The annual Christmas-is-Saturnalia letter was late this year. Kelly Trumbower (letter, Dec. 31) tells us Christmas was “originally” banned by the Puritans, as if Puritan obsessions were authoritative. But according to St. John Chrysostom, Christmas was celebrated on Dec. 25 from the church’s earliest days. The Puritans were out of synch.
The Julian calendar used in Chrysostom’s time adds too many leap days, so the calendar year inched ahead of the solar year and Dec. 25 (Julian reckoning) eventually drifted on to Jan. 6 (Gregorian reckoning). The Orthodox Church retained the Julian version and still celebrates on Jan. 6.
Trumbower claims Christmas originated as “a seven-day festival of drunkenness, rioting and orgies.” This is unfair to the pagan Romans. The Saturnalia festivities described by Horace and Martial were more family-valued. Exhorted to “pick up a history book,” I chose Fowler’s “The Roman Festivals of the Period of the Republic.” Saturnalia was celebrated Dec. 17, followed by three days of festivity (later five days). Thus Saturnalia was over with several days before Christmas, time enough for the Romans to squeeze in three more feasts, none on Dec. 25. If “close” counts, then our Independence Day “originated” as Poplifugia, the celebration of Caesar’s birthday. But “coincidence” is not “origin.” Pick any day. Chances are a Roman feast fell on or near it.
Christmas is Dec. 25 because it’s nine months after the Incarnation (March 25), a normal pregnancy. The Incarnation was dated via Good Friday (via Passover) and a belief that prophets died on the same date they were conceived. Saturnalia had nothing to do with it.