I
n the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan;
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
I was listening to this familiar carol the other day when I started to wonder about the focus on snow in the Christmas story. The many references to snow in a Christmas Carols is not strange. Throughout much of the northern hemisphere snow is the order of Christmas Day, so a white Christmas is what people know (it’s interesting that the snow iconography of Christmas show how completely it is originated in the north…Southern Hemisphere countries are shown as foreign to “real” Christmas with their hot temperatures and long daylight hours).
The setting of Christmas in winter…not mid-winter by the way, since December 25 is only four days in…was of course the baptizing of an existing feast, and the date had little to nothing to do with the historical birth of Jesus. I have read different suggestions regarding the actual time of year, though I leave this type of interpretation to those with more skill…and who care.
The Middle East has had snow at Christmas, though not often, and certainly not “snow on snow.” The average high temperature in Bethlehem in December is 60°. There is no mention of snow (or even cold) in the Bible. Any snow on the Christmas scene has been put there by us.
So moving to the whys for this desire for a White first Christmas, I have two possible explanations. First, symbolically it feels right for the savior to be born in the depths of winter. The dead earth greets the dawning of new life, and the mild Middle Eastern winters don’t cooperate with this symbolism. The second is a tendency for us to appropriate the Christ story to our own reality. The Middle Eastern Jesus has been colored lily white since near the beginning. Most English speakers hear him speaking in English…yes, they know he didn’t speak English, but it would be disturbing for many to hear the words in the original Aramaic. Likewise the winter of Christ’s birth has to be a white with snow as the rest of the story.
I love the song, “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and fir goodness sake, I’m not suggesting we stop it (I don’t want another “Baby It’s Cold Outside” fiasco!). But it’s good to call to mind from time to time how our Christmas celebration is made in our image. God was made man, and then made Western European.
As always, I welcome your comments.