SEASON'S GREETINGS

For the Christian world, Christmas is the annual festival celebrating Christ's birth. It's held on December 25 though nobody really knows when Jesus was born, and the tentative explanations for celebrating on this day are manifold.

In ancient Rome the god of agriculture, Saturn, was honoured every year in a festival called Saturnalia that started on December 17 and lasted for seven days, therefore including the winter solstice, which at the time fell on December 25 (it's only after the calender reform that it falls on December 21st).

During Saturnalia festival the Romans exchanged presents, stopped all business - and even warfare - and gave temporary freedom to their slaves. By the 4th century, the Romans also included in their celebration of the winter solstice a festivity in honour of the Roman emperor as the living embodiment of the invincible Sun, "Sol Invictus"; sometimes also rituals to glorify Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light. When in the 4th century Constantine became emperor of Rome and converted to Christianity, he considered it convenient to find a common major festival for both the new and the old religion.

Besides, it is also not difficult to believe that to avoid persecution in those old days, Christians had adopted the same date of the Roman festival to celebrate Jesus's birth or nativity: assimilating pagan traditions has been a process used by the Christian Church over the centuries. According to most historians, the first celebration of Christmas being held on a December 25 was in the year 336 AD.

In the beginning, Christmas was celebrated with a simple mass - hence the origin of the name in English: Christ's Mass, derived from "Cristes maesse" in Old English. Early Christians also gave more importance to the celebration of Epiphany (January 6th), when the Baby Jesus was visited by the Magi. In modern times, this latter date is still a major time for celebration in countries like Spain.

Most Orthodox churches, as in Russia, Serbia, Georgia, or even the Coptic community of Egypt, still celebrate Christmas on January 7th, since they did not accept either the Julian or the Gregorian reform of the calendar.

With the passing of time, the Christmas celebration has conquered a universal traditional character, and Christmas is today a family event, no matter what our religious faith is. Christmas is a token of joy and gift, of Love and share among people. And Santa or Father Christmas is the one who gives us presents.

Father Christmas or Santa Claus, or simply Santa, belongs to the dreaming world of our childhood; to the folk tales and legends that persist throughout generations. It does not matter if we call him Father Christmas, Tomten, Joulupukki ou Santa, or that he simply embodies a white-beard grandfather, he is always the one who traditionally is a gift-giver to children and - why not? - also to grownups.

Besides Santa, other traditional Christmas symbols or icones are widely adopted and spread, like the Christmas tree, the Nativity scene...

And since no celebration is ever complete without a good meal, follow my advice and try the delicious Portuguese traditional Christmas recipes. You'll have the rest of the year for slimming diets.

© Dulce Rodrigues