By Wallace J.A Exclusive to Grenadianconnection.com As a little boy growing up in the small village of Mirabeau, St. Andrew’s, Christmas time was indubitably the happiest time of the year for me. During this very special season, the atmosphere in the home, the village, the town of Grenville and indeed the rest of the country changed drastically. The whole ambiance was radically transformed into a somewhat magical environment that, as a child, I found extremely appealing. It was a time when members of my family showered me with gifts – play things – and I had lots of wonderful things to eat and drink. My father would always boil the Christmas ham and my aunt did the baking. The fragrance that permeated the house on Christmas Eve night was indeed potent enough to cause the mouth to "water." While I was in bed sleeping, eagerly awaiting the arrival of Christmas morning, my aunts would change the window curtains, decorate the house and light the Christmas tree. On Christmas morning when I awoke, I found myself in a "dream house." I associated the birth of Christ with all these things and, it was not until much later in my life, that I started seeking answers to some of the questions I harbored surrounding Christmas. What does the lighting of a Christmas tree, the exchange of gifts and Santa Clause have to do with Christmas? How do we know that Christ was born on December 25? Through my research, I have discovered that a lot of pagan practices are intricately associated with contemporary Christmas celebrations and that December 25 may not be the day on which Christ was born. No one knows the exact day on which Jesus Christ was born. Many Biblical scholars are of the view that Christ was born around September, six months after the Passover. The Bible records shepherds looking after their sheep in the field that night. Apart from advancing reasons to support this theory, they argue that it could not have been during December because the Judean winter would have been too cold for them to be out in the fields. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the son of Isis (goddess of nature) was celebrated on December 25 every year. This feast included heavy drinking, gluttonous eating and the sharing of gifts – very similar to what we do today around Christmas. In northern Europe, traditions that are now considered as a part of Christianity – Christmas celebrations- were begun long before participants heard about Jesus Christ. They celebrated their winter solstice, also known as Yule (symbolic of the pagan sun god Mithras) on the shortest day of the year, which was said to be his birthday. Celebrations were similar to contemporary Christmas celebrations. During this period of celebration, live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the winter as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops will once again begin to grow! Druids – an ancient pagan sect in Europe – used the trees as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees. This is arguably where the idea of the Christmas tree came from. December 25 became a Christian day of celebration around 350 A.D. when Pope Julius 1 declared that Jesus Christ’s birth would be recognized on that day! This seemed to be a very expedient move since he was trying to convert many of the Roman pagans to Christianity. According to Kelly Wittmann, in his pamphlet on Christmas’ Pagan Origins, many of these pagans may have been very hesitant to be converted to this new ‘religious dispensation’ if they were required to relinquish of their traditional feasting and revelry on December 25. The feasting continued, however, it was now in honor of Christ’s birth! The concept of having Santa Claus as the patron for Christmas dates back to the 4th century to the time of Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra – an area in present day Turkey. Nicholas was a very generous and philanthropic man. After his death in around 340 A.D., his kindness and reputation for generosity spread far and wide. Sometime around the 12th century, an official church holiday was created in his honor on December 06 and the sharing of gifts and charity in remembrance of Nicholas marked the day. After the Reformation – great 16th-century religious revolution in the Christian church, which ended the ecclesiastical supremacy of the pope in Western Christendom and resulted in the establishment of the Protestant churches – the legend of Saint Nicholas was kept alive in Europe by the Dutch whose spelling of his name Sint Nikolaas was transformed to Sinterklass. Dutch children would leave their wooden shoes by the fireplace and Sinterklass rewarded good children by placing treats in their shoes. Dutch colonists brought the tradition with them to America in the 17th century and the Anglican name of Santa Claus emerged! Over the years I have grown to realize that there is nothing wrong in setting aside a day to celebrate the birth of Christ – so long as Christ is at the center of the celebrations. There is also nothing wrong with sharing and giving gifts; this can serve to help develop a sense of community in our villages and we will be better off as a people in the long run. Christmas and the traditions associated with it are not of African or Afro-Caribbean origin but of Euro centric extraction. As Caribbean people, we were introduced to the celebration during the period of European colonization of our region from the 17th century onwards. The celebration has been handed down to us over the years by previous generations and in so doing, has become a Caribbean tradition of sorts. We need to do our best to keep the Christmas traditions alive in the hearts of our young ones so that they can continue to enjoy those magical moments we had as children.