2006-12-02 02:42:39 · 4 answers · asked by Resolver 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Two good answers already! December the 25th has absolutely nothing to do with Christianity. It is a collection of pagan and ancient rites and customs from across Europe.
The Christian celebration should be either the 6th January on which many Christians do actually celebrate or in March.
It says a lot for the honesty and veracity of Christians that they still seek to hijack the midwinter festival for their religion whilst giving up their proper days!!!
2006-12-02 04:31:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
We don't know... December 25 is just a guess. I believe it used to be a holiday of sorts for some pre-Christian people... and just got recycled into our modern-day holiday.
Chances are pretty slim that December 25 truly is the day Jesus was born... but it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility :)
2006-12-02 11:30:25 · answer #2 · answered by not.my.name 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Not at all likely. The whole shepherd thing doesn't fit with the customs of shepherds in December in that part of the world.
There were a number of other holidays celebrated at or near the winter solstice, most prominent at the time being the birthday of Mithras, who was also, by the way, born of a virgin and had his birth attended by shepherds! So the early christians just switched people to celebrating the birth of their guy instead of Mithras. As long as people had their holiday, they didn't care what it was called or whose birthday it was - they just wanted a festival, and one excuse was as good as another.
2006-12-02 13:01:47 · answer #3 · answered by Maple 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Astronomers have charted the stars at that time in history and believe that the birth of Christ was actually in February. December 25 was chosen because they could not get pagans to stop celebrating winter solstice/yule
2006-12-02 11:39:54 · answer #4 · answered by PLDFK 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋