Typical Christmas stories deal with either the immaculate birth of Jesus Christ or Santa Claus. This Christmas story is about what really went down.
Jesus was not born in December, the winter celebration was originally a pagan holiday celebrated by the Romans and Santa Claus is not real.
When was Jesus born?
Scholars will maintain that it is illogical that Jesus was born in December. According to www.new-life.net, the temperature in the area of Bethlehem in December averages around 44 degrees Fahrenheit and can drop well below freezing.
Also the mention of shepherds attending flocks by night couldn’t have placed the birth in December. Shepherds in that area kept their flocks in the fields between April and October.
Jesus’ exact date of birth is not recorded or indicated in the Bible. According to www.simpletoremember.com, Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, determined the year of Jesus’ birth. Exiguus concluded that Jesus was born in 754 ab urbe condita. Other scholars contest that Jesus was born in zero or 1 A.D. A few others believe that God is withholding the information about the date of Jesus’ birth.
How it all started
Since a December birth has been ruled out, how the celebration of Jesus’ birth was placed on Dec. 25 stemmed from the Roman pagan holiday Saturnalia.
According to The History Channel’s Web site, Saturnalia was a Roman holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. This celebration took place in the beginning of the week leading up to the winter and continued for a month.
Saturnalia was a wild time where food and wine abounded and Roman social order was over turned. During this time, slaves would become masters and peasants were in command of the city. Businesses and schools shut down for this time so that all could join in on the fun.
In the fourth century, Christianity imported the Saturnalia holiday festival in hopes of converting the sinning pagans. This was done under the promise that the pagans could still celebrate Saturnalia as Christians. There was one problem.
There was nothing Christian about the Saturnalia festival. According to Greek writer, poet and historian, Lucian the festival ran amuck with human sacrifice, widespread intoxication, going from house to house while singing naked, rape and other sexual practices and consuming human shaped biscuits.
To take care of the un-Christian behaviors, the Christian leaders decided that Saturnalia’s final day be December 25 and a celebration of Jesus’ birth. By the Middle Ages, Christianity, mostly, had replaced the pagan holiday.
Christmas became a time of year when the upper class would repay their ‘debt’ to society by entertaining the less fortunate. The poor were allowed to go into the houses of the rich and demand the best food and drink. If the wealthy did not cooperate, the houseguests would terrorize the hosts with misbehavior.
The earliest Christmas holidays were still celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence and naked singing in the streets. This was a precursor of modern caroling.
Because Christmas had a pagan origin, the Puritans banned Christmas and its observances were illegal in Massachusetts from 1659 to 1681. After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. Christmas wasn’t a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
Filed under: Lifestyles |