That is quite debatable. For example, the usual pagan suspect actually didn’t use December 25 as a sacred date until nearly two centuries after the birth of the Church. So, then, who’s copying whom?
– Mark L. Chance.
Yes, I’ve read that. To be precise, Emperor Aurelian officially established worship of a Roman version of a sun god, under the name of Sol Invictus, as the principal cult of the empire on December 25, 274. He may have done so in response to Christians in the Empire already celebrating Christ’s birth on that day as a way of trying to undercut the Christian celebration.
The evidence on this point is too spotty for anyone to say for certain.
– Mark L. Chance.
Christmas is Christmas no matter what pagan holidays coincidentally have the same date. The following video is very reasonable, logical, scientific, historical, and biblical in it’s approach showing that the first Christmas was on December 25, 2 BC. This is the 7-part video:
The Real Star Of Bethlehem
youtube.com/watch?v=aCLmRB-OpGE
There’s compelling evidence to show that Jesus was indeed born on December 25:
December 25th Birth Of Christ
youtube.com/watch?v=UQS_Wc4Bnoc
Zechariah was acting as high priest when the birth of St. John the baptizer was announced to him in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. That would have been on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement which falls in late September. St. John was conceived shortly thereafter during Sukkot, the Festival of Booths.
At the Annunciation, the BVM was told that Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant. That would have been in late March. (BTW the feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25th in the Roman Calendar. Oh, those rascally Catlicks!)
Nine months later Jesus was born sometime in late December.
Now there is an interesting coincidence with all this. St. John would have been born near the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year) everyday after that would get shorter until the Winter Solstice six months later, which is the shortest day of the year. Every day after that would get longer. In the First Century the Winter Solstice fell on December 25th.
It would be fitting that Jesus would have been born on the shortest day of the year because he is the “Light of the World”:
**Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12) **
Everyday after his birth there was more light.
Also St. John the Baptizer said of himself:
He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Which is exactly what happened to the daylight after their respective births. (This was the point St. Augustine made in his championing the celebration of Jesus’ birth on the Winter Solstice).
So despite the objections of some pundits, December 25th is a very reasonable date to celebrate Jesus’ birth and not a concession to paganism.
just found out something interesting. Mark Shea has a new three volume set on the BVM entitled
Mary: Mother of the Son which has lots of detail about the history of the devotion to Our Lady.
In one of those volumes he shows that the Winter Solstice was NOT a Roman Civil holiday until the late 3rd Century AD. The Emperor Aurelian made December 25th a civil holiday because the Christians were already using it to celebrate the Birth of Jesus and he was trying to detract from the Christian celebration!
None of the Sun Cults used December 25th before then. It appears that the Winter Solstice was originally a CHRISTIAN feast that the pagans tried to paganize, not the other way around.
