CHAPTER 2

Why December 25^th?

How did the Christian world arrive at the date of December 25^th for the birth of Jesus Christ?  Was Jesus Christ our Lord born on December 25^th or anywhere near that time?  The various sources below provide insight on whether we have been told the real story of how the date of December 25^th was chosen for the most important birth of any human being to ever live, Jesus the Messiah.

How much the calculation of Hippolytus had to do with the fixing of the festival on Dec. 25, and how much the date of the festival depended upon the pagan Brumalia (Dec. 25), following the Saturnalia (Dec. 17_24) and celebrating the shortest day in the year and the “new sun” or the beginning of the lengthening of days, can not be accurately determined.  The pagan Saturnalia and Brumalia were too deeply entrenched in popular custom to be set aside by Christian influence.  The recognition of Sunday (the day of Phoebus and Mithras as well as the Lord’s Day) by the emperor Constantine as a legal holiday, along with the influence of Manicheism, which identified the Son of God with the physical sun, may have led Christians of the fourth century to feel the appropriateness of making the birthday of the Son of God coincide with that of the physical sun.   The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. 3, P.48

The reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains uncertain, but most probably the reason is that early Christians wished the date to coincide with the pagan Roman festival marking the “birthday of the unconquered sun” (natalis solis invicti); this festival celebrated the winter solstice, when the days again begin to lengthen and the sun begins to climb higher in the sky.  Encyclopedia Britannica, P. 283

According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener, developed by B. Botte (Les Origines), and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun).  On Dec. 25, 274, Aurelain had proclaimed the sun-god principal patron of the empire and dedicated a temple to him in the Campus Martius.  Christmas originated at a time when the cult of the sun was particularly strong at Rome.  This theory finds support in some of the Church Fathers’ contrasting the birth of Christ and the winter solstice; indeed, for the beginning of the 3^rd century “Sun of Justice” appears as a title of Christ (Botte, Les Origines63).  Though the substitution of Christmas for the pagan festival cannot be proved with certainty, it remains the most plausible explanation for the dating of Christmas.  New Catholic Encyclopedia, book #3, P. 656

Christmas, 25 December is Chrismas Day although almost certainly not the day on which Christ was born, as is popularly supposed.  The date was eventually fixed by the Church in A.D. 440, the day of the winter solstice, which had anciently been a time of festival among heathen peoples.  Cassel Dictionary of Christianity, by J.C. Cooper, P. 52

…within the Christian Church no such festival as Christmas was ever heard of till the third century, and that not till the fourth century was far advanced did it gain much observance.  How, then, did the Romish Church fix on the December the 25^th as Christmas-day?  Why, thus: Long before the fourth century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival was celebrated amon the heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name of Christ.  The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop, P.93

Historians are unsure exactly when Christians first began celebrating the Nativity of Christ.  However, most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4^th century as a Christian substitute for the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.  Before the introduction of Christmas, each year beginning on December 17 Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, in a festival called Saturnalia.  This festival lasted for seven days and included the winter solstice, which usually occurred around December 25 on the ancient Julian calendar. Microsoft Encyclopedia Encarta 2000

The earliest mention of the observance of Christmas on 25 December is in a list of Roman bishops compiled in 354, which describes this date as ‘the day Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea’.  The choice of this day was partly influenced by the theory of Roman ecclesiastical writer, Hippolytus (c. 170-c. 236), who concluded that the Crucifixion took place in AD 29 on 25 March (which tradition held also to have been the date of the Creation), and that the Annunciation took place on the same day, because he believed that an exact number of days elapsed between the Incarnation and the death of Christ.  It followed, therefore, that Christ’s birth was on 25 December.

            The strongest reason for the choice of this date in the Western Church, however, was doubtless because of the pagan associations of the day and the desire of the Church to persuade the people to replace these by Christian observances.  In Rome, 25 December was the feast of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun, which commemorated the winter solstice, when the days begin to get lighter.  The Church replaced this by celebration of the birth of the ‘Sun of Righteousness’ and the coming of the ‘Light of the World’.  The Christian Calendar, P. 21

The first mention in the West of a festival on the now traditional date is in an almanac of 354, which Furius Dionysius Philocalus, a calligrapher, illuminated for the use of Christians in Rome.  It contained an entry under 25 December, natus Christus in Betleem Judeae, ‘Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judaea’.  This was also the date in the Julian calendar of the winter solstice, the day on which the sun is reborn, also celebrated by adherents of the oriental cult of the sun-god Mithras.  Dictionary of Christian Lore and Legend, by JCJ Metford, P. 67

Christmas the festival of the birth of Christ, celebrated on December 25, included a number of customs of pagan origin.  According to the ‘plan of the ages’ defined in De Pascha Computus, the first day of creation was March 25.  This day is taken as the date of Christ’s conception, making his actual birth fall on December 25, the date of the Mithraic festival honoring the end of the winter solstice.  Dictionary of Pagan Religions, by Harry E. Wedeck and Wade Baskin, P. 78

According to the calendar used by the ancient Romans, the winter solstice fell on December 25, making it a perfect day on which to commemorate the rebirth of the sun.  The cult of the sun god was especially popular with the Romans between the second and the fourth centuries, a time when Christianity was struggling to establish itself as a legitimate faith.  By selecting December 25 as the date of the new Feast of the Nativity, Christian leaders probably hoped to convince sun god worshipers to celebrate the birth of Jesus rather than the birth of the sun.  Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 156

Early Christian authorities placed Christmas near the winter solstice in the hopes of replacing pagan holidays clustered on and around the date.  Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 626

In the late third century A.D., however, the Roman emperor Aurelian (c. 215-275) added a new celebration to the calendar, the Birth of the Invincible Sun.  He chose December 25, the winter solstice, as the date for this festival honoring the sun god…In the middle of the fourth century, when Christian officials in Rome chose a date for the celebration of the Nativity, they, too, selected December 25.  Most scholars believe that they chose this date in order to draw people away from the pagan holidays celebrated at that time of year.  In fact, a document written by a Christian scribe later in that century explains that the authorities chose December 25 for the feast of the Nativity because people were already accustomed to celebrating on that date.  Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 628

In the first centuries after the death of Jesus, a new religious cult swept across the Roman Empire.  Traditional Roman religion included festivals and ceremonies associated with a wide variety of gods.  Followers of the new religion focused their devotions on one god.  They called this god “Mithras” or “Sol” and observed his birthday on December 25 with a festival known as the Natalis Sol Invicti, or the Birth of the Invincible Sun.  Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 50

According to the ancient Roman calendar, winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, fell on the December 25.  Scholars suggest that worshipers viewed this natural event as symbolic of the birth of the sun god and therefore celebrated the festival on that day.  Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 52

In spite of their [Christian who rejected Mithraism] opposition to the cult, in the middle of the fourth century Christian authorities selected December 25 as the day on which to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus Christ.  Scholars believe that they did so largely in order to divert people away from competing, pagan celebrations held on or around that date, such as the Birth of the Invincible Sun, Saturnalia, and Kalends.  Encyclopedia of Christmas, by Gulevich, P. 52

There was also another consideration which almost certainly influenced the choice of December 25 as the Feast of the Nativity…In the yet unconverted world of the fourth century, December 25 was already a sacred day for thousands of people throughout the Roman Empire.  It was Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.  It was the chief festival of the Phrygian god, Attis, and also of Mithras, whose cult was carried to Britain and other lands by the Roman army.  Christmas and its Customs, by Christina Hole, P. 9-10

How interesting it is to discover that the reason for the date of December 25^th is because of the pagan influences on Christianity.  The origin of this date is purely pagan and most likely dedicated to the ancient sun god – solis invicti.  According to these sources this date was chosen so pagans would find it easy to convert to Christianity.  The result would be a Christian religion intoxicated with the worship customs of the pagan gods.  Is this justified in the eyes of God?  Does God approve of this type of compromise with His truth?  Or are we glimpsing historical evidence of Satan’s movement to pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ?  Later in the following chapters, we will read what God says in His Holy Word, the Bible, about this compromise.  

There is not a shred of evidence that the early church practiced observing the birth of Jesus, but all indications are that it was instituted under the banner of Christianity sometime in the fourth century.  Its practices and customs pre-date the birth of the Savior, for the pagans worshipped the sun for thousands of years before Jesus was born of a virgin. 

Nowhere in the Bible are we commanded to observe the birth of Christ nor do the scriptures tell us the early church applied the celebration of Christmas to their teachings. The only proof one can conjure up about the dating of Christmas is that it is deeply rooted in paganism.  In all reality the Bible never tells us precisely when the Lord was born.  Is there a reason for that?  If God endorses Christmas, as mainstream Christian churches believe, then why is God silent on commanding the celebration of His Son’s birth?