Christmas in the Orient

• SOME TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, a prominent Korean scholar visited Peking, China. Staring at a painting on the ceiling of a cathedral, he saw a scene of Mary with the child Jesus in her arms. He said of this startling painting:

“A lady held a sickly-looking child, about five or six years old, on her lap. She seemed to have little strength in her neck, as if she couldn’t bear to watch her son for pity. And far behind them there were a lot of ghosts and babies with wings flying around. As I stared at them above me, it looked as if they would drop down on me at any moment. Startled, I put my hand out to take them.”

THAT occurred long after the Reformation began in Europe, long after the dark era of the Middle Ages. But to most Orientals, Christianity was as unfamiliar as the painting itself. How that situation has changed! Every Christmas season, scenes of the baby Jesus are featured. The Orient has become used to such scenes, and many streets there now resemble those in Europe.

On the evening of November 25, 1998, a month prior to Christmas, the Champs Élysées in Paris is brightly lit by over 100,000 bulbs on the 300 trees lining that famous avenue. Comparably, on a downtown street in Seoul, Korea, a giant Christmas tree is featured by a major department store and begins to brighten the night in that capital city. Soon its streets are adorned with Christmas decorations.

Television, radio, and newspapers present Christmas-related programs day after day. Stirred by the Christmas mood, the whole country becomes occupied with welcoming the end of the year. The churches in Seoul, the number of which astonishes many visitors, get decorated in a hurry. Thus, Korea and other countries in the Orient are engulfed by the Christmas spirit about the time that the United States is involved in its Thanksgiving Day celebration in late November.

Most countries of the Orient are not considered part of Christendom. For instance, only 26.3 percent of the population of Korea professes to be Christian. In Hong Kong it is 7.9 percent, in Taiwan 7.4 percent, and in Japan only 1.2 percent. Clearly, most Orientals do not practice Christianity, but they seem to have no objection to celebrating Christmas. In fact, they often seem to be more enthusiastic about it than their Western counterparts are. Hong Kong, for instance, is well-known for its flamboyant Christmas celebration, even though most of its inhabitants are either Buddhists or Taoists. Even in China, where only 0.1 percent professes to be Christian, Christmas is very rapidly gaining in popularity.

Why is Christmas celebrated so widely in the Orient? Why do people who do not accept Jesus as the Messiah join in celebrating Christmas, which most professing Christians view as his birthday? Should true Christians imitate their view of Christmas? We shall find the answers as we consider how Christmas became popularized in Korea, an age-old country of the Orient.

Christmas​—Why Even in the Orient?

AN OLD Oriental belief is reminiscent of the Santa Claus of Christmas. That is the Korean belief in one named Chowangshin, and something similar can be found among some Chinese and Japanese.

Chowangshin was considered a god in charge of the kitchen, a god of fire who was related to the ancient Korean worship of fire. (In olden times, Koreans transported live charcoals carefully, making sure that these were never extinguished.) This god was believed to keep watch over the conduct of family members for a year, after which he ascended to heaven through the kitchen stove and chimney.

Supposedly, Chowangshin reported to the king of heaven on the 23rd of the lunar month of December. He was expected to come back at the end of the year through the chimney and the stove, bringing rewards and penalties in accord with each one’s conduct. On the day of his return, the members of the family were to light candles in the kitchen and elsewhere in the house. Portraits of that kitchen god bear another similarity to Santa Claus​—he was depicted in red! It used to be a custom for the daughter-in-law to make a pair of traditional Korean socks and on the winter solstice give them to her mother-in-law. That was meant to symbolize her wish that the mother-in-law would have a long life, since the days get longer after that date.

Do you not see some similarities between the foregoing points and Christmas? They share stories and customs: the chimney, candles, gift-giving, socks, an old man in red clothing, and the date. Still, such similarities alone do not account for the easy acceptance of Christmas in Korea. The belief in Chowangshin had almost faded away by the time Christmas was first introduced to Korea. In fact, most Koreans today do not know that such a belief ever existed.

Nonetheless, this illustrates how customs related to the winter solstice and the end of the year spread all over the world through different paths. In the fourth century C.E., the prevailing church in the Roman Empire changed the name of the Saturnalia, the pagan Roman festival of the birth of the sun-god, and made this part of Christmas. The Christmas celebration amounted to a revival of local customs with a different name tag. How was that possible?

The Role of Gift-Giving

Gift-giving is one custom that has never faded away. For a long time, Koreans have found much joy in giving and receiving gifts. This was one reason for the popularizing of the Christmas celebration in Korea.

After World War II, for the U.S. soldiers stationed in Korea who wanted to strengthen their ties with the people, churches were places to meet and to distribute gifts and relief aid. Especially on Christmas Day did this occur. Many children visited churches out of curiosity, and there they had their first exposure to gifts of chocolate. As you can understand, many of them then looked forward to the next Christmas.

For such children, Santa Claus was an American soldier in a red stocking cap. Proverbs 19:6 says: “Everybody is a companion to the man making gifts.” Yes, gift-giving proved to be very effective. But as you can conclude from that verse, such gifts do not guarantee a lasting friendship. Even in Korea, many are those whose experiences with the church amounted to nothing more than a taste of chocolate in their younger years. Christmas, though, was not forgotten. Along with Korea’s rapid economic growth, commercialism grew, and Christmas gift-giving was a simple means for boosting consumer spending. Businesses exploited Christmas to increase profits.

That provides you with insight into Christmas in the Orient today. Aiming at the Christmas shopping spree, new products are developed. Plans for advertisements begin in midsummer. Sales figures peak at year-end, supported by all the purchasing of Christmas gifts, cards, and musical recordings. Why, advertisements would make the average youth feel miserable if he or she stayed at home and did not get any presents on Christmas Eve!

As Christmas Day draws near, stores and shopping malls in Seoul get crowded with people who are there to buy gifts, and the story is the same in other Oriental cities. There are traffic jams. Hotels, business districts, restaurants, and nightclubs are flooded with customers. Sounds of revelry​—loud singing—​can be heard. On Christmas Eve, drunken men and women are seen making their way through streets that are littered with trash.

So it is. Christmas in the Orient is no longer a holiday led by professed Christians. Obviously, in Korea as elsewhere, commercialism has taken the lead in making the most of this holiday of Christendom. Is the commercialism, then, solely to blame for a Christmas that has become so out of line with the spirit of Christ? True Christians need to probe deeper into the serious issue involved.

In downtown Seoul, a store that specializes in underwear made television news by displaying in its window a Christmas tree decorated only with underwear. The atmosphere of Christmas was noticeable, but any sign of welcoming the Christ was not.

[Picture on page 7]

Christmas Eve in downtown Seoul, Korea