Christmas is the world’s most popular Latin holiday, because the date was chosen by an Italian pope.
The Holidays are really fun in New York. The City is one of the best places in the world to celebrate Christmas and all the other year-end holidays. As early as the end of October, The City transforms itself into a city of lights.
What is Christmas?
Many of us grow up around Christmas, and never think much about it. The word is a contraction of the Christ Mass at midnight on his traditional birthday.
Where Was Christ Born?
Nobody knows for sure where Christ was born. But since 2nd century, tradition says he was born in a cave under what is now the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, south of Jerusalem. The sun star that marks the spot is striking, and a hint to broader meanings.
It had been a holy site for Adonis, the classical ideal of a beautiful man, who was the lover of both Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Persephone whose story explains why we have winter and summer. Those are both interesting connections with love and the death and rebirth provided by the seasons.
Why is Christmas on December 25?
By tradition, December 25 is the birthday of Jesus Christ. He was a historical figure, but nobody knows when he was born. His birthday was chosen by Italian Pope Julius around 350. There are many speculations as to the reason for it.
Christianity began its growth from an obscure religion under the Romans when Roman emperor Constantine the Great embraced it. Scholars say that was either in 312 or on his deathbed in 337. At that time, Romans celebrated the rebirth of the Roman sun god Sol Invictus on December 25 with the festival of Saturnalia. It was a festival where people let loose, kind of an orgy with drinking, feasting, and gifting. There was the crowning of a mock King of Saturnalia, which lives on in Carnival traditions.
Many scholars think Pope Julius chose the date of Saturnalia as the birth of Jesus in order to take over the older festival. It’s a bit like the custom of building churches, temples, and mosques on the holy sites of older religions.
There was also Mithraism, a secret Roman military religion at least partly inspired by the teachings of the Persian prophet Zoroaster. Persia (now Iran) was a great empire before the Romans. Some Romans looked to it as a classical period of a noble past, in the same way that Europeans looked to a classical Greco-Roman past. Christianity developed out of Judaism. There was a period of high Jewish culture in Ancient Persia, and Jewish religion builds on some of the old Persian traditions. Zoroaster was the prophet whose concept of heaven and hell was adopted by the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic faiths. Mithras was born from a rock (Jesus was reborn from a cave). He shared a meal with the sun god Sol. The festival for Mithras was celebrated on December 25. In an unbiased look at history, it’s easy to see how much we are all related.
The ancients were great astronomers because the night sky is still the best show in the world. Since the beginning of human time, many religions have celebrated their supreme god, usually the Sun god, on their Winter Solstice. Religious figures knew this to be the longest night and shortest day of the year, and organized their followers in rituals to bring back the sun. Religions in the northern hemisphere celebrate around their Winter Solstice, which falls on December 21 or 22. Religions in the southern hemisphere celebrate around their Winter Solstice, which is June 20 or 21.
We think it likely that Pope Julius chose to celebrate the Christian god on the day when most northern religions celebrate their supreme god. The dates don’t quite match up because there have been some changes in calendars since then.
Even New Year’s is a similar celebration tied to the Roman calendar. But the solstice is the root of all these celebrations. And the solstice is for everyone, regardless of belief. It marks the renewal of the cycle of life on Mother Earth, which is kind of what Christmas is really all about.
Merry Christmas.