Why Do We Celebrate Christmas In December
In fact some brands like nordstrom have dared to buck this trend in recent years announcing that they won t deck the halls of nordstrom stores until after thanksgiving has passed.
Why do we celebrate christmas in december. Having turned long ago from worshiping the one true god and creator of all things many early cultures in the roman empire had fallen into sun worship. It has been suggested that christians in the 4th century assigned december 25th as christ s birthday and hence christmas because pagans already observed this day as a holiday. However why do we actually celebrate christmas. Christmas the holiday commemorating the birth of jesus christ is celebrated by a majority of christians on december 25 in the gregorian calendar but early christians did not celebrate his birth and no one knows on which date jesus was actually born some scholars believe that the actual date was in the early spring placing it closer to easter the holiday.
They had a specific reason for doing so. By 336 a d the roman church calendar definitively records a nativity celebration by western christians on this date. No date is given in the bible so why do we celebrate it on the 25th december. Ultimately december 25 was chosen perhaps as early as a d.
The history of christmas goes back to the beginning of our era. The first date listed december 25 is marked. Christ was born in bethlehem of judea 3 in about 400 c e augustine of hippo mentions a local dissident christian group the donatists who apparently kept christmas festivals on december 25 but refused to celebrate the epiphany on january 6 regarding it. Most christians today probably can t imagine christmas on any other day than december 25 but it wasn t always that way.
Also the birth of jesus probably didn t happen in the year 1 but slightly earlier somewhere between 2 bce bc and 7 bce bc possibly in 4 bce bc there isn t a 0 the years go. Christmas is a time of fun family and gifts for many. Eastern churches retained the january 6 commemoration together with epiphany until sometime in the fifth or sixth centuries when the 25th day of december became the widely accepted holiday. Why do we celebrate christmas in december when jesus was born in march.
In his article saturnalia. In this way the problem of eliminating an already. In fact for the first three centuries of christianity s existence. All the historical evidence points to the birth of christ as being in or around march after you translate the hebrew dates into the christian dating system of before christ and anno dominus.
The decision to celebrate christmas on december 25 was made sometime during the fourth century by church bishops in rome. The early christians certainly had many arguments as to when it should be celebrated. The reason we celebrate christmas in december columnist mark whittington explains.