Kelly, other Romans revered a Persian god, Mithra, whose feast day also may have fallen on December There was also Saturnalia, an annual Roman festival that ran from December 17 to December In short, many ancient Romans were well-accustomed to celebrating something in late December by the time Christianity entered the mainstream. In , Constantine and his fellow ruler Licinius issued the Edict of Milan , which basically legalized Christianity and condemned the ongoing persecution of anyone who practiced it.
Constantine was a devout Christian himself, and he spent the rest of his reign spreading the religion throughout the empire. Whether Christians celebrated Christmas on December 25 before may forever be unknown, but we do know that the custom quickly caught on spending the holiday watching A Christmas Story marathon wouldn't come until much later.
By the end of the 4th century, Christian bishops were holding Christmas Mass all over Rome, and pagan festivals soon fell out of fashion. The celebration of Christmas spread throughout the Western world over the next several centuries, but many Christians continued to view Epiphany and Easter as more important.
Some, including the Puritans of colonial New England, even banned its observance because they viewed its traditions—the offering of gifts and decorating trees, for example—as linked to paganism. In the early days of the United States, celebrating Christmas was considered a British custom and fell out of style following the American Revolution.
But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. The word Yalda means 'birth' and comes from early Christians living in Persia celebrating the birth of Jesus around this time. The Romans also thought that the Solstice took place on December 25th. It's also thought that in the Roman emperor Aurelian created 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' meaning 'birthday of the unconquered sun' also called 'Sol Invictus' and it was held on December 25th.
However, there are records going back to around of early Christians connecting the Nisan 14 to the 25th March, and so 25th December was a 'Christian' festival date many years before 'Sol Invictus'!
More recent studies have also found that the 'Sol Invictus' connection didn't appear until the 12th century and it's from one scribbled note in the margins of a manuscript.
There's also evidence that 'Sol Invictus' might also have happened in October and not December anyway! Christmas had also been celebrated by the early Church on January 6th, when they also celebrated the Epiphany which means the revelation that Jesus was God's son and the Baptism of Jesus.
Now Epiphany mainly celebrates the visit of the Wise Men to the baby Jesus , but back then it celebrated both things! Jesus's Baptism was originally seen as more important than his birth, as this was when he started his ministry. The Jewish festival of Lights, Hanukkah starts on the eve of the Kislev 25 the month in the Jewish calendar that occurs at about the same time as December.
Hanukkah celebrates when the Jewish people were able to re-dedicate and worship in their Temple, in Jerusalem, again following many years of not being allowed to practice their religion. Jesus was a Jew, so this could be another reason that helped the early Church choose December the 25th for the date of Christmas! The Gregorian calendar is more accurate than the Roman calendar which had too many days in a year! When the switch was made 10 days were lost, so that the day that followed the 4th October was 15th October In the UK the change of calendars was made in The day after 2nd September was 14th September Many Orthodox and Coptic Churches still use the Julian Calendar and so celebrate Christmas on the 7th January which is when December 25th would have been on the Julian calendar.
And the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates it on the 6th January! In some part of the UK, January 6th is still called 'Old Christmas' as this would have been the day that Christmas would have celebrated on, if the calendar hadn't been changed. Some people didn't want to use the new calendar as they thought it 'cheated' them out of 11 days! Christians believe that Jesus is the light of the world, so the early Christians thought that this was the right time to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
They also took over some of the customs from the Winter Solstice and gave them Christian meanings, like Holly , Mistletoe and even Christmas Carols! St Augustine of Canterbury was the person who probably started the widespread celebration of Christmas in large parts of England by introducing Christianity to the regions run by the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th century other Celtic parts of Britain were already Christian but there aren't many documents about if or how they celebrated the birth of Jesus.
If you'd like to know more about the history behind the dating of Christmas, then read this very good article on Bible History Daily goes to another site. There's a strong and practical reason why Jesus might not have been born in the winter, but in the spring or the autumn!
It can get very cold in the winter and it's unlikely that the shepherds would have been keeping sheep out on the hills as those hills can get quite a lot of snow sometimes! During the spring in March or April there's a Jewish festival called 'Passover'.
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