. It gives us inner
peace and it gives us strength.
“Evergreens also represent the continual of spiritual
life that never dies, but keeps going, just as Christ
is continual. He doesn’t come and go, but he is
here all the time.”
The same sense of continuity is represented in a wreath,
particularly an Advent wreath, with its circular shape
that has no beginning and no end, she said.
Other greens associated with Christmas have their own
symbolism. The evergreen holly’s bright red berries
represent the blood of Christ, and the ivy’s flowing,
bracketed leaves aptly illustrate Jesus’ message
of “I am the vine and you are the branches,”
Lenon said.
Many historians trace the roots of the Christmas tree
to Germany. In the medieval mystery plays performed in
or around churches, an evergreen tree hung with apples
was used to symbolize the tree of paradise. With the Reformation,
Fr. Weiser explained, people began bringing the tree inside
their homes and decorating it with fruit, cookies, glass
balls and candles. Eventually the tree came to tell the
story of Christmas, often with a crèche at its
base, and an angel or star of Bethlehem at its top. But
its green, glittering presence — now lighted with
dozens of white or colored bulbs — calls to mind
a tree that might have grown in paradise.
This Christmas season, take delight in the colored lights,
the scents of evergreen and freshly baked cookies, the
melody of carols and the figures of the holy family set
in a stable. God sent his son to us, and all over the
Earth we share with each other that good news of great
joy again and again. |
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