Christmas: Not a Christian Holiday

Did you know that Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas morning? Or even in December? Did you know that the reason why we celebrate on December 25 is because it’s the winter solstice, adapted from a pagan holiday? (gasp…)

When the early Christian leaders took power in Rome they needed an effective way to convert the masses from their pagan religions to Christianity. (This conversion was for political reasons, by the way, not out of some genuine concern for their souls.) One good idea that they had was to change all the pagan holidays to Christian holidays. “You can still celebrate today,” they essentially said, “it’s just for a different reason now.” It really helped to get the Christianity ball rolling.

In the 1600s, the Puritans banned Christmas because there was no reference to it in the Bible and even fined people who celebrated it. Today, Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe December 25 is the date of Jesus’ birth. The Church of Christ, which has two million to three million members, doesn’t either. Even a Christian should be able to admit, based on the Bible itself, that Jesus would have been born in a warmer time when the shepherds would have been out in the fields.

Although the great majority of Christians worldwide now celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, they have not always agreed on what kind of celebration is appropriate. Even in the early days, church leaders were concerned about too much merrymaking. The church’s Second Council of Tours proclaimed in the mid-500s the duty of fasting during Advent and the sanctity of the 12 days between Dec. 25 and Jan. 6.

Modern Christians, of course, have every right to celebrate Christmas. It’s a fun holiday that promotes almost the level of goodwill that Christians claim they should have year-round. But nobody has the right to claim that Christmas is all about Jesus or that secular culture has ruined it. Modern Americans, in fact, would probably do well to simply drain the Christianity from Christmas altogether. It would make us all a little less hypocritical.

Image via Wikipedia