Christmas Mythology
The winter solstice is the moment when the sun reaches its zenith at its lowest point. From that moment on, the length of the days begins to grow longer until the summer solstice, when the sun reaches its zenith at its highest point and the days begin to shorten once again.
It is understandable, then, that for agricultural cultures the winter solstice was an important cosmic event. Ancient celebrations dating back to remote times are thus recorded.
These rural festivities did not disappear with the advent of urbanism; however, they acquired different characteristics. Thus, the fertility celebrated by country folk was reinterpreted in the city as prosperity and wealth.
In ancient Greece, the cult of Dionysus—whose origin lies in the fusion of Hellenic and Egyptian mythology—was the divinity of wine, vegetation, and fertility. But also of death and the underworld (insofar as it was believed that the realm of the dead lay beneath the earth and controlled fertility). It is known that in the fourth century BC, in the calendar of Bithynia, the month consecrated to Dionysus began on the 24th of December.
Two of the festivals dedicated to Dionysus were celebrated around the winter solstice: the Rural Dionysia and the Lenaia. The meaning of these festivals had to do with fertility and prosperity. The Dionysiac cycle was assimilated by Christianity, and consequently Christmas was placed at the winter solstice. In the same way, Easter, in spring, coincides with two other celebrations whose character was the festivity of the resurrection of nature.
Cronus (Saturn) was also an ancient rural deity. He was indeed an agricultural god and, in particular, a god of viticulture. The Roman festivities in honour of Saturn lasted approximately one week. Religious ceremonies were held, but also celebrations and banquets. During the festival, social differences were forgotten: masters entertained their slaves and the wealthy invited the poor.
Solar Cults
Solar cults are associated with agrarian communities. In this way, the principal deity tends to be identified with the sun god in almost all of these cultures. Consequently, the commemoration of his advent corresponds to the winter solstice (always speaking of the northern hemisphere), around the 21st and 22nd of December.
Thus, solar myths centre on a god who, while young, dies each year and is resurrected. In this way, the cycle of nature is described. It is therefore possible to identify Horus, Mithras, Dionysus, Krishna, and Jesus Christ with the sun god.
In ancient Egypt, during the winter solstice, the image of Horus as a newborn child was brought out of the temple to be worshipped by the masses. He was depicted as a newborn child with a solar disc upon his head. Among the Greeks he was also worshipped under the name Harpocrates. In short, Horus, son of a virgin (Isis), is born at the winter solstice.
Solar gods are always saviours of mankind, redeemers; they bear human guilt, die unjustly and violently, but then are resurrected. Shiva, among the Hindus, drinks a poisoned beverage that had arisen from the ocean with the purpose of bringing about the end of the universe. Shiva immolates himself to save the world, but then returns to life.
The Birth of the Invincible Sun
Until the fourth century of our era, the figure of Christ was not officially considered a divine person (Council of Nicaea). Approximately between the years 354 and 360, the night of the 24th–25th of December was established, coinciding with the day on which the Romans celebrated the "Birth of the Invincible Sun," and in this way a popular cult was syncretised, assimilating the winter solstice to the birth of Christ.
At first, Christmas was a modest celebration, faithful to its rural origins. The transformation becomes apparent from the eighth century onwards, when liturgical splendour, the decoration of churches, and theatrical representations of the Nativity in Bethlehem were gradually imposed.
Father Christmas or Santa Claus?
Santa Claus was probably a Turkish bishop who lived in the fourth century, and his legend spread throughout medieval Europe, reportedly reaching New York in the seventeenth century through Dutch immigrants.
But Santa Claus or Father Christmas as an emblematic figure of Christmas, as we know him today, has its origin in the creation of two New York writers, and his popularity is owed to the advertising that Coca-Cola opportunely carried out. A satirical illustrator, Thomas Nast, between 1863 and 1886, progressively created the basic image of Santa Claus through his illustrations published in Harper’s magazine.
Once he had become popular, Santa Claus arrived in Great Britain in the mid-nineteenth century and from there to France, where he merged with the Bonhomme Noël. Hence, in some traditions he is called Père Noël.
The current image of Santa Claus/Father Christmas arose from a famous Coca-Cola advertisement, which in 1931 commissioned Haddon Sundblom to modify Nast’s character in order to make him more attractive and believable.