Was Christmas ever a Pagan holiday?

Question

I have never heard that it was until tonight. If your is answer yes, then can you please give me some facts to support your claim?

Answer 1

No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six months after Passover. One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why do we celebrate Christ’s birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?


The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.



In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.


In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.


Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means “wheel,” the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.


The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.


In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.


Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: “Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ.”
The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects.

Answer 2

No, but Christmas has Pagan roots. It borrowed from Yule, Saturnalia and Mithras's (also Horus's) birthday <12/25 for both>. Yule and Saturnalia fell at times near the winter solstice, which Christmas is only 4 days away from. Early Christianity used Christmas in an attempt to convert the Pagans. In fact Jesus's birthday is most likely in April, not December. Modern Christmas is a "mostly" Christian holiday. Nonreligious people celebrate it as well, but leave out most or all of the religious aspects of it, and use it to spend time with friends and family.

Answer 3

Yes. Emperor Constantine blended the pagan winter solstice ritual with Christianity. Most likely, Christ was born around April timeframe.
But when Rome ruled the world, they decided what was going to happen.
Constantine chose Dec 25th because Dec 24th used to be the shortest day of the year. Since Christ represented light, he chose the 25th because it started the change of winter to spring when the days started getting longer.

However, it doesn't mean that I am a pagan if I celebrate Christmas. I use that day to celebrate the birth of Christ along with most others. I don't worship a tree or anything.

Easter is even worse. As a matter of fact the word Easter comes from Oestre which is a pagan goddess of fertility. I don't use the word easter anymore and I say "Happy Resurrection Day" instead of "Happy Easter".

Answer 4

I'm sure you'll get plenty more detailed answers, but it wasn't actually December 25th Christmas that was the pagan holiday, it was the winter solstice that was celebrated by the pagans. And basically upon Romes conversion into christianity the pagans holiday traditions were used as part of a christian holiday at the same time to celebrate the birth of christ, I guess as a way of almost taking the traditions from them and making them Christian traditions. It's actually the same story with Easter if you're interested you could look that up as well.

Answer 5

Christmas was established by the Catholic Church in Rome in the 300's. At that time, the state religion was Mithraism, which, on the Winter Solstice, celebrated Natalis Solis Invicti, "Birthday of the Invincible Sun God."

Mithraism, a Pagan religion, rivaled Christianity so seriously that church authorities decided they needed a holiday to rival this popular Pagan celebration. Around this time, birthdays were not celebrated - they were not considered to be of any importance, and so, Jesus' birthday was never celebrated, and by that time, was long forgotten. Ultimately, the church decided to rival the celebration of Natalis Solis Invicti with a celebration of Jesus' birth. During the Council of Nicaea in 325, Constantine officially labeled the new holiday "Christ's Mass," which later turned into "Christmas."

Because being Christian was punishable by torture and even death, when the church created new holidays to cover the current Pagan holidays (Christmas included), they adopted similar celebrations and symbols so as not to attract attention.

Santa Claus is a Christianized version of the Pagan Greek god Thor, mixed with a little of Saint Nicholas (whom the Dutch called Sinter Klaas).

Red and green are the colors taken from the holly bush, a symbol of the Pagan Yule god.

Mistletoe also started with the Celtic celebration of Yule: they would hang it over the main entrances to their homes to promote luck, wealth and happiness to whomever would pass underneath.

By the way, since Jesus' birthday was long forgotten by the time it was first celebrated, many Biblical scholars have tried to pinpoint the date of his birth by using context clues from the Bible. The most likely proposition is September 29, 5 B.C.

Answer 6

Yes Christmas is a pagan holiday.

Although no one knows the exact date Jesus was born, Christians have favored December 25 since ancient times. It is the date on which the Romans marked the winter solstice and it is nine months following the Festival of Annunciation (March 25). In ancient and early Medieval times, Christmas was either a minor feast, or not celebrated at all.

Answer 7

The pagan holiday that comes around the time of Christmas is Yule. Most cultures have a winter holiday around the winter solstice. Many holidays are shared by many cultures, in other words they happen around the same time. The catholic church Christianized many of the pagan holidays.

Answer 8

Yes. Called Yule.

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Yule was the winter solstice celebration of the Germanic pagans. In Germanic Neopaganism it is one of the eight solar holidays, or sabbats, where Yule is celebrated on the winter solstice: in the northern hemisphere, circa December 21, and in the southern hemisphere, circa June 21.

"Yule" and "Yuletide" are also archaic terms for Christmas, sometimes invoked in songs to provide atmosphere. Indeed, this is the only meaning of "Yule" accepted by either the full Oxford English Dictionary or the Concise Oxford Dictionary, and people unfamiliar with ancient pagan traditions will not distinguish between Yule and Christmas. This usage survives in the term "Yule log"; it may also persist in some Scottish dialects.
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Seriously, have you never wondered why some of those Christmas songs use the word "Yuletide"?

Answer 9

Many of the current Christmas tradtions were adapted from the pagan holiday of Yule.

The link below has information on several holidays that were adapted from pagan traditions.

Answer 10

YES! There is an ancient Yule celebration that involves a tree being brought into the house to celebrate life in the midst of death. In ancient tradition, Yule is the night that the Goddess gives birth to her son, the God. He representing the sun and she representing the moon, this symbolizes his regaining of power after his death on Samhain ( days get shorter, nights get longer... you know) Basically this was an observation over millions of winters made simple with religious contexts. Yule is a celebration of winter, very simple. The church actually also incorporated ostara, (a.k.a. easter) with the story of jesus as well.