Well, we've done the research on the history of Christmas for you to help you truly understand its backstory. As you probably guessed, the holiday has changed a lot since its inception. This year, when you're taking part in Christmas traditions like putting up your Christmas tree, whipping up a Christmas ham for your family, or even singing carols, you'll have a better grasp on the history of Christmas and a grander appreciation for the most wonderful time of the year.
Check out these interesting Christmas trivia questions, too, plus the history of the Christmas tree and the history of Christmas colors. Officially, Christmas as a holiday most likely began sometime around the 4th century. But let's back up a bit. According to the History Channel , winter has always been a time of celebration—even before the arrival of Jesus. The Norse celebrated Yule, and Germans honored the god Oden.
The Romans celebrated Saturnalia to honor Saturn, the god of agriculture, and the holiday Juvenalia was held on December 25 for the infant god, Mithra this was the most sacred holiday for some Romans at the time. But when Christianity first began, Jesus's birth wasn't celebrated—Easter was the main holiday.
The Bible doesn't even mention a specific birth date for Jesus, but it was thought to have taken place on January 6, not December That date still belonged to the Juvenalia holiday. All of that changed in the 4th century when Pope Julius I selected December 25 as the official date when Christians would celebrate the birth of Jesus. Why the change?
Nine months after the 25th March is the 25th December! March 25th was also the day some early Christians thought the world had been made, and also the day that Jesus died on when he was an adult Nisan 14 in the Jewish calendar and they thought that Jesus was conceived and had died on the same day of the year.
The Winter Solstice is the day where there is the shortest time between the sun rising and the sun setting. It happens on December 21st or 22nd in the Northern Hemisphere.
To pagans this meant that they knew that the days would start getting lighter and longer and the nights would become shorter - marking a change in the seasons.
To celebrate people had a mid-winter festival to celebrate the sun 'winning' over the darkness of winter. So it was a good time to have a celebration with things to eat and drink before the rest of the winter happened. We still have New Year celebrations near this time now! In Scandinavia, and some other parts of northern Europe, the time around the Winter Solstice is known as Yule although the word Yule only seems to date to about the year In Eastern Europe the mid-winter festival is called Koleda.
Shab-e Chelleh means 'night of forty' as it happens forty nights into winter. The word Yalda means 'birth' and comes from early Christians living in Persia celebrating the birth of Jesus around this time. The Romans also thought that the Solstice took place on December 25th. It's also thought that in the Roman emperor Aurelian created 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' meaning 'birthday of the unconquered sun' also called 'Sol Invictus' and it was held on December 25th.
However, there are records going back to around of early Christians connecting the Nisan 14 to the 25th March, and so 25th December was a 'Christian' festival date many years before 'Sol Invictus'! More recent studies have also found that the 'Sol Invictus' connection didn't appear until the 12th century and it's from one scribbled note in the margins of a manuscript. There's also evidence that 'Sol Invictus' might also have happened in October and not December anyway!
Christmas had also been celebrated by the early Church on January 6th, when they also celebrated the Epiphany which means the revelation that Jesus was God's son and the Baptism of Jesus. Now Epiphany mainly celebrates the visit of the Wise Men to the baby Jesus , but back then it celebrated both things! Jesus's Baptism was originally seen as more important than his birth, as this was when he started his ministry. The Jewish festival of Lights, Hanukkah starts on the eve of the Kislev 25 the month in the Jewish calendar that occurs at about the same time as December.
Hanukkah celebrates when the Jewish people were able to re-dedicate and worship in their Temple, in Jerusalem, again following many years of not being allowed to practice their religion.
Jesus was a Jew, so this could be another reason that helped the early Church choose December the 25th for the date of Christmas! The Gregorian calendar is more accurate than the Roman calendar which had too many days in a year!
When the switch was made 10 days were lost, so that the day that followed the 4th October was 15th October In the UK the change of calendars was made in The day after 2nd September was 14th September Fir trees were brought inside and lit with candles as a symbol of the hope that spring would return with new crops and plentiful food.
Many of our Easter symbols, like the bunny and the egg, are ancient fertility symbols. No one knows how chocolate got dragged in! It is also an interesting coincidence that the Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, falls in November or December each year, and is celebrated with the lighting of the candelabra menorah , traditional foods, games and gifts.
Nicholas was a bishop in the city of Myra in modern Turkey , who wanted to help poor young women get husbands. He left bags of money of the doorsteps of their family homes in secret, an anonymous gift to the poor to be used as a dowry.
For this he became known as the patron saint of virgins and children. Over time, his generosity was remembered by people giving gifts to children in secret on the feast of St Nicholas, celebrated on December 6 in western Christian countries and 19 December in the eastern churches.
His name in English became Clause, after the Dutch Sinterklaas. Our modern image of Santa Claus as a rotund gentleman of a certain age dressed in a red-and-white suit and matching hat comes from an incredibly successful marketing campaign by Coca-Cola in the s.
Since then, suburban Santas always dress in the image created by the Coke brand. But this image comes from an earlier depiction of Father Christmas who had nothing to do with the American Santa Claus until the s.
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