2006-12-05 15:25:58 · 15 answers · asked by kissmybum 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
According to some...it's actually in the spring.
2006-12-05 15:26:21 · update #1
Two reasons. First of all, the actual date is unknown. We can be pretty sure it wasn't in December (shepherds don't watch flocks in the field by night in the winter) but the actual date was never recorded.
Other than that, the main reason is force of habit. As far as anyone can figure, the date was first popularized around 221 A.D. Early on, Christmas wasn't a major holiday. As Christianity spread, pagan holidays were "Christianized" by associating them with Christian events and saints days. Christmas absorbed many of the winter festivals including Saturnalia and Yule.
And, after a few thousand years, old habits are hard to break.
2006-12-05 15:51:08 · answer #1 · answered by jaywalk57 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of the answers so far have a bit of truth to them. No one really knows what date, or even what month Jesus was actually born. The date of December 25th was chosen by the Roman Emperor Constantine about 350 years after Jesus' death. Constantine was the Roman Emperor that converted to Christianity and then declared the whole of the Roman Empire to be Christian (hence the Roman Catholic Church). Dec 25 was chosen because it was the celebrated birthday of Constantine's mother's favorite Roman god (I'm sorry, I have forgotten which one). It was already a celebrated holiday throughout the Empire and only made sense (to them) to use an existing holiday since the real birthdate was unknown. I hope this tidbit of trivia was helpful.
Obviously, it doesn't really matter, as long as you celebrate it sometime.
2006-12-06 00:20:11 · answer #2 · answered by bb22251 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It IS in the Spring. The celebrate it during December because the god Mithras' birthday is Dec 25th and it was still being celebrated so the Christians adopted it to convert the masses to worshipping something more "acceptable".
2006-12-05 23:33:38 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There's a lot of truth to what others are answering about pagan origins. However, the reason some of us celebrate Christ's birtday on December 25 is because, as some suggested, we really don't know. I heard it was really around August. I guess most heard Spring.
My birthday is April 17 but I don't mind if we celebrate it on the weekend before or after. I doubt Christ minds.
2006-12-05 23:48:00 · answer #4 · answered by Michael 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You obviously haven't been reading previous questions and answers on this have you? We don't know exactly when Jesus was born, it never says in the stories. From clues we have, historians believe it was probably in late spring to early fall.
Christmas is celebrated in December because the early Christian church wanted to have an alternative to the various pagan rituals that took place around the winter solstice. Since one of Christs titles was 'The Light Bringer' it seemed appropriate to celebrate his birth around the same time as the sun's "rebirth". For more information on this, look up "Mythrus, legends" on Google some time.
2006-12-05 23:31:33 · answer #5 · answered by harpertara 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity. What it has to do with is the roman catholic church. They are the ones who set December 25 as the birth of Jesus, knowing quite well that the date was off by several months. nevertheless they , needing a holiday to coincide with the pagan winter solstice, came up with Christmas as a way to give their members a reason to celebrate at the same time as the pagans. The reason that we celebrate today is because most churches claiming to be christian came out of the roman catholic church and are just following their mother church.
2006-12-06 00:09:35 · answer #6 · answered by preacher 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the Winter Solstice was already THE northern European holiday of the year, so early Christians grafted Christmas onto it.
Besides, they couldn't do Christ's birthday in spring, because the spring holiday was already taken up with Easter (which was a spring fertility celebration; that's what all the eggs, bunnies & lambs are all about)!
2006-12-05 23:29:49 · answer #7 · answered by silvercomet 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because we don't know for sure when His real birthday is. December 25 is just a time set aside to celebrate it. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving on the actual annivery of it either. Same as Coloumbus day.
2006-12-06 01:40:23 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I believe it has something to do with early Christianity--Christmas was a way to woo non-Christians away from celebrating the winter solstice by giving an alternate Christian holiday at about the same time of year or something to that effect.
2006-12-05 23:30:15 · answer #9 · answered by RPCV Pacific 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Because Saturnalia, a popular Roman holiday was around the same time. To "sell" Christianity to the local population their major holiday was held around the same time.
2006-12-05 23:36:56 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋