A Brief History of Christmas

The origins of Christmas have been hotly debated over the years, as scholars and faithful believers alike have tried to sort through often conflicting evidence to determine how our modern holiday, celebrated on the 25^th of December came to be. There is obviously a mesh of pagan celebrations with early Christian notions of the birth of Jesus, but just how this combination took place remains a topic of dispute.

First off, no one knows for sure what day Jesus was actually born on. Based on the biblical description of the night, many historians believe it was actually sometime in September. So why do we celebrate Christ’s birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?

In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated for centuries before the advent of Jesus. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. The Romans also held a festival on December 25, the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, which means the birthday of the unconquered sun. The Sol Invictus festival has a "strong claim on the responsibility" for the date of Christmas, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Early Christian writers connected the rebirth of the sun to the birth of Jesus.

In the early years of Christianity, the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the aforementioned pagan festivals. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the celebration spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. Historians say that by holding Christmas at the same time as the traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced. By the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion and Christmas was widely celebrated.

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