Helping Mutabaruka

Ian Boyne is now not alone. In his campaign against Christmas, he has just been joined by dub poet and television talk-show host Mutabaruka, who I heard last week describe as "a big lie to fool up black people" the claim that Jesus of Nazareth was born on December 25. This week, he issued a challenge: that if anyone can prove to him that Jesus was born on December 25, he will cut off his locks and become a Christian!

I like Muta, and we have a lot in common. He was born just three weeks before me in Rae Town, the same part of Kingston my father was from. Muta and I were both brought up in the Roman Catholic Church, and it seems that in our youth, we challenged our elders with more or less the same sort of questions. I don't think Muta got too many good answers.

I have a question for Muta: Who told him that Jesus was actually born on the December 25? Who is he accusing of the lie? Yes, the Western Christian world celebrates Jesus' birth on December 25, but no one I know, or have heard about, says he was actually born on that day; certainly no one in the mainstream church. So there is no 'lie', and Muta's locks are safe.

But the question still remains: Why did Western Christianity choose to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25 rather than any other day? There is very good reason, and we need to know it, otherwise modern-day Christopher Columbuses like Muta will continue to 'discover' that Jesus was not actually born on that day and believe they have caught the Christian church in a lie.

In fact, the reason for the date is chock-full of symbolism, and teaches us something about the true meaning of the Christian message. The symbolism has to do with darkness and light; you have to have the heart and soul of a poet (rather than a scientist or a historian) to understand a lot of what is in the Bible and what Christianity is all about.

In Christian symbolism, before Jesus came, the world was in darkness (the darkness of sin caused by 'The Fall'). Now the darkest day of the year is December 21 (the Winter Solstice), which has the longest night and the shortest day. During these weeks leading up to Christmas, the days have been getting shorter (symbolically the darkness is conquering the light), but in the days after the solstice, the days begin to get longer (the light begins to conquer the darkness). If you want to pick a day to celebrate the coming of Jesus (the light) into the world, what better time could you choose? (And at the same time you upstage the sun worshippers who celebrate the festival of Sol Invinctus - the Conquering Sun).

The symbolism goes on. After Christmas, even though the days are getting longer, the night is still of longer duration ... until Easter. Easter always falls after the Vernal Equinox - one of the two days each year when the day and the night are the same length. After Easter, the celebration of Jesus' Resurrection (when He conquered sin and its consequences, one of which is death), the days are longer than the night hours. Symbolically, light has finally conquered the darkness, and the world is different.

Christmas is not the most important celebration in the Christian calendar; Easter is. But you'd never think so, considering the hullabaloo we make at Christmas. Face it: the baby lying in the manger in oversized clothes is cute and non-threatening - not like the man covered with bloody stripes from the whip, hanging on a cross, who tells us to take up our cross and follow Him. So we prefer Christmas.

But Christmas is not an unimportant event: one of the persons in the Godhead taking on flesh and becoming human (we call it the 'Incarnation') is of momentous significance! I don't think Calvin reflected enough on this; humanity can't be all that bad after all if true God became true man! That's the mystery we celebrate at Christmas.

Mutabaruka has chosen for himself a name from the Rwandan language which translates as "one who is always victorious"; but I hope he doesn't believe that because of his name he will always be victorious in every argument. I would be happy to meet with my brother Muta to discuss truth rather than lies.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.