ATLANTA – Christmas is almost here, a day when we celebrate a birth that likely was not on December 25th.
So, why do we celebrate Christmas on that date?
Biblical scholars have not been able to pinpoint the day of Jesus’ birth, but many suggest he may have been born in the summer or fall, not on the date when Christians celebrate his birth.
Bruce Forbes, the author of several books on Christmas, says early Christians didn’t start celebrating Christmas until about 300 years after the birth of Jesus.
Long before that, there were mid-winter festivals to help distract Europeans from the harsh, cold season. Late December would have some of the longest, coldest days.
One of those festivals was a pagan worship of the sun that fell on December 25th. It is possible, although we don’t know for sure, that early Christians grabbed that date as a way to balance out and maybe even tame those wild mid-winter festivals.