Originally surpassed in community relevance by other holidays, Christmas has changed its form from the medieval Orthodox world to today.
Christmas was not considered a major Christian holiday until recently. In Byzantium, as standard of the Orthodox rite, holidays such as Easter, Good Friday, Assumption of the Virgin Mary or Epiphany were considered much more important.
And Santa Claus didn’t exist, today’s ubiquitous character is a Western invention of the 18th century. Gifts offered to children, for example, in the Byzantine world, were offered in St. Basil (January 1), while in the West they were proposed on the Epiphany, as a reference to the gifts of the three Magi.
Christmas in the Byzantine world was seen, rather, as the beginning of 12 days of celebration, and the end of the 40-day fast held on this occasion. Even the birth of Jesus was not celebrated on December 25, but on January 7 (January 6 in Armenia).
The Pope who gave the primacy of Christmas
The change came with the Byzantine emperor Justinian I in the 5th century. Justinian, also known as Justinian the Great, decreed December 25 as the official day of Jesus’ birth, according to the model provided by Pope Julius I nearly a century earlier.
Perhaps the only tradition that has been unchanged since the beginning of Christianity, even earlier, is that of carols, kalanta, in Greek, adaptation of the Latin term “calendae” / first days of the month.
Pre-Christian children gather and celebrate Dionysus in the first days of the month of Anthesteria, February. The little ones went from house to house and sang. They brought olive branches or laurel leaves, and the world gave them small attentions (sweets, fruit or coins). Later, this practice was adopted by the Byzantines and entered the Christian register.
Christmas in the medieval orthodox world
Liuptrand of Cremona, a Lombard diplomat, bishop of Cremona, who made several diplomatic trips to Constantinople during his life, left an account of those times of the Christmas celebration.
In one of these trips, carried out in 949, Liuptrand describes how the 12 days of celebration associated with Christmas were celebrated. The bishop mentions that Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenet invited his closest friends to a palace called Decanneacubita (House of the 19 couches), where all those present lay down, in the Roman fashion.
Liutprand noted the luxury shown at the imperial court on this occasion, and declared himself flattered by the fact that he had been carried into the invitation hall on the shoulders of eunuchs.
The table was made of gold, the diplomat said, and added that it was the only day that the Muslim prisoners were allowed to sit at the table with the Christians, and to be treated as their equals (with the exception that they, for religious reasons, could never be offered pork).
In any case, the Longobard bishop does not make a clear mention of what exactly was consumed in such parties, an account of this type is considered a lack of police. In fact, Liutprand emphasizes only once what was served at the table, but he does so in a different context, and on the occasion of another trip.
He didn’t like retsina
It happened in the year 968, when Nicephorus II Phocas had become the Byzantine emperor, and Liutprand was very displeased with the way he had been treated, even humiliated. He recounts in his writings that he was served goat meat, generously sprinkled with sos garum (fermented fish sauce), while the drink he was served was the famous retsina wine, cheap wine, which Liutprand described as undrinkable.
Instead, returning to the Christmas feast, the chariot races, the related bets, the acrobats, the copious meals, the gifts given by the emperor to the courtiers, and even the carnival atmosphere that accompanied the 12 days between Christmas and Epiphany. are mentioned.
Medieval Roman Christmas
Although it is rare, the mentions of how Christmas was celebrated in the medieval period of the Roman countries, denotes a model of Byzantine inspiration. Franco Sivori, secretary of the kingdom Petru Cercel or Anton-Maria Del Chiaro Fiorentino, secretary of Constantin Brâncoveanu, told how the crowned heads celebrated Christmas in the Romanian Countries.
As in the Byzantine world, the rulers, together with the boyars, participated in lavish hunts, after feasts where luxury was displayed, they offered gifts to each other and, last but not least , huge amounts of wine were consumed. It is when the first accounts appear on the meals with ravas or yolks hidden in them, as well as the cozonacs that, for example, are served at the end of the parties.
A medieval document from the end of the 16th century, although it is poor in information about Christmas, says that Michael the Brave spent Christmas and the end of the year 1596 in Alba Iulia, where he participated in many banquets and celebrations. Later, in 1600, Mihai Viteazul spent his new Christmas in the Citadel of Bălgrad (Alba Iulia), where it is recorded that he participated in the religious services in the construction of the Orthodox Metropolis.
The week when the villagers could afford to eat meat
As for the common people, the few mentions of time are contradictory. If some sources indicate that the villagers mainly slaughter a pig around Christmas, others claim that, rather, large animals (pigs, cows) were sold and went to Poland or Hungary.
Thus, common people often preferred to sacrifice a bird from their own yard, sometimes a sheep or a goat, and organize a Christmas meal different from what was usually eaten.
After a week, the villagers return to their daily meals, that is, polenta or porridge, onion, garlic or chisalita (a stew of stir or loboda, to which sometimes fruits are added).
The fact that the peasants had a poor diet, not only in the Romanian lands, but everywhere, is proven by the myths of the time, in which meat, sausage or fat are found in the dreams of the needy.
How Christmas came to be celebrated two centuries ago in the Romanian countries, or a century ago, you can discover from the articles below:
