2006-12-21 07:12:16 · 31 answers · asked by li z 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Jesus was born in April and the wisemen showed up around the first of December, I'm not sure why the 25th was chosen.
2006-12-21 07:16:52 · answer #1 · answered by Sean 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It's all part of a fancy story. Some of it is truth, some of it has no truly solid reasons for us to believe it. There may have been certain individuals who are mentioned in the bible, jesus for example may have been a real person. This does not mean he was actually the son of a god and died for your sins and was reincarnated or however the story goes.
I'll make that argument for you again and see if it seems believable.
I have a friend, Joe, who is a superhero and can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but he died. You will probably think that I am lying and you might say the whole story is made up. Now, if I bring to the graveyard and show you his tombstone and show you newspaper articles about how he won the lottery or some random thing does that prove my story is true? It gives some strong evidence showing that Joe did exist. Does it give ANY evidence whatsoever that Joe can leap tall buildings in a single bound? NO!
This is another argument that I have heard some religious people use to provide some kind of "proof" of religion. Maybe there was a guy named Jesus around a couple thousand years ago from nazareth or wherever... so what? that proves absolutely nothing at all. It barely even suggest anything except that the bible contains reference to some people or events that were real people. That offers no proof of the supernatural aspects of religion.
2006-12-21 15:24:39 · answer #2 · answered by Brendan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Winter Solstice was Dec. 25th. Christ was likely born in March or April. It seems as if the Winter Solstice became connected with celebrating Christ's birth sometime in the 3rd century.
Some Christian sects don't celebrate Christmas because it was connected to a pagan holiday and is not the true birth date of Christ.
Thor, Saturn, and Sol were other gods whose births were celebrated during the winter solstice around Dec. 25th. It is likely that during conversion, many Christians continued celebrating the same holiday but simply changed to worshipping Jesus instead of Thor, Saturn, or Sol. Once Christianity was accepted, Christmas became recognized as the birth of Christ and superceded all other winter celebrations.
2006-12-21 15:23:11 · answer #3 · answered by theogodwyn 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The actual birthday of Jesus was forgotten by the early Christian movement. in those days, various groups celebrated his birth on JAN-6, APR-21 and MAY-1. By the 4th century, the church selected the approximate time of the winter solstice as the date to recognize Jesus' birth. They picked up this date from Pagan sources.
The Babylonians celebrated their "Victory of the Sun-God" Festival on DEC-25. Saturnalia (the Festival of Saturn) was celebrated from DEC-17 to 23 in the Roman Empire. The Roman Emperor Aurelian blended Saturnalia with a number of birth celebrations of savior Gods from other religions, into a single holy day: DEC-25. After much argument, the developing Christian church adopted this date as the birthday of their savior, Jesus. The people of the Roman Empire were accustomed to celebrating the birth of a God on that day. So, it was easy for the church to divert people's attention to Jesus' birth
2006-12-21 15:16:02 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
The date of Christmas Day is determined by various traditions rather than relying on historical research, which generally points to dates earlier in the year. Of those scholars who believe in a historical Jesus, the vast majority of them agree that the precise birthdate is unknown.
About 1600 years ago, Pope Julius I chose this date for Christmas in order to replace the pagan tradition Saturnalia festival or the Feast of the Nativity.
Others scholars say, the Roman church hierarchy designated December 25 as the official date of Christmas. Pope Julius I chose this date because it coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one. But in 1752, a number of days were dropped from the year when the switch was from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. December 25 date was moved backwards, forcing a decision: Some Christian church sects maintained Christmas on January 7, previously December 25 of the Julian calendar; others opted for the new December 25.
2006-12-21 15:14:45 · answer #5 · answered by Melli 6 · 4⤊ 2⤋
Because Dec 25th was the shortest day of the year on the Roman Julian calendar and the Christians wanted to supplant the pagan holiday of winter solstice.
2006-12-21 15:14:23 · answer #6 · answered by Sean 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
I KNOW THIS IS LONG BUT JUST READ IT
Constantine (an ancient roman emperor) had a dream once when he was trying to win a war that showed a big cross in the sky and they are really big on good omens so he asked his guards or whatever what it meant and they said that they thought it was the christians symbol, so they went to the christians and they helped him decipher the meaning of the dream and he won the war so after that he declared christianity the official religion of rome (they used to persecute christians because they thought they were angering the other gods becuase they said they only belived in one god) and he made it legal and declared the 25 of december the official holiday of the christians. the romans used to have a holiday like every 3 days, so he just said, ok were only going to celebrate on this day. and then it was done
2006-12-21 15:18:22 · answer #7 · answered by tony the tigress 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It was (and still is) a pagan festival and christians adopted this date so that they could easily convert these pagans to christianity. The pagans of the day were reluctant to convert or give up thier ritual yuletide festivities.
This apeased them and they converted.
So it's not the day christ was born, it's a pagan festival hijacked by christians.
Who knows when jesus was actually born. December wasn't even on the calander 2000 years ago
LOL, and a thumbs down for speaking the truth.
2006-12-21 15:18:43 · answer #8 · answered by opalina 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
It was actually moved to Dec 25th to hide the true birthday from the Romans in ancient times. Christians then just celebrated it along with the Pagen holiday.
2006-12-21 15:14:09 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
Jesus was actually born in April, but we did not know this until after they chose Dec. 25 as the day for Christmas. I think Abraham Lincoln chose it along with the other dates for holidays.
2006-12-21 15:14:57 · answer #10 · answered by Trinette 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Christmas replaced the winter festival of Saturnalia, a pagan festival, as Christianity became popular. This festival occurred on the 25th of December understood to be the winter solstice. There are many traditions still practiced as Christmas traditions that were originally pagan rituals. The Christmas Tree is a prime example of this.
2006-12-21 15:18:15 · answer #11 · answered by ChooseRealityPLEASE 6 · 2⤊ 2⤋