Christians; when in history did December 25 become recognized as Jesus' birthday?

Answer 1

Wow! Are you guys long winded. It's amazing that a simple question generates enough emotion that people have to write a book and post it. What's the insecurity about?

Answer 2

Christmas is a Christian holiday held on December 25 which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The date is merely traditional and is not thought to be the actual birthdate of Jesus. Christ's birth, or nativity, is said by his followers to fulfill Old Testament prophecies concerning a messiah, or savior.

The conventional way to date the nativity is based on the story of the magi. Josephus says Herod died shortly after a lunar eclipse and such an eclipse occurred on March 13, 4 BC. Jesus was born sometime between the first appearance of the star of Bethlehem and the time the magi arrived in Herod's court. As Herod ordered the execution of children age 2 and under, the star must have made its first appearance within the previous two years. This line of reasoning yields a date of 6-4 BC for the nativity. (Note that there is no suggestion in the Gospels that Jesus was born on the day the star first appeared and thus no way to use astronomical phenomenon to determine a specific day of birth.)

Answer 3

The early Christians did not celebrate Christmas. The Encyclopedia Americana, 1942 edition, volume 6, page 623, says: "Christmas was, according to many authorities, not celebrated in the first century of the Christian church, as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons, rather than their birth. A feast was established in the memory of the birth of the Savior in the fourth century. In the fifth century the Western church, Roman Catholic, ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol." (the sun god)

The Encyclopedia Britannica, 1946 edition says, "Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church. For the first 300 years the religious writers were silent regarding the Christmas observance. And an Armenian writer of the eleventh century states that the Christmas festival was first celebrated in Constantinople in 373. In Egypt the western birthday festival was opposed during the early years of the fifth century but was celebrated in Alexandria as early as 432. In 1644, the English Puritans forbade any merriment or a religious service by Act of Parliament on the grounds that Christmas was a heathen festival. They were so opposed to its observance that they ordered a fast on December 25."

There is no official date for Jesus’ birth – but in 354 A.D. the Bishop of Rome started observing the "Christmas Mass festival" on December 25. The date coincided with an established celebration of the Teutonic tribes in northern Europe, a time for rejoicing at the Sun’s return to the earth after winter solstice. The festival for the Sun god, or Sol Invictus, was officially recognized by the emperor in 274 A.D.

By celebrating Jesus’ birth during the season of pagan rituals, the Christian church grasped the opportunity to turn heathens from Sun worship to worshipping the Son of God.

Answer 4

Right when Jesus was born, december 25 started becoming his birth day.

Answer 5

Because this date, just like in your Easter question, was a pagan holiday. The Christians wanted to convert pagans and they thought it would make it easier if they just took over their holiday. There is actually a good deal of proof found in the story of his birth that shows December is entirely the wrong time of year. I would search the web for it.

Answer 6

“Merry Christmas!” Centuries old, those cheery words are still being spoken each December by countless millions of people, some of whom do not even believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God or the resurrected Lord. As we write, the world is once again approaching “the Holiday Season,” when the name of Jesus Christ takes center stage for a few weeks. Amidst the often crass commercialism of Christmas, familiar carols and Christmas cards do herald the glad tidings of the babe born to be the Savior of mankind. And, in perhaps unwitting concurrence with our heavenly Father’s unparalleled act of giving His only begotten Son, even non-Christian families gather together in love and give gifts to one another. For many people, “Christmas” is their favorite time of year.

We in Spirit & Truth Fellowship are glad that the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is recognized on the calendar each year. However, much of the beauty of the events leading up to and including the birth of Jesus as told in the Word of God has been obscured by the religious traditions of men. In this brief answer to the above question, we hope to whet your appetite to look deeper into these magnificent truths, including the poignant and inspiring examples of those players in this real life drama that forever changed the world.

You can get a panoramic yet detailed scriptural account in the two hour video teaching titled, The Birth of Christ, by John Schoenheit. For specific astronomical documentation of the birth date of Christ, see the book titled The Star That Astonished the World, by Ernest L. Martin. We believe that when all the evidence is considered, it shows that Jesus Christ was not born in December, but in September of 3 B.C.

Think for a moment about the significance of a birthday, say, your birthday. Since the dawn of time, what happened on the day you were born had never happened before, and will never happen again. You, the only you who will ever draw breath, came into existence, with a “clean slate” set before you on which to write the story of your absolutely unique life. And so it is for every human being ever born, including the man whose sinless life earned him his current position of “Lord” at the right hand of God, His Father.

Knowing that Jesus was His only hope for the restoration of His shattered dream of a family living forever on a perfect earth, God, the Father, announced the impending birth of His only begotten Son in Genesis 3:15. He told the Devil that the “offspring” of a woman would one day crush his head. For the next 4000 years God precisely and meticulously worked to establish and preserve the bloodline from which the Redeemer of man would be born. Throughout the Old Testament, Satan tried in vain to destroy this bloodline, sometimes coming within a hairsbreadth of succeeding, but God was always one step ahead of him, and at last, the cries of a newborn babe in a manger split the air in Bethlehem. The Promised Seed had arrived! The Plan of Redemption was proceeding toward Paradise regained.

Answer 7

1st Century AD. When the Christians were worshipping side by side with Pagans. The Christians started celebrating the Pagan Holidays, in hopes that the Pagans would soon convert to Christianity.

Answer 8

The date for Christmas of 25 December was decided on at the Synod of Chelsea in 816. It was not called Christmas at this stage but "Yule".

Answer 9

In Palestine, we celebrate the born of El-Massih in 30-31 December. My vilage in Betlehem

Answer 10

By whom for instance anyway nobody gives presents to Jesus so obviously they know it isn't his birthday they aren't really celebrating Jesus' birthday they don't give him gifts do they?