how come the calendar AD states that the year begins when jesus was born. how come we have 5 days added on to the year
2006-09-10 23:46:43 · 19 answers · asked by queenb 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
It's the (rough) date of old Roman Saturnalia festival, incorporated into the Xtian calendar by the ever-cynical church.
Many ancient cultures had a mid-winter festival, and the Xtians needed an excuse for one to keep the plebs happy.
2006-09-10 23:53:51 · answer #1 · answered by Avondrow 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Based on present day calendar(Gregorian) Jesus was born on the 1 March 7 B.C.
The reason for 25/12 is that Christianity wanted to destroy Paganism, and it was considered good tactics to impose your own holy days over theirs. This stopped competition between the C and P. 25/12 was the pagan celebration of the winter solstice.
2006-09-13 04:35:04 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Further to the other answers:
The winter solstice is a great pagan festival celebrating the turning of the year and summer coming along. When Britain converted to Christianity this festival was used and became christian. Over the years with the changes to the calendar, ending up with our present calendar with leap years it moved out three days from the 22nd to the 25th.
2006-09-10 23:55:55 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
as already stated in some answers, it is the winter solstice festival. it was encorpoated into christianity by the roman emperor constantine to advance christianity across pagan europe. he felt if he kept the pagan holidays but gave them a christian name and origin the pagan masses would follow christianity instead. easter was also a pagan festival meant to promote fertility. this was also added to christianity, along with haloween and various others. the only thing christians should celebrate is the memorial of Christs death as he told us to. this should be held on the night Jesus died, annually. that is the month Nisan in the jewish calender, and the 14th day. that falls around april time. only Jehovah's witnesses actually do that. and just a point, jesus died at 33 and a half years old. that puts his birth at october time, not december. and as jesus didn't celebrate birthdays, neither do his followers. Jehovah's witnesses
2006-09-11 04:21:56 · answer #4 · answered by iamalsotim 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
When they were trying to convince the pagens to become christians a lot of their holidays were used - celebrations like Easter also have a lot of roots in pagenism.
It was probably a lot easier to let people get on with their fesitvals and then go "aha! you've just celebrated the birth/death of Christ. Ha! In your face!"
I'm not sure about the calender thing though, I think thats based on the phases of the moon and thats just how it works out with the seasons and hours in the day ect. It's all very mathmatical which I'm not unfortunately!
2006-09-10 23:56:37 · answer #5 · answered by twistie 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
we celebrate on 25/12 because it is close to the Winter Solstice which occurs 20/21/22nd of Dec. the solstice has been celebrated time out of mind by "pagan" religions and there were a lot of folk traditions connected to it, it was easier to superimpose the birth of christ over a date people were already used to celebrating in order to make the transition from old religion to new more likely to work.
2006-09-10 23:56:02 · answer #6 · answered by LOLLY 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
25/12 used to be date of a pagan festival, that the christian religion hijacked. Thats your plain answer.
But I would argue that christmas isn't even religious any more, unless you happen to be a christian.
I love christmas, though thank christ it is only once a year.
And christmas eve happens to my daughter's birthday, whereas boxing day is my nephew's birthday.
What a grand celebration that is for all our family! A magical 3 days.
2006-09-10 23:58:53 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Christmas was grafted onto the old observation of the Winter Solstice.
Exactly how it came to be that January 1 is the start of the New Year, I'm not certain, but I'll bet it was the Romans, who divided up the year into months; we even use most of their names for them, too!
2006-09-10 23:54:15 · answer #8 · answered by silvercomet 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why do we celebrate Christmas at all! There is no religous aspect involved in it for me! I dont do it to celebrate Jesus.
No point refering to Jesus if you are going to call it Xmas either! CHRIST MASS!! Where does the X come from? Anyway, good question but i think you could have stopped with why do we celebrate Christmas at all!
2006-09-10 23:50:40 · answer #9 · answered by johnapdavies 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Historians believe Christmas was set on that date by religious leaders who were influenced by the pagan celebrations of winter solstice around that time of year.
I don't think it's necessarily the date Jesus was born.
Why don't you check out my source; it's all on there.
2006-09-11 00:04:58 · answer #10 · answered by shaz1uk 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋