Many people think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because Catholicism appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Problems with the date come from a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan celebration. Historically the choice of December 25th came from the earliest Christians who tried to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals but more the Gospel of Matthew and Luke.
Every year around this time I hear of Atheists in Washington going after Christmas in legislations. I come across horrible news reports about Christian missionaries horrifically tortured by Muslims on Christmas day. The most mind-boggling thing is that I see a few articles from believers who don't celebrate the birth because some belief about the “Pagan Origins”.
I want point out some obvious facts in History; the festival of the “Birth of the Unconquered Sun” instituted by the Roman Emperor Aurelian on 25 December 274, was almost certainly an attempt to create a pagan alternative to a date that was already of some significance to Roman Christians. Thus the “pagan origins of Christmas” is a myth without historical substance. In the Julian calendar, created in 45 B.C. under Julius Caesar, the winter solstice fell on December 25th, and it therefore seemed obvious to Jablonski and Hardouin that the day must have had a pagan significance before it had a Christian one. But in fact, the date had no religious significance in the Roman pagan festal calendar before Aurelian’s time, nor did the cult of the sun play a prominent role in Rome before him.
The truth is that December 25th is recognized globally to commemorate the birth of Jesus. People will celebrate in their own way completely forgetting the original meaning and some ignore the day. The fact still remains that God came into the world in the form of a gift to atone for the sins of humanity, and this is the reason for the celebration!
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