The Truth About Christmas (Real Talk)
Fun fact: Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th. A lot of you probably knew that, but did you know that he wasn't even born in the winter?
Many people, including me for the longest time, had the common misconception that Jesus's birthday was sometime close to December 25 and experts just couldn't nail down an exact day. (Was "nail down" a bad choice of words? Anyway....) The Bible, if one is to take it as a factual account, even hints at the fact that his birthday was earlier in the year. Luke 2:8 - "And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night." How is that hinting that Jesus was born before December? You may be asking. Well, I shall tell you.
Shepherds only tended to their flocks after dark during the warmer parts of the year. In December it would be far too cold to do so, and it would often rain, adding extra discomfort. This brings an interesting question to the foreground. Why is Christmas celebrated on December 25th, which is supposed to be about the birth of Christ?
The Roman pagan holiday known as Saturnalia was a week-long holiday that celebrated the god of abundance (among other things), Saturn. Saturnalia began on December 17th, and it originally lasted for only the day until over time it came to last for about seven days, depending on who you asked. This is probably because it was just so darn fun.
Small sacrifices of pigs were made to help Sol Invictus, the Sun God. I read from one source that it was thought that Sol was in battle with the god of the dead at this time of year. The sacrifices were made to give him strength. The source I read that from seems to have had some errors in other areas throughout the article, so don't take this as pure fact. There's not a lot of credible information that I could find on Saturnalia.
A few of the sources appeared to be skewed by their bias the further I read into them. The information I present here is what I found to be generally agreed upon throughout my search.
Slaves were given the day off on the 17th, and they were even allowed to eat with their masters. Games would be played as well. There was just a bunch of merrymaking all around. Gambling laws were overlooked, and even presents were given. Someone, possibly a slave, would be titled the Saturnalian King or Lord of Misrule, and he could give orders around the house to make the residents do silly things such as singing. How cool is that?
My main point is this: the origin of Christmas had nothing to do with Jesus or Christianity at all.
Saturnalia was renamed Christmas by the Roman Catholic Church when Christianity was declared the official religion of Rome. This was done in an effort to convert Roman citizens. Many of the Saturnalia practices went unchanged. The Church deemed December 25th, the concluding day of Saturnalia at the time, to be Jesus's birthday to give the idea more credibility towards being a Christian holiday. Over the centuries, this is what Christians have been celebrating. The origin of Christmas has been forgotten, allowing today's Christians to easily forget, or not even acknowledge, how susceptible their ideology is to cultural exposure. If people were to see how their belief system has changed over the years, and how different it is today in other parts of the world, perhaps they would rethink their ideas about religion altogether.
I will leave you with a question. If the Church was willing to change Jesus's birthday, what is more important to them: their religion or appealing to the masses? An even bigger question: what else have they changed?
