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Some 2,000 years ago, on a holy night in Bethlehem as stars were brightly shining, a young woman gave birth to a baby and laid him in a manger. The baby Jesus was a thrill of hope for a weary world, the gospel story goes, and Christians ever since remember his birth in the candlelight of Christmas Eve. Then, much more recently, though no one can seem to recall exactly when or where, came the birth of a new celebration. Adherents call it
Christmas Adam
. And they celebrate on Dec. 23. Why? They have a universal reply: "Because Adam came before Eve."
It's hard to define Christmas Adam, aside from the date. Unlike Christmas Eve, Christmas Adam is not part of an official Christian calendar. The Vatican certainly does not recognise it, and many churchgoers have not heard of it. There is not one way to celebrate. But some evangelically minded and social-media-savvy Protestant churches and families have embraced the celebration, making up Christmas Adam traditions as they go, one joke at a time.
For some, Christmas Adam is purely a chance to share a clever pun. For others, it is practical way to compete in a crowded holiday season, by offering church services a day before the holiday actually starts. To be clear, the "eve" in Christmas Eve refers to the evening before the holy day. It does not refer to the biblical Eve, whom God formed from Adam's rib in the Book of Genesis. Still, this play on words has paved the way for Adam, the first man, to creep into the modern Christmas story.
Christmas Adam is just a "silly generic term", said Rev. Sean Morris, 35, of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Tennessee. "Dec. 24 gets an official title - it gets called Christmas Eve," he explained. "So what the heck, let's give Dec 23rd a semiofficial imprint as well." Morris, 35, has started his own Christmas Adam ritual. On Dec 23, he shares a photo of a McDonald's sandwich, the McRib (rib - get it?). "It's become a ridiculous personal tradition."
The phrase "Christmas Adam" is actually older than one might think. It most likely evolved through spoken wordplay about Eve, passed down colloquially in conversation, only becoming more visible with the rise of social media, according to lexicographers for Oxford English Dictionary. As far back as 1870, they found, children playfully asked in Sunday school if Christmas Adam was the day after Christmas, since the day before was Christmas Eve.
But today's Christmas Adam is a classically evangelical creation, with an entrepreneurial and entertainment aesthetic. (Catholic Day Mass is still central for Catholics.) Innovation Church in Indiana urges people to wear their ugliest Christmas sweaters. One year, they performed the K-pop song "Gangnam Style" as "Christmas Adam Style." But as Christmas Adam spreads, some pastors worry that aspects of Christmas Eve may be overlooked. "It is much more of a Mary-centered holiday - she is the star," said a biblical scholar.
