Christmas Postcard 2012

(Photo by Mike Hall)

Patty Hall and Elias Tobias pose for a holiday photo during Thanksgiving Day.

Christmas Postcard 2012

This is a special season, and a time to give thanks. I thank all the readers who, by referral or by accident, found their way to the World of Words by Elias Tobias this year.  Most call is the Christmas season, but depending on your race, faith, nationality, or creed, it is also called Hanukah or Kwanza.  Whatever the label, it is a time to people to come together to talk and celebrate the end of a year and the start of another. Food is a common tradition when friends and family get together. The days we meet are different, and have a base in tradition, too.

Reason why Christmas is December 25

The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated.

Despite its popularity today, this theory of Christmas’s origins has its problems. It is not found in any ancient Christian writings, for one thing. Christian authors of the time do note a connection between the solstice and Jesus’ birth: The church father Ambrose (c. 339–397), for example, described Christ as the true sun, who outshone the fallen gods of the old order. But early Christian writers never hint at any recent calendrical engineering; they clearly don’t think the date was chosen by the church. Rather they see the coincidence as a providential sign, as natural proof that God had selected Jesus over the false pagan gods.

(http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp )

Many Native American people found that the story of Christmas and Christ’s birth fulfilled tribal prophecies and found the message of Jesus to be consistent with the truth that was handed down by their ancestors.

Native American Christmas Customs

Looks for Buffalo, an Oglala Sioux spiritual leader, the full-blood Oglala grandson of Chief Red Cloud and White Cow Killer, and a Cheyenne Oglala leader, explains the meaning of Christmas to the traditional Indian people of the Americas:

“Traditional American Indians are raised to respect the Christian Star and the birth of the first Indian Spiritual Leader. He was a Star Person and Avatar. His name was Jesus. He was a Hebrew, a Red Man. He received his education from the wilderness. John the Baptist, Moses, and other excellent teachers that came before Jesus provided an educational foundation with the Holistic Method.”

“Everyday is our Christmas. Every meal is our Christmas. At every meal we take a little portion of the food we are eating, and we offer it to the spirit world on behalf of the four legged, and the winged, and the two legged. We pray–not the way most Christians pray– but we thank the Grandfathers, the Spirit, and the Guardian Angel.”

“The Indian Culture is actually grounded in the traditions of a Roving Angel. The life-ways of Roving Angels are actually the way Indian People live. They hold out their hands and help the sick and the needy. They feed and clothe the poor. We have high respect for the avatar because we believe that it is in giving that we receive.”

“To the Indian People Christmas is everyday and they don’t believe in taking without asking. Herbs are prayed over before being gathered by asking the plant for permission to take some cuttings. An offer of tobacco is made to the plant in gratitude. We do not pull the herb out by its roots, but cut the plant even with the surface of the earth, so that another generation will be born its place.”

“It is really important that these ways never be lost. And to this day we feed the elders, we feed the family on Christmas day, we honor Saint Nicholas. We explain to the little children that to receive a gift is to enjoy it, and when the enjoyment is gone, they are pass it on to the another child, so that they, too, can enjoy it. If a child gets a doll, that doll will change hands about eight times in a year, from one child to another.

Many Native Americans in North America, and Aboriginal groups elsewhere in the world, as well as other pagen religions such as wicca, did observe a celebration near Christmas time, called the Winter Solstice. The Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year and falls on December 21-22 and was celebrated in the Americas long before European influence arrived. Different Indian tribes associate different beliefs and rituals with it.

For example, the Hopi tribal celebrations are dedicated to giving aid and direction to the sun which is ready to return and give strength to new life. Their ceremony is called Soyal. It lasts for 20 days and includes prayerstick making, purification, rituals, and a concluding rabbit hunt, feast and blessings.

The first written Native American Christmas carol was written down by a Jesuit missionary priest, Friar Jean de Brebeuf, around 1640-41, for the Huron Indians. The Hurons built a small chapel of fir trees and bark in honor of the manger at Bethlehem. This became the ’stable’ where Jesus was born. Some Hurons travelled as much as two days to be there for the Christmas celebration.

The animals at the manger were the Fox, the Buffalo and the Bear. The Hurons also made a traditional tent of skins and their nativity figures were all dressed as native Americans. This Huron Carol, originally written in the Huron language and later translated to French, has become a well known and much loved carol today.

And there is a mysterious fellow whom we have been told about on several occasions. He is a handsome brave who wears white buckskins, and brings gifts to Indian children. His name, appropriately is ‘Handsome Fellow’. Other gift bringers come at different times of the year, often in the summertime, but the gift bringing element is always a part of the American Indian culture, whatever the occasion is for a gathering.

There was a real Native American man in the 1800s, who was an important leader and warrior in the Creek tribe. His Indian name was Chief Hobbythacco, which means Handsome Fellow. Chiefs in Native American cultures were often the beneficiaries of many gifts. According to the traditions of Native Americans, the chief would then share these gifts with others of the tribe who were less fortunate.

Handsome Fellow, Fanni Mico, and later, White Lieutenant, were leaders of a Creek settlement named Okfuskee and were deeply involved in Creek-British diplomatic relations throughout the colonial period. Chief Hobbythacco (Handsome Fellow) had often supported the English, but at the outbreak of the Cherokee war, he decided to support the Cherokees. He lead an attack on a group of English traders in Georgia and thirteen of the traders were killed during the fighting.

Read more: How do Native Americans celebrate Christmas? http://www.aaanativearts.com/mailbag-archive/1367-how-do-native-americans-celebrate-christmas.html#ixzz2DqODB3

Hope everyone has a great holiday season and celebrates their traditions with great food and great friends and family.

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