Over the years I have heard many atheists and sceptics point out that the celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25th has its roots in a pagan festival in the fourth century. It is argued that as Christianity expanded and became the dominant religion in the civilised world, it ‘cancelled’ an existing pagan festival and changed it into a Christian one, giving it a new meaning. Two possible festivals are cited: Sol Invictus (the winter solstice on or around December 22nd) and Saturnalia (the Roman pagan festival that was celebrated in mid to late December).
So, is Christmas merely a re-vamped pagan festival as many scoffers claim? And what does this mean for our modern celebration of Jesus’ birthday? The answers to these two questions are ‘no’ and ‘nothing’. Let me explain.
THE FACTS
The common claim by sceptics is only true in one very limited sense. The worldwide establishment of the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25th DID roughly coincide with the gradual decline of the two pagan festivals of Sol Invictus and Saturnalia. These two pagan festivals declined in popularity between 312 and 330 AD, concurrent with the establishment of the Christmas festival in the Christian calendar. This was mainly due to the population gradually turning away from their previous pagan beliefs to worship Jesus as the Son of God. The conversion of the Emperor Constantine in about 312 AD was a contributing factor in this.
But let us be very clear about several other facts:
Firstly, Christian belief in December 25th as Jesus’ birthday arose much earlier than the decline of these two pagan festivals in the fourth century. For example, the third century Christian historian, Sextus Julius Africanus, writing in 221 AD, records in his “Chronographiai” the widespread Christian belief that Jesus was conceived on March 25th, thus indicating December 25th, nine months later, as the most likely date of his birth. Similarly, Hyppolytus’ Commentary on Daniel, written around 200 AD, cites Jesus’ conception and his ultimate death as both occurring on March 25th and his birth date as December 25th. Additionally, Clement of Alexandria, writing somewhere between 195 and 210 AD, in his “Stomata“, cites March 25th as the date of Jesus’ immaculate conception – thus indicating December 25th as the likely date of his birth (Stromata 1.21.145-146). Furthermore, all three of these early writings seem to have drawn upon a body of literary and oral testimony that had been circulating from even earlier times – perhaps even from the time of the original events themselves.
The important point is that belief in December 25th as the most likely date for Jesus’ birth was in wide circulation and was honoured within the Christian community more than a century before the gradual demise of the pagan festivals in the early fourth century. December 25th wasn’t just conveniently selected by the early church in order to Christianise a pagan festival on or near that date.
Secondly, the incorporation of the celebration of Christ’s nativity into the church’s official calendar of festivals was a gradual process. By the middle of the fourth century, it had become formally canonised as an important festival, as evidenced in the publication of the fourth century document, “Chronography of 354”, where it was listed in an official almanac of Roman holidays and Christian festivals. That it took until the mid-fourth century for December 25th to become firmly established as an annual festival does not mean that the date was in serious dispute, but simply that prior to this the early church had been much more focused on celebrating Easter and had not made such a big deal about Jesus’ birth. The church’s slowness in officially celebrating Christmas was also partly due to the persecution that Christianity suffered during its first three hundred years, such that they tended to limit their public festivals and keep their celebrations low key. But certainly, by the mid to late fourth century, we find references to the festival of Christ’s nativity on December 25th by numerous Christian writers such as Augustine (340 – 397) and John Chrysostom (347 – 407). (Note: The Eastern Orthodox Church initially celebrated Jesus’ birthday on January 6th, but eventually fell into line with the West from 379 after becoming convinced of December 25th as the most likely date.)
Thirdly, the concurrent gradual demise of the pagan festivals during the early fourth century was not due to Christians taking over their festivals and adopting them as their own, but simply due to the shift in the population’s beliefs, as they gradually discarded their former pagan rituals and ceremonies and embraced Christianity. The rise of the Christian celebration of Christmas and the demise of the long-standing pagan ceremonies occurred gradually and concurrently as the tide of belief slowly shifted. The Christian church certainly did NOT simply take over the pagan ceremonies as many sceptics like to claim.
CONCLUSION
So, does the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birthday on December 25th have pagan roots, as scoffers and sceptics like to claim? Not at all. The identification of December 25th as the probable date of Jesus’ birthday has roots that seem to go back to much earlier times; at least a century before the gradual demise of the pagan festivals in question.
But is December 25th the actual date of Jesus’ birth? We don’t know for certain. No first century birth records from Bethlehem have survived to the present day. But there certainly seems to have been a very early and a very strong claim of this date by several reliable Christian writers from the late second and early third centuries – and they, in turn, seem to be expressing an implicit reliance on even earlier sources that are no longer extant.
So, next time someone tries to convince you that Christmas is just a re-vamped pagan ceremony, tell them to have another egg nog and do some actual historical research.
(Of course, the whole Santa Claus thing is another matter entirely! I am concerned in this article with the Christian rather than the cultural celebration of Christmas.)