Origin of Christmas

Christmas is my favorite holiday of the year. Gift-giving is in trend. Everybody goes partying like they never have a problem at all. Streets are decorated with colorful lights. You get to see your relatives and family whom you  haven't seen for a long time 'cause it seems like everybody is going back home. People mostly are in good mood, beaming with smile. Love, forgiveness and thankfulness are in the air.Most of all, because it is the date during which we celebrate our Savior's birth - Jesus.


However, is it really the birthdate of Christ?


I had some research and here are some of valuable ideas I gathered. Read on:


Why December 25?

• According to   http://www.christianitytoday.com , the eventual choice of December 25, made perhaps as early as 273, reflects a convergence of Origen's concern about pagan gods and the church's identification of God's son with the celestial sun. December 25 already hosted two other related festivals: natalis solis invicti (the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun"), and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness" whose worship was popular with Roman soldiers. The winter solstice, another celebration of the sun, fell just a few days earlier. Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival.

• http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp further says that  Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated.

Who declared it?

• http://www.lone-star.net/mall/main-areas/xmas-not-first-choice.htm says that  In 350 AD Pope Julius I declared December 25 the official date 

If not December 25 when could it be?

• according to http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm  The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth.  The earliest gospel – St. Mark’s, written about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus.  This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked interest in or knowledge of Jesus’ birthdate.
• Interestingly,   http://www.hitxp.com/articles/history/christmas-history-christ-birth-date/   says that there is no specific date mentioned anywhere in the ancient scriptures about the actual date of the birth of Christ. However there are ample number of indications about the possible period of the year during which he was born.
  
  First, there is the information about the shepherds keeping their flocks out in the fields on the night on which Christ was born.
  
  Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night (Luke 2:8).
  
  Even today in that region it is a common practice by shepherds to leave their flocks out in the warm summer/spring nights between April to October to feed in the green fields. After the month of October they will not leave their sheeps out in the night, and will lock them inside stables since the winter will be very cold and/or rainy. This itself proves that Jesus was born somewhere between April and October, and NOT in December.
  
  No Shepherds will be out in the cold freezing nights of December!

(I researched about when could have been the real birthdate of Christ. I couldn't find it. *sigh)

I think the date doesn't matter really. What is important is the essence of the Celebration. Whatever the hullabaloos about this celebration, Christmas is still my favorite time of the year!:)  

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