Christmas Day

 Why is Christmas Day on the 25th December?

Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of of Jesus Christ, 

who Christians believe is the Son of God.

The name 'Christmas' comes from the Mass of Christ (or Jesus). 

A Mass service (which is sometimes called Communion or Eucharist)

 is where Christians remember that Jesus died for us and then came

 back to life. The 'Christ-Mass' service was the only one that was 

allowed to take place after sunset (and before sunrise the next day),

 so people had it at Midnight! So we get the 

name Christ-Mass, shortened to Christmas.

Christmas is now celebrated by people around the world, whether 

they are Christians or not. It's a time when family and friends come 

together and remember the good things they have. People, and 

especially children, also like Christmas as it's a time when you 

give and receive presents!

The Date of Christmas

No one knows the real birthday of Jesus! No date is given in the

 Bible, so why do we celebrate it on the 25th December? The early

 Christians certainly had many arguments as to when it should be

 celebrated! Also, the birth of Jesus probably didn't happen in the

 year 1 but slightly earlier, somewhere between 2 BCE/BC

 and 7 BCE/BC (there isn't a 0 - the years go from 1 BC/BCE to 1!).

The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th 

was in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was

 the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I 

officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated 

on the 25th December.

However, there are many different traditions and theories as to why 

Christmas is celebrated on December 25th.

A very early Christian tradition said that the day when Mary was told 

that she would have a very special baby, Jesus (called the Annunciation) 

was on March 25th - and it's still celebrated today on the 25th March. 

Nine months after the 25th March is the 25th December! March 25th was

 also the day some early Christians thought the world had been made, 

and also the day that Jesus died on when he was an adult. The date

 of March 25th was chosen because people had calculated that was the

 day on which Jesus died as an adult (the 14th of Nisan in the 

Jewish calendar) and they thought that Jesus was born and 

had died on the same day of the year.

Some people also think that December 25th might have also 

been chosen because the Winter Solstice and the ancient pagan 

Roman midwinter festivals called 'Saturnalia' and 'Dies Natalis

 Solis Invicti' took place in December around this date - so it was

 a time when people already celebrated things.

The Winter Solstice is the day where there is the shortest time 

between the sun rising and the sun setting. It happens on 

December 21st or 22nd. To pagans this meant that the winter was

 over and spring was coming and they had a festival to celebrate it

 and worshipped the sun for winning over the darkness of winter. 

In Scandinavia, and some other parts of northern Europe, the 

Winter Solstice is known as Yule and is where we get Yule Logs from.

 In Eastern Europe the mid-winter festival is called Koleda.

The Roman Festival of Saturnalia took place between December 17th

 and 23rd and honoured the Roman god Saturn. Dies Natalis Solis

 Invicti means 'birthday of the unconquered sun' and was held on 

December 25th (when the Romans thought the Winter Solstice took place)

 and was the 'birthday' of the Pagan Sun god Mithra. In the pagan

 religion of Mithraism, the holy day was Sunday and is where

get that word from!

The Roman emperor Aurelian created 'Sol Invictus' in 274. But the 

records of early Christian connecting 14th Nisan to 25th March and 

so the 25th December go back to around 200!

The Jewish festival of Lights, Hanukkah starts on the 25th of Kislev 

(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!

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.

 But soon people wanted a separate day to celebrate his birth.

Most of the world uses the 'Gregorian Calendar' implemented by

 Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Before that the 'Roman' or Julian 

Calendar was used (named after Julius Caesar). The Gregorian 

calendar is more accurate that 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 1582 was 

15th October 1582. In the UK the change of calendars was made in 1752. 

The day after 2nd September 1752 was 14th September 1752.

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 was the person who really started Christmas

 in the UK by introducing Christianity in the 6th century. He came 

from countries that used the Roman Calendar, so western countries

 celebrate Christmas on the 25th December. Then people from Britain 

and Western Europe took Christmas on the 25th December all over the world!

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.

So when was Jesus Born?

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'. This festival remembers when the Jews had

 escaped from slavery in Egypt about 1500 years before Jesus

 was born. Lots of lambs would have been needed during the

 Passover Festival, to be sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem.

 Jews from all over the Roman Empire traveled to Jerusalem for the

 Passover Festival, so it would have been a good time for 

the Romans to take a census. Mary and Joseph went 

to Bethlehem for the census 

(Bethlehem is about six miles from Jerusalem).

In the autumn (in September or October) there's the Jewish festival 

of 'Sukkot' or 'The Feast of Tabernacles'. It's the festival that's 

mentioned the most times in the Bible! It is when Jewish people

 remember that they depended on God for all they had after they 

had escaped from Egypt and spent 40 years in the desert. It also

 celebrates the end of the harvest. During the festival, Jews live

 outside in temporary shelters (the word 'tabernacle' come from a 

latin word meaning 'booth' or 'hut').

Many people who have studied the Bible, think that Sukkot would

 be a likely time for the birth of Jesus as it might fit with the 

description of there being 'no room in the inn'. It also would have 

been a good time to take the Roman Census as many Jews 

went to Jerusalem for the festival and they would have brought

 their own tents/shelters with them! (It wouldn't have been practical

 for Joseph and Mary to carry their own shelter as Mary was pregnant.)

The possibilities for the Star of Bethlehem seems

 to point either spring or autumn.

So whenever you celebrate Christmas, remember that you're

celebrating a real event that happened about 2000 years ago, 

that God sent his Son into the world as a Christmas present for everyone!

As well as Christmas and the solstice, there are some other

 festivals that are held in late December. Hanukkah is celebrated

 by Jews; and the festival of Kwanzaa is celebrated by some Africans

 and African Americans takes place from December 26th to January 1st.