Dwain Northey (Gen X)

The term derives from Middle English Cristenmasse, meaning ‘Christian mass’. Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God. The name ‘Christmas’ comes from the Mass of Christ (or Jesus). A Mass service (which is sometimes called Communion or Eucharist) is where Christians remember that Jesus died for us and then came back to life.

The Catholic Church puts great reverence on Christmas even though the events surrounding Jesus’ birth are taken from two Gospels: Matthew and Luke. Each book was written during different times and in different locations. This event isn’t mentioned any other time in the gospels.

The common Christian traditional dating of the birthdate of Jesus was 25 December, a date first asserted officially by Pope Julius I in 350 AD, although this claim is dubious or otherwise unfounded. Because Dec. 25 was the date in the imperial Roman calendar on which the solstice occurred, some Christians living in Rome asserted that Jesus must have been born on the shortest day of the year, as a sign of his great humility. Other dubious assertions of Dec. 25 came from Hyppolitus (170-235 CE), a prominent theologian of the Catholic Church in Rome, mentioned the date of Jesus birth in his 204 CE work, “Commentary on Daniel”. He stated Jesus was born “in Bethlehem, eight days before the calendar of January [December 25], the 4th day of the week [Wednesday]”.  

Almost certainly the December 25^th date was derived from existing pagan celebrations. The winter solstice (shortest day) had always been celebrated by primitive peoples as the beginning of hope for the arrival of spring. This continued into classical times. The Romans celebrated the festival of Saturnalia between 17^th and 25^th December. Many Christian celebrations not so coincidentally coincide with previous pagan festivals.

The Roman calendar is supposed to represent year one as the start one the year of Christs birth although date of birth of Jesus is not stated in the gospels or in any historical sources, but most biblical scholars generally accept a date of birth between 6 BC and 4 BC, the year in which King Herod died. The change from BC to AD, AD meaning Anno Domini is Latin for “The Year of the Lord”. If anyone tells you it means “After Death”, THEY ARE WRONG!! Hey, if B.C. means ‘Before Christ’, and A.D. meant ‘After Death’, it would mean after Christ’s death, RIGHT? Tradition has it that Christ lived for 33 years. True believers would say that Christ never died, he was Crucified and rose from the tomb 3 days later.

As for the December 25^th date many biblical scholars more appropriately place the birth in the spring more than likely around the month of April not in the winter. My guess is that when Pope Julius I deemed the day to be in December that it was a political move as to not correlate the birth, crucifixion and subsequent resurrection all into the same month of the year. Again, this is just my assumption.

I could go on about how the holiday has been bacterized and commercialized for corporate profit but I will save that rant for next Christmas.