Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Why is Christmas on December 25? (Encore)

Starting point is 00:00:00 The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. Every year, people around the world celebrate Christmas on December 25th. In many countries, it's the biggest single holiday of the year. Why is it celebrated on December 25th? Is there any historical basis for the state? And if not, then why do we celebrate it on the state? Learn more about why we celebrate Christmas when we do on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong?

Starting point is 00:00:42 ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time. to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the Thulein podcast from NPR. The first thing that's necessary to establish is that there is nothing documented in any writing from the Bible or other ancient sources, which gives a date for the birth of Jesus. Nothing.

Starting point is 00:01:16 It isn't even implied or hinted at. So for all practical purposes, we really have no idea what day or even what month Jesus was born. Then, why do we celebrate it on December 25th? To a certain extent, any day that was chosen would be just as good as the next if you don't know what the real date is. It would be an arbitrary choice. But December 25th isn't arbitrary. There's a good reason why it was picked. Initially, in the very early Christian church, during the first two centuries of its existence,

Starting point is 00:01:45 there is no mention or indication that the birth of Jesus was celebrated. The first known date we have of a December 25th celebration of the birth of Jesus is in the year 336 during the reign of Emperor Constantine. Constantine, as I've mentioned in previous episodes, brought Christianity out from being an underground religion. Many of the traditions of early Christians were able to be openly celebrated, and many of them were finally documented. Most people, when given an explanation about why December 25th was chosen, get the story half right. By that I mean what they say isn't technically wrong, but it doesn't tell you. the whole truth, and it doesn't explain why that date in particular was chosen. December 25th was in the Roman calendar, the festival of Saul Invictus.

Starting point is 00:02:28 Sol Invictus was a god, and Saul Invictus means the unconquered sun, as in sun in the sky. There are debates as to if Solenvictus was a separate deity from Saul, but as far as the celebration goes, it was a festival that was established rather late in the Roman Empire in the year 275 by the Emperor Orreelian. It was probably a foreign god that was brought alongside Roman gods. Aurelian was from Dacia, which is today the region around Serbia and Bulgaria, and he probably brought the tradition with him. His mother may have been a son priestess. It was celebrated on December 25th, because that was the day on the Roman calendar, which was celebrated as the winter solstice. Actually, and I addressed this in my episode on the Julian calendar,

Starting point is 00:03:10 by the time Aurelian was emperor, the actual solstice wasn't on December 25th anymore. In 275, if you check it out on a calendar converter, the actual solstice was on December 21st. However, back during the founding of the Republic about 500 years earlier, the solstice did fall on the 25th, and the Romans stuck to their calendar dates, even though the dates slowly shifted over time. And just as an aside, the Roman calendar got so screwed up by the time of Julius Caesar that their harvest festival was starting before they actually began planting. When Christianity began to spread, and when the Empire officially endorsed Christianity, they would often baptize pagan, customs and make them Christian. This way it was easier for people to join with the program,

Starting point is 00:03:51 and they could still be Christian, but celebrate all the festivals they did before. So yes, Christmas falls on the day of the Roman pagan festival of Saul and Victus, which was on December 25th, which at one time was the winter solstice. That is the part that most people get right. What they fail to explain is why they pick Saul and Victus. The Romans had tons of holidays and festivals. Like most cultures, they had spring celebrations, summer celebrations, festivals, and of course one for the winter solstice. Why did they pick that when they could have picked any other Roman holiday? In fact, the Roman festival of Saturnalia took place just a week before Sol Invictus, and it was a far bigger deal. Why didn't they just take that holiday over?

Starting point is 00:04:31 As it turns out, the object wasn't picking the winter solstice, so much as it was the result of seeking another date, and that date was March 25th. This is the date that many early Christians cared about. The early Christian historian Sextus Julius Afrikaans, set the date of Jesus' conception to be March 25th. This was because there was a belief that prophets died on the same day they were conceived, and it was believed that Jesus died on March 25th. March 25th was also believed to be the day that the world was created, and back then it also happened to fall on the spring equinox.

Starting point is 00:05:06 So the creation of the world, the conception of Jesus, and the death of Jesus, all worked out really well for the early Christians, and that day, the day they really cared about was March 25th. Once you set the date of the conception, then it's just a matter of working ahead nine months to figure out the date for a birth. If March 25th was the conception of Jesus, then Ipsophacto, December 25th had to be the day he was born, assuming a nine-month gestation. Today, in the Catholic Church, March 25th is still celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation, which celebrates the conception of Jesus. So, yes, Christmas does fall on the Roman holiday of Sol Invictus, but it wasn't selected because it was Solenvictus. Rather, it was an implication of setting the date of conception to March 25th.

Starting point is 00:05:50 As the Julian calendar slowly drifted and was eventually replaced by the Gregorian calendar, the date of December 25th stuck, even though it wasn't quite the solstice anymore. Of the educated guesses which have been made by biblical scholars, most of them probably think that the most likely time for Jesus' birth would have been in the spring or the fall. If there was a Roman census, it probably wouldn't have been done in the winter, and there probably wouldn't have been that many shepherds out at that time of year. The December 25th celebration wasn't and isn't something that is universally celebrated by Christians. When Puritans came to America, they actually banned the celebration of Christmas in Massachusetts.

Starting point is 00:06:27 Today, there are still some denominations that do not celebrate Christmas, such as Quakers and Jehovah's Witnesses. Some places, more as a matter of culture than religion, put more emphasis on the Epiphany, which is January 6th, the day which Jesus was first met by Gentiles. Regardless of the long and circuitous route it took, whatever pagan holocaust, they may have taken over. Christmas and December 25th are now firmly set on modern calendars. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiever. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise, Patreon is currently the only place where it's available.

Starting point is 00:07:13 And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified to future episodes and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Why is Christmas on December 25? (Encore)

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