Why was Jesus born on 25th of December?

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anhphan

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It is said that December 25 was the day of Sun God and The Church took place that day by the day of Jesus born. Is it true? Thanks in advance.
 
Yeah, I’m still confused. Some people said without Sun God Mira, there would not be Christmas.
 
Not sure who those people are but they would not be correct.

Christmas or Christ Mass is the liturgical celebration of the nativity or birth of Jesus.
 
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anhphan said:
Yeah, I’m still confused. Some people said without Sun God Mira, there would not be Christmas.
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I think there is a good argument for Jesus being born around December 25th. However, even if in this particular example it is a case of taking a pagan festival and redirecting it to a celebration of the one true God… what’s wrong with that? And even if there had been no pagan festival sround that time of year, we would no doubt still be celebrating the nativity of Jesus Christ at some point in the liturgical calendar.
 
I recall hearing a theory about this some years ago. I forget the actual argument, but what I do recall was that Dec 25 was “picked” as the date to celebrate as it was after the Winter solstice and we had more “light” than the previous day. Now, you could say that on 12/23 you have more light than 12/22, but if I recall correctly, it was because it was more perceptible on the 25th. Personally, it seems the same to me. I believe where I heard this was in a movie called “A Christmas Star” or something like that. Again, this is just one of many arguments of why.

There is a nice article about a lot of theories regarding the date and how/why it was chosen here. Kind of lengthy, but an interesting read. Merry Christmas all! 🎄

 
No, the holiday you are thinking of usually fell between December 16-19.
 
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anhphan said:
It is said that December 25 was the day of Sun God and The Church took place that day by the day of Jesus born. Is it true? Thanks in advance.
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The cult of Sol Invictus was established by the Emperor Aurelian in AD 274 on 25th December. I believe Christmas is recorded as being celebrated on 25th December during the pontificate of Pope St Telosphorus, 150 years before this. So who copied who?

 
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anhphan said:
Some people said without Sun God Mira, there would not be Christmas.
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Don’t be silly.

The feast of the Nativity on the liturgical calendar is like other feast days— not placed on the actual day but celebrated liturgically on that day.

It’s on December 25 because that’s where the Church placed it when it began celebrating the feast of the Nativity— actually it has been celebrated in on several different dates in different parts of the church until the Church standardized it on December 25.

Pagan celebrations in December having to do with the solstice have nothing to do with our celebration of the Nativity.
 
Not worth worrying or arguing about. It’s an arbitrary day commemorating a monumental event. Once selected, the arbitrary day should be revered.
 
Matching up Luke 1:5 with 1 Chron 24:10 and “calculating” the date of John the Baptist’s birth on the strength of those two verses alone, unsupported by any other source, is a temptation that the wise man will resist. It will yield a conjecture that is not altogether unreasonable, but it is no more than that, a conjecture. Fr. Longenecker ought to have known better than to present the two dates of birth, those of John the Baptist and Jesus, as though they were verifiable historical facts of which we can have certain knowledge. They aren’t, and we can’t.
 
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His point about the celebration of Christmas on 25th December predating the establishment of the cult of Sol Invictus is a good one.
 
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anhphan said:
It is said that December 25 was the day of Sun God and The Church took place that day by the day of Jesus born. Is it true? Thanks in advance.
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He was born on the 25th so we could have a Happy Holiday on Xmas.

Forgive me…
 
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Brendan_64 said:
His point about the celebration of Christmas on 25th December predating the establishment of the cult of Sol Invictus is a good one.
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Yes, agreed. There are good reasons for believing that a pagan priesthood took over the Christians’ Christmas and made it the day of Sol Invictus instead, with the support of the imperial authorities, a century or two before Constantine, at a time when they were attempting to stamp out Christianity and restore pagan worship.
 
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Another good argument for the December 25 for the date of Christ’s birthday.

 
The 25th was the Roman feast for the sun god I believe. Until around year 300, Jesus’ birth was celebrated at different times depending on the people, culture, and location. Some celebrated in what is now July, January… eventually the Roman Emperor made the 25th the universal day for the birth, replacing the sun god feast. Reason being it was already a feast so it would be an easy change
 
… Or more likely the other way around. Please see my post #16, three posts up from this one.
 
Also possible, but the birth was celebrated at different times of the year by Christians in different places. It wasn’t uniform until 300s. So perhaps the 25th was taken by pagan god and they decided to celebrate it at different days? I think that’s unlikely, they would continue to use the real date.

Historically, Jesus was probably born between 3 and 1 BC and the date might be closer to March from what I’ve read. I don’t think we can p(name removed by moderator)oint the 25th as the historically accurate date, it might be but I don’t think we can determine that. If you trace the reign of Tiberius and Caesar and look for a census, historically this happened in 3 BC, and similar deduction can be done to show the 25th might not be the date, but not enough evidence to know.

As for the Star, there can be traced a collision of two planets in 3BC that would cause brilliant light looking like a huge star. History and science are helpful to p(name removed by moderator)oint this date
 
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