I mean thats not really Jesus' birthday. He was born in spring sometime. I was born in March. So should I celebrate my birthday in December too?
2007-01-10 06:00:44 · 8 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
The Bible references that Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem for census and that it was in the spring. So, while no one knows the exact date of Jesus' birth, it *was* in the spring--not in the winter. The above answers regarding the winter solstice are valid. The early RCC worked out celebrating Jesus' birth as the "Son of God" to coincide with the already present "Sun King/ God" celebrations. It made sense to the people celebrating the Sun King that the Romans "King of all Kings" must have been one in the same.
It was a compromise to help conversions.
2007-01-10 06:14:55 · answer #1 · answered by kerridwen09 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No one really knows exactly what day Jesus was born on. Basically, when the Bible was being written, a bunch of people got together (the group had a title, I just can't remember what it is) and voted on what stories would go into the Bible and what days we would celebrate certain events on. Therefore, Christmas landed on December 25 and Easter is sometime in Spring.
2007-01-10 06:09:28 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If observed at all, the celebration of Christ's birth was usually lumped in with Epiphany (January 6), one of the church's earliest established feasts. Some church leaders even opposed the idea of a birth celebration. Origen (c.185-c.254) preached that it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way Pharaoh and Herod were honored. Birthdays were for pagan gods. The eventual choice of December 25, made perhaps as early as 273, reflects a convergence of Origen's concern about pagan gods and the church's identification of God's son with the celestial sun. December 25 already hosted two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"), and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival. Western Christians first celebrated Christmas on December 25 in 336, after Emperor Constantine had declared Christianity the empire's favored religion. Eastern churches, however, held on to January 6 as the date for Christ's birth and his baptism. Most easterners eventually adopted December 25, celebrating Christ's birth on the earlier date and his baptism on the latter, but the Armenian church celebrates his birth on January 6. Incidentally, the Western church does celebrate Epiphany on January 6, but as the arrival date of the Magi rather than as the date of Christ's baptism.
2016-05-23 05:07:02 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
December 25th celebration was initially a Pagan ritual, dedicated to the Sun (as Pagans worshiped the elements of nature and of the universe). Christian church wanted to expand and delete from the map other ancient rituals and therefore announced that Christmas should be celebrated on December 25th.
2007-01-10 06:44:13 · answer #4 · answered by sensimilia2000 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well, the real reason is, the Romans (Christians) did not like the Pageans.
In order to put a stop to the Pagean Winter Solstice celebrations, the Romans decided that Christmas would be at that time.
Halloween was a similar situation to end the Pagean Samhain celebrations.
That is the short version of the story, there is a lot more to it but that is the basics of what happened.
2007-01-10 06:07:49 · answer #5 · answered by Fluffington Cuddlebutts 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It isn't exactly known, but two major events have to do with it: the first is the winter solstice, and the second one the birth of the god/hero Mithras, on December 25th.
2007-01-10 06:16:25 · answer #6 · answered by dragon_todo 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The holiday itself evolved over many millenia. There is no ONE thing that created what we now know as "Christmas". For example: The tree was a German tradition, not ours. The presents, another tradition, the meals, another tradition and so on and so forth.
2007-01-10 13:25:20 · answer #7 · answered by jayndee13 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
because the christians were trying to make the switch from paganism as painless as possible so they took their solstice celebration and made it into a christian holiday
2007-01-10 06:05:21 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋