What is Christmas?

It’s Christmas Day and we all are looking forward to some great food, spending time with family and opening presents.

But do we really know what is it all about?

Christmas is celebrated annually, with most of us believing that Christmas is a time to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ over 2 000 years ago, giving, family time, cheerful music and decorations, feasting, singing Mariah Carey or Michael Bolton’s Christmas Carols and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive – not so? But the Bible offers few clues about the exact month and date of Jesus’ birth and there seems to be more surrounding the origin of Christmas.

Numerous reliable sources reveal the following:

• history.com: “Christmas is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon. For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion.”

Watch an almost 3-minute video here [https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas]

Other sources reveal that nearly all aspects of Christmas observance have their roots in Roman custom and religion.

• therealtruth.org quotes a large American newspaper, the Buffalo News (1984) sayings: “The earliest reference to Christmas being marked on December 25 comes from the second century after Jesus’ birth. It is considered likely the first Christmas celebrations were in reaction to the Roman Saturnalia, a harvest festival that marked the winter solstice – the return of the sun – and honoured Saturn, the god of sowing. Saturnalia was a rowdy time, much opposed by the more austere leaders among the still-minority Christian sect. Christmas developed, one scholar says, as a means of replacing worship of the sun with worship of the Son. By 529 A.D., after Christianity had become the official state religion of the Roman Empire, Emperor Justinian made Christmas a civic holiday. The celebration of Christmas reached its peak – some would say its worst moments – in the medieval period when it became a time for conspicuous consumption and unequaled revelry.”

Read more here:

• The Real Truth™ [https://realtruth.org/articles/169-ttooc.html]

• Bible History Daily [https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/new-testament/how-december-25-became-christmas/]

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