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Course 21 · Lesson 3.3

Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 21 outline

Module 1: The Theology of Worship

  1. What liturgy is: the word, the idea and the debate
  2. Worship in the Old and New Testaments
  3. Praying and believing: how worship shapes doctrine and doctrine shapes worship
  4. Word, sacrament and sign across the traditions

Module 2: How Christian Liturgy Developed

  1. The earliest descriptions: the Didache, Justin Martyr and the early church orders
  2. The liturgical families of East and West
  3. The Reformation and the revision of worship
  4. Liturgical renewal in the twentieth century

Module 3: The Christian Year: Calendars, Feasts and Fasts

  1. Sunday, the week and the hours of the day
  2. Easter, Holy Week and the dispute over the date
  3. Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
  4. Lent, the Orthodox fasting seasons and Protestant approaches to fasting
  5. Saints days and the second cycle of the calendar

Module 4: Sacred Space and Sacred Images

  1. From house church to basilica: the development of church buildings
  2. The meaning of church buildings: altar, table, orientation and the Orthodox and Gothic examples
  3. Icons and the Incarnation: John of Damascus and the Second Council of Nicaea
  4. Images and the Reformation: Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican approaches

Module 5: Material Signs: Incense, Water, Oil and Blessings

  1. Incense: Scripture, temple worship and its use in the churches
  2. Water: baptism, the renewal of baptismal vows and holy water
  3. Oil: anointing of the sick, chrismation, confirmation and ordination
  4. Blessings: what the church means when it blesses a person, a house or an object
  5. Sacraments and sacramentals: the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant vocabulary

Module 6: Popular Piety and Devotional Practice

  1. What popular piety is, and why scholars take it seriously
  2. Pilgrimage, relics, medals and pious objects
  3. The rosary, the Stations of the Cross, litanies and akathists
  4. How the churches have regulated and corrected popular devotion

Module 7: Telling Tradition from Superstition

  1. What the theologians mean by superstition, and why the line is hard to draw
  2. A method: source, date, doctrine, authority and consequence
  3. Case studies: apocryphal legends, magical formulas and invented history
  4. Honesty and respect in judging other people’s devotion

All courses

Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 3.3

What you will learn

  • Describe when Christmas, Epiphany and Advent first appear in the sources.
  • Explain the two main scholarly theories on the choice of 25 December.
  • Compare the Western emphasis on the Magi with the Eastern emphasis on Christ’s baptism at Epiphany.
  • Summarize how Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed Christians keep or have kept the season.

The big idea

Christmas and Epiphany are later than Easter in the church’s calendar, and their origins are known only in part. The first clear record of 25 December as Christmas is from Rome in the fourth century, while Epiphany on 6 January appears in the East around the same time or earlier. Scholars disagree about why the dates were chosen. Advent, the season of preparation, developed later still. Churches keep these feasts differently, and some have rejected them in the past, so a student must separate what the sources show from the legends that surround the season.

Key terms

Nativity
The birth of Christ, and the feast that celebrates it.
Epiphany
A Greek word meaning manifestation. The feast on 6 January, which in the West chiefly recalls the visit of the Magi and in the East the baptism of Jesus.
Theophany
The Eastern name for the feast of the Baptism of Christ, meaning manifestation of God, since the Father, Son and Spirit are revealed.
Advent
From the Latin for coming. A season of preparation for Christ’s birth and his return in glory.
Magi
The wise men from the east who visited the child Jesus (Matthew 2). The Bible does not give their number or names.
Candlemas
The feast of the Presentation of the Lord on 2 February, forty days after Christmas (Luke 2:22-40).
Nativity Fast
The Orthodox season of fasting before Christmas, beginning 15 November, which lasts forty days.

Background

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke tell of the birth of Jesus but do not give a date. The early church did not celebrate his birthday. Origen in the third century is quoted as objecting to birthday celebrations as for kings and not for saints, though how far this reflects general practice is debated. The first reliable evidence for 25 December is a Roman calendar from the year 354, which probably records a feast kept in Rome by about 336. Epiphany on 6 January appears in the East, and Clement of Alexandria around 200 mentions a group who kept the baptism of Christ about that date.

Both feasts spread in the fourth century, often with the support of bishops such as Gregory of Nazianzus in Constantinople and John Chrysostom in Antioch, who preached on them. They were in place across the church in a few generations.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Why 25 December

Two explanations are widely discussed. The first, sometimes called the calculation theory, holds that early Christians believed Christ died on 25 March, and that he was conceived on the same date. Nine months later is 25 December. Writers such as Augustine and others preserve this reasoning. The second, the history-of-religions theory, holds that the date was chosen to rival the Roman feast of the Unconquered Sun, which the Emperor Aurelian established in 274 on 25 December. The evidence for the second theory comes from later writers. Many scholars find the first theory more likely to explain how the date arose, while others combine the two. The matter is unsettled, and no one should state either as proved fact.

Step 2: Epiphany and the baptism

In the East, 6 January became the feast of the baptism of Jesus, with the theme of his manifestation as the Son of God (Mark 1:9-11). Later the Nativity was kept on 25 December in the East as well. In the West, Epiphany came to center on the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12), though the baptism and the wedding at Cana are also remembered. The Armenian Apostolic Church has long kept the Nativity on 6 January. The Orthodox who use the Julian calendar celebrate 25 December on what is 7 January in the civil calendar, so they keep Christmas later than most Western Christians.

Step 3: Advent

Advent appears in Gaul and Spain in the fourth and fifth centuries as a time of fasting before Epiphany, and in Rome in the sixth century as a season of four weeks before Christmas. Its themes include the coming of Christ at Bethlehem, in the heart and at the end of time. In the West the colors are purple or blue and the liturgy omits the Gloria, in many churches. The Orthodox Nativity Fast lasts forty days and has stricter rules about food. The Advent wreath, a ring of candles lit week by week, is a custom of nineteenth-century Germany, first among Lutherans, and is now common in many churches and homes.

Step 4: The twelve days and the Presentation

Christmas in the West is followed by twelve days leading to Epiphany. Candlemas, on 2 February, recalls Mary and Joseph bringing Jesus to the temple, and blessing of candles marks it in many churches. The period from Advent through Candlemas gives many Christians a sustained cycle of devotion to the incarnation. The customs of the season, such as the crib, the tree and gift-giving, grew over centuries and vary by region. Saint Francis is credited with an early nativity scene in 1223, which later tradition developed. The Christmas tree arose in German lands and is not a church rite.

Step 5: The Protestant debate

Lutherans and Anglicans kept Christmas, and Luther wrote carols. Many Reformed and Puritan Christians rejected it in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a day not commanded by Scripture and linked with excess. The English Parliament banned the celebration in 1647, and Massachusetts forbade it for a time in the later seventeenth century. These laws did not last. Most Protestants today celebrate Christmas, though a few conservative Reformed bodies observe only the Lord’s Day. A person at home can keep Advent by reading the Scripture of the season, lighting a wreath or praying a prayer such as the O Antiphons. The sacramental services of Christmas belong to the church.

  1. What is the earliest source for this feast, and what does it actually say?
  2. Does the tradition keep the feast on a fixed date or on a computed one?
  3. What does the feast celebrate, and what Gospel text supports it?
  4. What customs are part of the church’s rites, and what are family or cultural customs?
  5. Why did some Christians reject the feast, and what was their strongest argument?
  6. What parts of the season can I keep at home?

Examples

Two Christmases

A Greek Orthodox family in a country using the Revised Julian calendar celebrates on 25 December, while a Russian Orthodox family celebrates on 7 January. Both celebrate the same feast, since they keep 25 December by different calendars.

Theophany blessing

On 6 January Orthodox churches bless water, in memory of Christ’s baptism, and the blessed water is taken home by parishioners. This is a sacramental, not a sacrament, as Module 5 explains.

An Advent wreath at home

A family lights one candle each Sunday of Advent and reads a Gospel passage. This is a domestic custom from the nineteenth century and not a rite required by any church, but it has the approval of many churches.

Different perspectives

Catholic

Advent and Christmas are seasons of the liturgical year. Christmas is the solemnity of the Lord’s birth, with three Masses, and Epiphany recalls the manifestation to the Gentiles. The date of 25 December is a matter of church tradition, not Scripture.

Orthodox

The Nativity and Theophany are among the Twelve Great Feasts. The Nativity Fast prepares for Christmas. Orthodox writers stress that these feasts show the incarnation in the context of the whole of salvation.

Anglican and Lutheran

Both keep Advent, Christmas and Epiphany in their calendars and Prayer Books, and see them as helpful ways to tell the Gospel story each year.

Reformed and free-church

Historically many rejected the feast as unscriptural. Today most keep Christmas as a Christian celebration, often with an Advent focus, while holding that the date is not a matter of divine command.

Scholarly

Scholars distinguish firm facts, such as the date of the Roman calendar of 354, from unsettled questions, such as the true reason for the date. They caution against both the claim that Christmas is simply pagan and the claim that it has no pagan connection.

Why it matters

Christmas is the best known of Christian festivals, and it carries more legends than most. A student who learns what the sources actually show is able to speak with respect and accuracy to both the person who thinks Christmas is purely pagan and the person who thinks every custom of the season is ancient. It also helps the student see which customs belong to the church and which to the family or the culture.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Christmas was invented by the church to replace a pagan feast.

Correction: This is one theory, supported by later sources. Another is that the date came from early Christian calculation of the conception of Christ. Scholars debate both.

Misunderstanding: The Bible says Jesus was born on 25 December.

Correction: The Bible gives no date. The date comes from church tradition, first documented in the fourth century.

Misunderstanding: There were three kings, named Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar.

Correction: Matthew speaks of Magi from the east and does not say how many. The number three comes from the three gifts, and the names and the title of kings come from later tradition.

Misunderstanding: Protestants have always celebrated Christmas.

Correction: Lutherans and Anglicans did, but many Reformed, Puritan and later Baptist groups rejected it for a time, and Christmas was even banned in England in 1647 and in Massachusetts for some years.

Knowledge check

What is the earliest clear evidence for Christmas on 25 December?

A Roman calendar of the year 354 which probably reflects a feast in Rome by about 336. The Gospels give no date for the birth, and the early church did not celebrate it as a feast.

State the two main theories for the date of 25 December.

The calculation theory, which says early Christians dated the conception and death of Christ to 25 March, so the birth falls nine months later, and the history-of-religions theory, which links the date with the Roman feast of the Unconquered Sun in 274. The matter is debated.

How do East and West differ on Epiphany?

In the West it centers on the visit of the Magi, while in the East, as Theophany, it centers on the baptism of Jesus and the revelation of the Trinity.

Why did some Protestants reject Christmas?

Some Reformed and Puritan Christians held that feasts not commanded in Scripture should not be imposed, and they disliked the excesses that had gathered around the day. Parliament banned it in 1647.

Think it through

  1. What difference does it make if the date of Christmas is chosen and not recorded?
  2. Which customs of the season help you remember its meaning, and which distract?
  3. How could you speak fairly with a friend who says Christmas is pagan?
  4. What would a season of preparation look like in your own year?

Independent assignment

Trace one custom

In your own notebook, write 400 to 600 words on the origin of one Christmas custom, such as the Advent wreath, the crib, the tree or the twelve days. State the earliest evidence you can find, what is legend, and which church, if any, requires it. Note what you could not verify. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study