On December 25, Santa loads up his sleigh with gifts pile high and begins the journey of gift giving and spreading joy around the word.  The day of the journey is in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.  There has always been the discussion about the actual birthday of Jesus and why December 25 is the day of celebration.  The following is reprinted from the book, “Weird Christmas,” authored by Joey Green.

After the winter solstice the day of the year with the least sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere, the number of daylight hours begins to increase.  For centuries before Jesus was born, pagans celebrated the “rebirth of the sun” on the winter solstice with wild festivals.  Scandinavian tribes celebrated the festival of Yule (the origin of the word Yuletide) to commemorate the resurrection of the sun as the giver of light and warmth.  The Romans celebrated Saturnalia (a week-long festival beginning on December 17 that was dedicated to Saturn, the god of agriculture, and to the renewed power of the sun).  People decorated their homes with greenery, lit candles and bonfires, exchanged gifts, prepared special foods, and to get rip-roaring drunk.

Around 60 B.C. Persians brought Mithraism – a mystery religion revolving around the sun god Mithras – to Rome, Mithraism spread throughout the empire, reaching as far as Britain.  The majority of Romans were soon celebrating Natalis Solis Invicti (Latin for “birthday of the invincible sun”) on December 25 in honor of Mithras.  The Romans Julian calendar devised in 46 B.C. by astronomer Sosigenes, incorrectly declared December 25 to be the shortest day of the year (the winter solstice actually takes place around December 21).  Around A.D. 274, Emperor Aruelian proclaimed Mithraism the official state religion of Rome, making the sun god the supreme god of the Roman Empire.  The growing popularity of Mithraism posed a serious threat to Christianity.  (Interestingly, initiates to Mithraism were baptized, promised a share in the resurrection, and took part in a regular communion meal of bread and wine.)

 Initially, the Christian Church did not celebrate the birth of Jesus.  At the end of the second century A.D. Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria mentioned in his writings that Egyptians of his time celebrated May 20 as Jesus’ birthday, since the gospel of LuKe states that the shepherds (who were told by an angel of Jesus’ birth) were watching their flocks by night, which was only done at lambing time in the spring.  Around A.D. 245, Christian scholar Origen of Alexandria announced that it was a sin to celebrate Jesus’ birthday “as though he were a King Pharaoh.

 Sometime between A.D. 274 and 336, determined to eradicate the rival pagan velebrations of Saturnalia and Natalis Solis Invicti, the Church decided to celebrate Jesus’ birth on December 25, despite the fact that no one knows the actual day on which Jesus was born.  To make Christianity more acceptable to pagan converts, the Church transformed “the rebirth of the sun” to the birth of Jesus as “the light of the world” and “the sun of righteousness,” instituting a day of prayer and assimilating many existing pagan practices into the Christian celebration.  In 337, Roman emperor Constantine embraced Christianity, was baptized, and declared Christianity the official state religion.  In 350, Pope Julius I officially declared December 25 as the birthday of Jesus.  In 354, Bishop Liberius of Rome officially adopted December 25 as the day to celebrate the birth of Jesus, adding the holy day to the Roman calendar.  (The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Catholic Church still follow the Julian calendar established by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C., and celebrate Jesus’birthday on January 6.)  In A.D. 400, Pope Sixtus III conducted the first midnight Mass on Christmas at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.

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