If birth of Christ marks beginning of year from 1 A.D. then why is his birthday on 25th Dec and not on 1st Jan

Answer 1

December 25th is an estimate of when Christ was born - we know it wasn't the exact day, but as long as we have a day to celebrate it, it doesn't matter.

Answer 2

The year Jesus was born is estimated around 6 or 5 BC. If one reads the bible and does a little research on Roman history you will see that with the Emperor and Governor of the area this is a pretty good guess.

As to the date, no one knows for sure, but sometime in late spring would be more likely (with the shepherds watching their flock in open fields).

As to the reason we celebrate his birthday on the 25th - there are a couple of possibilities. First is that we took over the winter solstice holiday.

Second is more symbolic. Since the 25th is near the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year), we can reference what St. John the Baptist said of Jesus "I (St. John) must decrease so that He (Jesus) may increase" and since Jesus is referred to as "The Light" (remember He said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Light") then the symbolic nature of celebrating the birth of Jesus on the shortest day of the year is apparent - from this day, the light will increase. (By contrast, we celebrate the birthday of St. John on June 25th - close to the longest day of the year).

I Hope I helped.

Answer 3

Unknown.

Jesus Christ
Genesis (begetting), December 25, 3 B.C.
Birth, September 29, 2 B.C.
Baptism, October 14, A.D. 29
Crucifixion, April 3, A.D. 33

Answer 4

It's supposed to just be from the 'year' of his birth not the actual date.

It's also incorrect year wise anyway, because when the monks changed it from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar they made some seriously errors. For example, they counted Christ's first year as year 1, rather than year 0.

Christ's divinity and the date of his resurrection was decided during the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. It was held in what now is Turkey by Constantine I.

But where the date 25th of September comes from, no-one is quite sure. It could be because it falls on the traditional date of the winter solstice from Roman times or when they celebrated Sol Invictus (the birthday of the unconquered sun). Overlapping religious holidays is quite common, as the Jewish Passover and Christian Easter prove.

Answer 5

First of all, we are not using a calendar they did back then, & Christ was born around the middle to the end of September, & not on Dec. 25th or Jan. 1st. Dec 25th came fron the catholic church teachings Chrsit was 33 1/2 yrs. old Therefore making him being Crucified around March or April time frame.

Answer 6

December 25th marks the euro-pagan (is that a word?) holiday YULE. Which is close to the winter solstice. When you hear the word yule in christmas carols, this is what they are referring to. It was a compromise between the conquoring christians and the pagans. Decorating the tree, burning ye olde log, all pagan traditions.

I have read resarch somewhere saying that scientists think Jesus was born sometime in October (Due to the placement of the stars, and the direction the wise men were traveling in the bible)

Also, January refers to JANUS, the roman god for begginings/endings, passage of time etc. The names and placements of modern months started with the Julian calander, introduced by julius cesar in about 40 ad. Most of these pagan traditions were still in practice during his time. Our calander today is called the Gregorian calender and is only slightly different (using leap years).

Answer 7

No one knows when Christ was born. Dec. 25th is a completely arbitrary date chosen by the church. I think you're right; Jan1st would make more sense, but then we'd lose a holiday!

Answer 8

It was arbitrarily selected by the Roman leaders of the Christian cult to coincide with the Roman festival for Mithras, the Sun god.

If the Bible is to be trusted at all, then Jesus was born in the spring. It says the shepherds were sleeping in the fields with their flock. This is only done during lambing in spring.

Answer 9

Jesus wasn't born on December 25. It's celebrated on that date to coincide with a Roman pagan holiday. The actual birth date of Jesus is unknown.

Answer 10

It's not intended to be the exact date of His birth. The winter solstice was adopted to celebrate the event. Later it was changed to a fixed date so that it would be the same date each year. December 25 just happened to be the date.

The date isn't vitally important though - the reason for the celebration is.

Answer 11

Jesus wasn't born on Dec 25th, it was decided to use that as his birthday to coincide with Yule. One way to replace a religion with a new one is to use many of the same dates and traditions. A great example is how Yeshua got his names changed to Jesus. Originally was changed to Jezus. Identifying him at least subconsciously with Zeus the main Deity in the ancient Greek religion helped the spread of this new faith through Greece and many of it's former colonies.