The Deep and Diverse History of December 25th.

(A "War on Christmas"? Most already realize is a scam used by Cable "News" channels whom need to fill 24 hours a day without upsetting their corporate overlords. Like "Star Bucks" having ONLY a green and red coffee cups in their store, surrounded by Christmas Music and other Holiday Cheer at every turn.

Any Grinch would not need a "war" as Christmas in America is practically secular anyway. And most agree is too much about consuming and not enough about "Christ-like" reflecting. So if anyone wanting to undermine Christmas, well... too late. While there's not a decline in Christmas, there is a decline in Education. 

So why not use the excitement surrounding the holiday to serendipitously educate the kiddies about History?)

Some facts about December 25th could lead to many explorations about culture, religion, geography or maybe just a few new subjects that will come up again later and by repetition, be that much easier to learn? 

Most Christians today probably can’t imagine Christmas on any other day than December 25, but it wasn’t always that way. In fact, for the first three centuries of Christianity’s existence, Jesus Christ’s birth wasn’t celebrated at all. The religion’s most significant holidays were Epiphany on January 6, which commemorated the arrival of the Magi after Jesus’ birth, and Easter, which celebrated Jesus’ resurrection. The first official mention of December 25 as a holiday honoring Jesus’ birthday appears in an early Roman calendar from 336 A.D.

But Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th in the first place. The Bible doesn’t mention his exact birthday, and the Nativity story contains conflicting clues. For instance, the presence of shepherds and their sheep suggest a spring birth. Church officials settled on December 25 at the end of the third century, in an "inspired" move to co-opt the date to coincide with existing pagan festivals honoring Saturn (the Roman god of agriculture) and Mithra (the Persian god of light). That way, it became easier to convince Rome’s pagan subjects to accept Christianity as the empire’s official religion. Why compete, when they could just take over the day?

Especially popular was the Pagan Day of Saturnalia. The first-century AD poet Gaius Valerius Catullus described Saturnalia as ‘the best of times: dress codes were relaxed, small gifts such as dolls, candles and caged birds were exchanged. Saturnalia saw the inversion of social roles. The wealthy were expected to pay the month’s rent for those who couldn’t afford it, masters and slaves to swap clothes. Family households threw dice to determine who would become the temporary Saturnalian monarch.

If observed at all, the celebration of Christ's birth was usually lumped in with Epiphany (January 6), one of the church's earliest established feasts. Some church leaders even opposed the idea of a birth celebration. Origen (c.185-c.254) preached that it would be wrong to honor Christ in the same way Pharaoh and Herod were honored. Birthdays were for pagan gods.

Not all of Origen's contemporaries agreed that Christ's birthday shouldn't be celebrated, and some began to speculate on the date. Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) favored May 20 but noted that others had argued for April 18, April 19, and May 28. Hippolytus (c.170-c.236) championed January 2. November 17, November 20, and March 25 all had backers as well. A Latin treatise written around 243 pegged March 21, because that was believed to be the date on which God created the sun. Polycarp (c.69-c.155) had followed the same line of reasoning to conclude that Christ's birth and baptism most likely occurred on Wednesday, because the sun was created on the fourth day.

Western Christians first celebrated Christmas on December 25 in 336, after Emperor Constantine declared Christianity the empire's favored religion. Eastern churches, however, held on to January 6 as the date for Christ's birth and his baptism. Most easterners eventually adopted December 25, celebrating Christ's birth on the earlier date and his baptism on the latter. The Armenian church celebrates his birth on January 6. 

The birth of Jesus probably didn't happen in the Winter or in year 1AD but slightly earlier, somewhere between 2BC and 7BC

(NOTE: The Gregorian Calendar is off by as much as 4 YEARS! - Something I liked to remind my friends whenever they brought up the year 2012 "Doomsday" Mayan calendar, or any other timed, myth. - That and the fact that it was a "Rebirth" not an "End" to their calendar... but back to Christmas)...

Theologians have suggested that Jesus was born in the spring, based on the biblical narrative that shepherds were watching over their flocks in the fields on the night of Jesus' birth, something they would have done in the spring, not the winter.

To pinpoint Jesus' birth year, other scholars have tried to correlate the "Star of Bethlehem," which supposedly heralded Jesus' birth, with actual astronomical events. For example, in a 1991 article in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, astronomer Colin Humphreys proposed that the fabled star was actually a slow-moving comet, which Chinese observers recorded in 5 B.C.

~ Many cultures claim December 25th ~

Chrishna, of India, born on December 25, 3228 BC, his mother was a virgin, mother’s name was Maia. Kamsa, the ruler at the time of his birth sought to kill him because he had heard a Prophecy that Chrishna would overthrow him. Chrishna escaped death by being smuggled out of the area to safety. (like the story of Herod and Jesus).

Mithra, of Persia, born on December 25, before 1500 BC, his birth was witnessed by Shepherds that brought gifts to honor him. He was styled as a Mediator between God and Man. Witness this quote from the Encyclopedia Encarta, “Mithraism was similar to Christianity in many respects, for example, in the ideals of humility and brotherly love, baptism, the rite of communion, the use of holy water, the adoration of the shepherds at Mithra’s birth, the adoption of Sundays and of December 25 (Mithra’s birthday) as holy days, and the belief in the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, and the resurrection.  The similarities made easy conversion of its followers to Christian doctrine” 

Horus, of Egypt, born on December 25, before 2500 BC. His mother, Isis, gave birth to him in the swamp, she was warned by the god Thoth, to flee and conceal the child from the evil Set. Set had killed the father of Horus, Osiris, and sought to kill Horus.

Buddha, of India, born on December 25, 563 BC, his mother’s name was Maya (similar to Mary) she was a virgin. He was immaculately conceived, and at birth, he announced that he was a savior to the world. His birth was announced by a star. At his birth, he was visited by Wise Men who declared that they had seen Signs of his birth. Seems Jesus claimed many of the Buddha’s teachings. Maybe the whole Buddha story was appropriated by Jesus or by his church?

There are many parallels among our worlds religions and even in literature in general, going all the back to the "Legends of Gilgamesh" and likely before. Virgin Births, Resurrections and of course "Creation Myths" from every culture. Brain Scientist have traced this to the very real need for our brains to explain the unknown. They even coined a phrase "The God Gene",  (VMAT2) that predisposes humans towards spiritual or mystic experiences.

Regardless of history or mixed emotions around the holiday, the message of "Good Will & Peace on Earth" is worth living and it warms my heart to hear it, even if only once a year.

"Just Say Know"... 
and MERRY CHRISTMAS!