| Is Christmas Pagan? |
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Christmas is an annual Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. Most churches celebrate this event on December 25, while there are some Orthodox churches (who follow the Julian calendar) that celebrate it on January 7. Christmas does have its roots in the Bible, i.e. Matthew 1:18-2:12 and Luke 1:26-56. The earliest known celebration by Catholics was around 336 A.D. Back then it was known as the Feast of the Nativity. Fundamentalists claim that Christmas is pagan in origin. They point to the Roman festival of Saturnalia. This is a seven day celebration from December 17 to 24 where the Roman god of agriculture, Saturn, was honoured. The celebration then concludes with the winter solstice on December 25. A practice that occurred during Saturnalia was the exchange of gifts. The Romans also participated in rituals commemorating Shab-e Yalda (the birth of Mithra, the Persian sun god). Before the 4th century, the birth of Mithra was celebrated on Dec. 21, but it was transferred to Dec. 25 as a result of errors in calculating leap years. So, it doesn't look good for Christmas. We have birth of the Jesus Christ, the Son of God which is celebrated at exactly the same time as the birth of the Persian sun god. This is enough evidence to convince fundamentalists that Christmas is pagan. So why would the Catholic Church make Dec. 25 as the time to honour the birth of Christ? Around the 4th Century, Catholicism was overtaking paganism, but there were still many pagans to convert and the pagans in the Church tended to celebrate their old traditions. The Church named December 25 as the Feast of the Nativity to replace the pagan traditions occurring during the same period. Pagans were in celebration mode at the time. So instead of honouring the birth of the Mithra, the birth of the real God was celebrated. Needless to say, this tactic worked. The pagan celebrations disappeared and Christian ones were celebrated instead. So, Merry Christmas. |
