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N0KFQ > TODAY 25.12.13 17:53l 66 Lines 3131 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 9269_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Dec 25
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 131225/1555Z 9269@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.57
Dec 25, 6 B.C.:
Christ is born?
Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of
Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed
any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. The
oldest existing record of a Christmas celebration is found in a
Roman almanac that tells of a Christ's Nativity festival led by
the church of Rome in 336 A.D. The precise reason why Christmas
came to be celebrated on December 25 remains obscure, but most
researchers believe that Christmas originated as a Christian
substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.
To early Christians (and to many Christians today), the most
important holiday on the Christian calendar was Easter, which
commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However,
as Christianity began to take hold in the Roman world, in the
early fourth century, church leaders had to contend with a
popular Roman pagan holiday commemorating the "birthday of the
unconquered sun" (natalis solis invicti)--the Roman name for the
winter solstice.
Every winter, Romans honored the pagan god Saturn, the god of
agriculture, with a festival that began on December 17 and
usually ended on or around December 25 with a winter-solstice
celebration in honor of the beginning of the new solar cycle.
This festival was a time of merrymaking, and families and friends
would exchange gifts. At the same time, Mithraism--worship of the
ancient Persian god of light--was popular in the Roman army, and
the cult held some of its most important rituals on the winter
solstice.
After the Roman Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity
in 312 and sanctioned Christianity, church leaders made efforts
to appropriate the winter-solstice holidays and thereby achieve a
more seamless conversion to Christianity for the emperor's
subjects. In rationalizing the celebration of Jesus' birthday in
late December, church leaders may have argued that since the
world was allegedly created on the spring equinox (late March),
so too would Jesus have been conceived by God on that date. The
Virgin Mary, pregnant with the son of God, would hence have given
birth to Jesus nine months later on the winter solstice.
From Rome, the Christ's Nativity celebration spread to other
Christian churches to the west and east, and soon most Christians
were celebrating Christ's birth on December 25. To the Roman
celebration was later added other winter-solstice rituals
observed by various pagan groups, such as the lighting of the
Yule log and decorations with evergreens by Germanic tribes. The
word Christmas entered the English language originally as
Christes maesse, meaning "Christ's mass" or "festival of Christ"
in Old English. A popular medieval feast was that of St. Nicholas
of Myra, a saint said to visit children with gifts and
admonitions just before Christmas. This story evolved into the
modern practice of leaving gifts for children said to be brought
by "Santa Claus," a derivative of the Dutch name for St.
Nicholas--Sinterklaas.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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