Christians celebrate Christmas to remember the birth of Jesus Christ who they believe is the son of God. Christmas is also celebrated by many non-Christians around the world.
Why not March or April?
No one knows when Jesus was born, but the Jewish festival of Passover takes place during spring in the northern hemisphere in March or April. This festival commemorates the Jews escaping from slavery in Egypt about 1 500 years before Jesus was born. Jews from all over the Roman Empire travelled 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, which is about six miles from Jerusalem, for the census. It is therefore likely that Jesus would have been born in March or April.
Why 25 December?
The date of 25 December was celebrated from the fourth century during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine who was the first Roman Emperor who had converted to Christianity.
The most commonly held theory is that the date was borrowed from existing pagan celebrations.
The pagan tribes of Northern and Western Europe had religious festivals around the time of the winter solstice which marked the end of winter and the return of spring. These festivals celebrated the return of the sun and the triumph of the light of the sun over the darkness of winter.
The Unconquered Sun
The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December and the feast of Sol Invictus – the Unconquered Sun – on 25 December.
The Unconquered Son
It is thought that the date was deliberately chosen to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world as there were already so many solar festivals celebrated around that time.
Early Christians might have given these festivals a new meaning namely to celebrate the birth of the Son of God who is ‘the Unconquered Son’.
