Christmas: Pagan or Christian Celebration?

  For many years now, especially before the popular Christmas festival, I have been reading many articles by different authors either in favor or against Christmas as a religious observance. While  some  people  regard it as something very unique and significant, those in the majority  usually  question the authenticity  of  the festival  and  even  call  for a stop to such  a ” pagan” celebration. This article is intended to clear the confusion in many people’s mind about Christmas so that when 25th   December  comes near  we all  know  how  to go  about  it. I do not  think  that  either  Jesus Christ himself  or God is offended  in any  way  by the  church for  observing  the birth  of Christ. The fact  that  the bible does  not mention  the  actual  date  of birth  of Christ  or that Jesus  himself did  not command that such  a feast  be celebrated  in memory  of him is no  reason  why  it should  not  be celebrated.

                         After all He  himself  has said, ” whatsoever  you  shall  bind on earth shall  be considered  bound  in Heaven, and  whatsoever  you  shall  loose  on earth  shall be considered  loose in Heaven”.  I am, therefore, very sure that angels too have been celebrating this feast. The Holy bible is silent on this issue because there was no accurate record of Christ’s date of birth. According  to St. Matthew (11:1) Jesus  was born ” in the days  of Herod the king” which  confirms St. Luke’s  statement  about  John  the Baptist(1:5) and  the Annunciation (1:26) and  by  St. Matthew’s  later  accounts  of the visit of the  magi(11:3) and  the flight into Egypt(11:19-22)

          Josephus , a famous  historian, informs us  that Herod died four years  before  the beginning  of the  Christian  era; his death is confirmed  by his story of an eclipse  of the  moon which  followed  the  death of  the tetrarch  and which  modern astronomers have  reckoned  as taking  place  about  12th  March  in the year 4 B.C. Since Herod passed the months of his  life  at the baths of Callirhoe, and  at Jericho and  that  at  the time  of the visit of the magi he was  still in Jerusalem, their  arrival  must  be placed  before  5 B.C which  makes  the actual  date  of Christ’s birth probably  about  six years  before  the present reckoning  of  the Christian era.