December 2021

Why Christmas Was Moved from January 6 to December 24-25

Taken from Rudolf Steiner by V. Hope: Birth of the Sun-Spirit as Spirit of the Earth. The Thirteen Holy Nights

Christmas has not always been observed on December 25 as it is now. During the first three centuries AD the nativity, the Festival of Christ’s birth, was celebrated on January 6, as the event of Epiphany, the descent of Christ, the ‘Sun-Earth-Spirit’, into the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism in the Jordan. There was still an inkling at that time of what Rudolf Steiner characterizes as “…the mystery that is of all mysteries the most difficult for mankind to grasp, namely, the descent of the Christ Being into the body of Jesus of Nazareth.” Our capacity to understand this deep wisdom has dissipated over time. “From the fourth century onwards, with the approach of the materialistic age, the powers of the human soul — then still at the stage of preparation — were not strong enough to grasp the deep Mystery which from our time on will be understood in ever greater measure. And so it came about that to the same extent to which the outer power of Christianity increased, inner understanding of the Christ Mystery decreased, and the festival of the 6th of January ceased to have any essential meaning.” This insight, Steiner tells us, is “The insight for which we prepare ourselves today through Anthroposophy, through the wisdom belonging to the fifth Post-Atlantean epoch of civilization.”

“The Festival of Jesus’ birth was celebrated for the first time in Rome in the year A.D.354.” While this change represents a truth (temporarily) lost, Dr. Steiner tells us that the working of Divine Wisdom can be seen in identifying the festival of Christ’s Nativity with the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the Luke Jesus, on December 24/25. “Although the men responsible knew nothing of it — we cannot but marvel at the subconscious wisdom with which the festival of Christmas Day was instituted.” December 24 is the day dedicated to Adam and Eve, the next day is the Festival of Christ’s Nativity. Thus, the birth of Jesus of Nazareth (the Luke Jesus) was linked with the thought of our origin in earth evolution. “Forces working in hidden depths of the soul caused the picture to be presented of man as a being of soul-and-spirit before physical embodiment, at the starting-point of evolution as a physical human being. The picture is of the new-born child whose soul (which had until then been held back from earth incarnation. vh) is as yet untouched by the effects of contact with the physical body, of the child at the beginning of physical evolution on earth. But this is not a human child in the ordinary sense; it is the child who was there before human beings had reached the point of the first physical embodiment in earth-evolution. This is the being known in the Kabbala as Adam Kadmon — Man who descended from divine-spiritual heights, with all that he had acquired during the periods of Saturn, Sun, and Moon. The human being in his spiritual state at the very beginning of earth-evolution, born in the Jesus Child — this was presented to mankind by a Divine wisdom in the festival of Jesus’ birth.”

Rudolf Steiner speaks of the love that this image has called forth from human beings, and sent into the world. He also describes it as a source of inspiration, peace, and understanding for our own origins and the future we are striving for.

“Turning to the source to be found in man’s own, original being, before the onset of the Luciferic influence, we can say to ourselves: Whatever may befall you, whatever may torment you and draw you down from the shining spheres of the spirit, your divine origin is an eternal reality, hidden though it be in the depths of the soul. Recognition of this innermost power of the soul will give birth to the firm assurance that the heights are within your reach. And if you conjure before your soul all that is innocent, childlike, free from life’s temptations, free from all that has already befallen human souls through the many incarnations since the beginning of earthly evolution, then you will have a picture of the human soul as it was before these earthly incarnations began.”

It is during the Thirteen Holy Days and Nights that the soul can grasp most deeply of all, the import and meaning of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan River by St. John.

So, as we contemplate at Christmas the state of the human soul – our souls – before the Fall; and the Birth of a Sun-God, the Christ, on Epiphany, who brought new light and life into a failing world; we can use the most propitious time of the 13 Holy Nights to also expand our understanding of who we are, what we’re meant to be doing here, and all that comes to us from the spiritual world to make our mission possible.