PeeCeeJay By Jideofor Adibe Black Candles for Christmas Email: pcjadibe@yahoo.com Twitter: @JideoforAdibe Let me start
with a disclaimer: the title of this piece is not original to me. It was the title of one of the short
stories by the Nigerian novelist, playwright and political activist Obi Benue
Egbuna, which was published in 1980 by Fourth
Dimension Publishers, Enugu. Obi Egbuna (18 July
1938 – 18 January 2014) was my favourite author while in secondary school –
after James Hadley Chase. Obviously coming from the same town as Obi Egbuna – Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra state -
reinforced my admiration of the late protest writer. This piece however is not about Obi Egbuna’s short story of the same title or about the
departed writer himself. It is rather about Christmas, how it came about and
its symbolism for the millions of people that celebrate it annually across
the world. The immediate
association of Black Candles in my mind (following Obi Egbuna’s
‘Black Candles for Christmas’) is that it is something negative – dark, evil,
malevolent and death. However after researching on the symbolisms of candle
colours for this article - I found that contrary to my intuitive belief,
Black Candles are actually supposed to be the colour of the candle you burn
when you are trying to destroy negative forces and energy. The candle
generally is the symbol of the holy illumination of the spirit of truth.
There are people who believe that a lit candle can connect the physical world
with the spiritual realm. Back to Christmas.
What is it all about? Christmas is a time that Christians celebrate the
birth of Jesus Christ to Virgin Mary as a fulfilment of the Messianic
prophecy of the Old Testament. There are two accounts in the Bible which
describe the events surrounding the birth of Jesus. These are the Gospel of
Matthew (1:18-25) and the Gospel of Luke (1:26-38). There is no
consensus on the exact date and day of the birth of Jesus. For instance the
earliest of the four gospels – St. Mark’s, (the other three are Matthew, Luke
and John) written about 65 CE – begins
with the story of the baptism of an
adult Jesus suggesting that the earliest Christians either lacked
interest in or knowledge of Jesus’ birthdate.
There have consequently been several estimations about the birthdate
of Jesus. Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk for
instance estimated that Jesus was born on August 28. The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed
to have been written in North Africa around 243 CE, calculated the
birthdate of Jesus to be March 28.
Clement, a bishop of Alexandria thought Jesus was born on November 18.
Joseph A. Fitzmyer,
Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of
America after analysing historical
records concluded that Jesus was probably born on September 11, 3 BCE. If there is no consensus on the birthdate of Jesus
Christ, how come Christians celebrate Christmas on 25 December? There are
competing theories on why Christmas is celebrated on December 25. One theory
was that the day the Virgin Mary was told she would bear a son to be called
Emmanuel by the angel Gabriel (called the Annunciation) was on March 25, and
that nine months after March 25 would be December 25. Another
theory linked it to the Roman pagans’ festival of Saturnalia –a perverse and
hedonistic festival celebrated from December 17-25. At the festival’s
conclusion on December 25, Roman authorities believed they were destroying
the forces of darkness by brutally murdering the innocent man or woman chosen
by each Roman community to represent an enemy of the Roman people. It is
thought that Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival around the 4th
century CE, with the hope that they would use the opportunity of the festival
to Christianize the ‘pagans’. Hence they named Saturnalia’s concluding day of
December 25, to be the birthday of Jesus. The first
recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336AD,
during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine, who was the first Christian
Roman Emperor. A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the
birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th of December. The word ‘Christmas’ itself came from the
Mass of Christ (or Jesus). A Mass service (which is sometimes called
Communion or Eucharist by Catholics) is where Christians remember that Jesus
died for us and then came back to life. The ‘Christ-Mass’ service was meant
to commemorate or celebrate the birth of Jesus. It is thought that the ‘mas’
suffix to ‘Christ’ evolved from
the Old English word ‘maesse’ meaning festival, feast day or
mass. The earliest
Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence and singing
naked in the streets (a precursor of modern carols) – pretty much the same
way Saturnalia was celebrated. Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas
was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in several places
such as Boston (1659-1681). The Puritan-dominated Parliament of England also
banned the celebration of Christmas in 1644 though the ban was lifted in 1660 when Charles II took over the
throne. Many of the
most popular Christmas customs such as Christmas trees, mistletoe, Christmas
presents and Santa Claus are modern Christianized incarnations of pagan
rituals. Today
millions of people around the world – whether they are Christians or not-
celebrate Christmas. In many Western countries, Christmas is increasingly
seen as a time when family and friends re-unite over food, drinks and
merriments. Growing up, Christmas was
for us a time to get new clothes and shoes and eat loads of rice – and if you
are lucky, with some chicken. In many English-speaking countries, the day
following Christmas Day is called ‘Boxing Day’. The word itself comes from
the custom which started in the Middle Ages about 800 years ago when churches
would open the boxes in which people had placed gifts of money and would
distribute the contents to the poor people in the neighbourhood. Many Christians
believe that beyond the secular celebrations of Christmas there must be a
hidden meaning, a sort of God’s special message for them during the yuletide.
If we extrapolate from the reasons the early Christians turned to the pagan
festival of Saturnalia, we can infer that the symbolism is not on the
festivity itself but on the opportunity it offers to turn a morally and
spiritually unacceptable situation (a largely pagan practice) to something
morally and spiritually ennobling (to symbolize the birthdate of Jesus
Christ). Buhari: Apologies Accepted I do not
agree with a number of the items in the 2016 Budget – as presented by
President Muhammadu Buhari. For instance I fail to
understand how school feeding will be the best way of reflating the economy
or improving the quality of education or even keeping pupils in school.
Similarly the logic of the N500bn budgeted to pay the unemployed a monthly
stipend of N5000 remains unconvincing. The argument that only ‘vulnerable’
unemployed people would benefit from it raises its own problem of the metric
for measuring vulnerability. I was however
very impressed with the manner the budget was presented, especially the
President’s apologies over the fuel scarcity that has persisted across the
country since October. Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who has
otherwise been surprisingly impressive in his new role as a Minister,
appeared to have suffered a momentary relapse into his ‘APC Publicity
secretary mode’ and blamed former President Jonathan for the punishingly long
queues at our filling stations. The President blamed the long queues on the
refusal of stakeholders in the petroleum industry to embrace change. It is not a
sign of weakness to offer apologies or own up to certain failures and
inadequacies. On the contrary an apology is both a sign of humility and
courage. One hopes that the government can extend this new found humility
into other areas of our national life such as obeying court orders so that a
good example will be set for the citizens about the importance obeying laws.
Everyone knows the President was a tough military general so there is no need
for the government to strive to kill ants with sledge hammers. |