Thank goodness!

RLynn

Active Member
We got through Christmas without any ruckus about Christmas myths, such as eccentric Shepherds peacefully grazing their flocks on the hills around Bethlehem, by night, in the dead of winter, when there is scarcely any grass upon which to graze. Does anyone besides me think that the saintly, revered Church Fathers may have gotten the date of Christmas incorrect. (How strange that it almost coincides with the Pagan celebration of Sol Invictus.)

Lest I be misunderstood, the midwinter date of Christmas is nowhere indicated in the Bible.
 

Nadai

Active Member
No one can deny the similarities between the Pagan's celebration of the Winter Solstice and Christmas. If I'm not mistaken, the actual birth of Jesus took place in or around March. Maybe it was assimilation that started of the celebration of Christmas in December or maybe when Christians were bashing Pagans they decided they wanted to keep around some of their "better" practices and celebrating a winter festival was one of them.
Personally I don't celebrate Jesus' birthday during Christmas time...even with the weird looks I get from my strictly Christian family. Whenever I hear someone (a Christian) make a comment concerning how people are trying to remove Christ from Christmas I can't help but laugh because, in truth, He has nothing to do with it.
But I suppose social custom dictates that people put mangers in their yards and spend hours in church talking about Jesus' birthday and whatnot.
 

Caburus

Active Member
Early Christians were far more interested in Christ's death and resurrection than in his birthday. Emphasising December 25th as a festival was a later attempt to accommodate Pagans who, whilst wanting to be Christian, didn't want to loose their traditional festival. It was also a way of finding common ground between Christians and Pagans, by amalgamating the various contending beliefs under one umbrella - that of Sol Invictus (the Sun; this is why Sun-day is the Christian day of rest and of going to Church). Amalgamating various contending pagan beliefs in order to unify worship had been previously attempted by the Ptolomies and Romans with Serapis and Isis. Christianity doing it was never hidden by the Church Fathers - just forgotten by later generations.

Another reason to pick December 25th as the birth of Jesus was because the Annunciation (when the angel visited Mary and said she was going to be pregnant) was from an early stage believed to have occurred on or about the 25th of March. If Mary got pregnant about that time, then nine months later, when Jesus was born, would have been on or near the 25th of December.

The argument that Christmas couldn't possibly be the correct date because it is too cold for shepherds to be out with their flocks is curious, because surely the people who first celebrated Christmas as a Christian festival were living in countries where this would have been obvious to them. Either the date was chosen because it really was that date, or it was chosen as conveniently symbolic (the actual nativity date being unknown) and people knew that.
 
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