THE HISTORY OF AN AMERICAN XMAS
by Tim Pastore

As occupants of land once owned by the Republic of Batavia (the Netherlands), we can all consider ourselves to be an extension of the Batavi, an ancient Germanic tribe that served under the rule of the Roman Empire. And it was under the rule of the Roman Empire that Christmas found its beginning. In the fourth century, Pope Julius I declared December 25th as the official birth date of Jesus, though there is evidence suggesting the event took place at a later date. It is widely agreed that the church designated December 25th as the birthday of Jesus in an attempt to appropriate the raucous pagan Saturnalia festival. The winter solstice was a traditional period of worship and festival, praising many gods, particularly the god of agriculture, Saturn. The period was renowned for an excess and disorder far outweighing the lawlessness of a fraternity party, or the holy terror of a caroling troupe, or even the hell-raising crowd of a Lawrence Welk show. Binge eating and drinking were common activities during the weeks-long celebration, as was a role-reversal between masters and slaves.

According to HistoryChannel.com:

First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century, the celebration of Christmas had spread all the way to Scandinavia…By the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion.

Few experience the winter solstice, the end and the beginning of the solar cycle symbolizing the eventual strengthening of the sun god and the birth of the Son of God, as we do here in western New York. But our freedom to celebrate Christmas in America was not always secure. In 1659, the Puritan government of Massachusetts declared Christmas illegal. It wasn’t until 1681 that the law was abolished, paving the way for us Batavi to once again celebrate the winter solstice with strong drink, fresh meat, and good friends. But to many, Christmas has become a nightmarish beast of burden hiding under the bed with unwrapped presents for cousins residing in such outlandish places as Dixie, Illinois; in other words, a Rockwellian-clad golem brought to life by commerce and pieced together by numerous old-world traditions stemming from as far back as the pagan rituals. The winter solstice is no longer just Cristes Maesses (Christ's Festival), or a celebration of fertility, but a capitalist-conducted train ride departing the day after we give thanks and coming to a rest on the day St. Nicholas died, January 6th. Regardless, with every Yule log brought into the home, winter seems neither that cold nor destructive, the solstice not as dark, and the American spirit of gift-giving becomes a warm affair.

The American tracks for Xmas (some say the X stands for the first Greek letter of Christ's name, and others assume it represents the cross) were first laid by the following: the Pennsylvania Germans who introduced the Christmas tree in 1830; Clement Moore, who supposedly penned The Night Before Christmas; August Imgard, who in 1847 decorated his Christmas tree in Wooster, Ohio with candy canes; German lithographer Louis Prang, who produced the first colored Christmas cards in Boston in 1860; Thomas Nast, who at Abraham Lincoln's request gave us the original image of Santa Claus hanging out with the Union army on the cover of Harper's Weekly during the Civil War; F.W. Woolworth, who introduced the glass ornament in 1890; the Addis Brush Company, known for their toilet brushes, and for their fake tree in 1930; and Catholic priest Gregory Keller who became the Henry Ford of candy cane production in the 1950's.

Have a merry and raucous Christmas, remember, you’re Batavi!