The last month of the year is full of holidays across many cultures. But why?
December brings the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the shortest day of the year (the day with the least amount of daylight). Since ancient times, the winter solstice has been celebrated by different cultures.
December 22 marks the longest night of the year and the start of the winter season. Christmas comes just a few days later but is by no means the only major religious holiday this time of year. Historians have found records of wintertime religious ceremonies that go as far back as 3000 BCE to the Neolithic era.
Saturnalia, held in mid-December, is an ancient 7-day Roman pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas.
Derived from older farming-related rituals of midwinter and the winter solstice, especially the practice of offering gifts or sacrifices to the gods during the winter sowing season, this pagan celebration of Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture and time, began as a single day, but by the late Republic (133-31 B.C.) it had expanded to a weeklong festival beginning December 17. (On the Julian calendar, which the Romans used at the time, the winter solstice fell on December 25.)
Saturnalia was by far the jolliest Roman holiday; the Roman poet Catullus famously described it as "the best of times."
source: History.com
In Iran, before the rise of Islam, there was a religion called Zoroastrianism that included a holiday known as Yalda. Yalda, also referred to as Chelleh, marked the anniversary of the birth of Mithra, the goddess of light, and celebrates the sunrise after the longest night of the year.
Ancient Persians believed that evil forces were strongest on the longest and darkest night of the year. People stayed up all night, telling stories and eating watermelon and pomegranate, in addition to dried fruit, in anticipation of the sun rising.
As the light spilled through the sky in the moment of dawn, Persians celebrated its appearance with drumming and dancing. It was thought that the day after the longest night belonged to Ahura Mazda, the Zoroastrian lord of wisdom.
source: Britannica.com
By the time Christianity began spreading through Europe, there was a long-standing pagan holiday known as the Yule festival. The holiday was marked with evergreen trees and ornamental wreaths.
The ancient Norse used the Yule log in their celebration of the return of the sun at winter solstice. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which became known as Yule logs. They would set one end of these logs on fire. The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days.
The Norse believed that each spark from the fire represented a new piglet or calf that would be born during the coming year.
source: History.com
History.com
The winter solstice is the day of the year with the fewest hours of daylight, and it marks the start of astronomical winter. After the winter solstice, days start becoming longer and nights shorter as spring approaches.
Cultures around the world have long held feasts and celebrated holidays around the winter solstice. Fire and light are traditional symbols of celebrations held on the darkest day of the year.
in Ireland and Scotland are aligned with sunrise on the winter solstice. Some archaeologists have theorized that these tomb-like structures served a religious purpose in which Stone Age people held rituals to capture the sun on the year's shortest day.
Stonehenge, which is oriented toward the winter solstice sunset, may also have been a place of December rituals for Stone Age people.
Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to America in 1828.
The plant's association with Christmas began in 16th-century Mexico, where legend tells of a girl, commonly called Pepita or María, who was too poor to provide a gift for the celebration of Jesus' birthday and was inspired by an angel to gather weeds from the roadside and place them in front of the church altar. Crimson blossoms sprouted from the weeds and became poinsettias.
From the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico included the plants in their Christmas celebrations. The star-shaped leaf pattern is said to symbolize the Star of Bethlehem, and the red color represents the blood sacrifice of Jesus's crucifixion.
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