Christmas Celebrated on 25th December: The History of Christmas
Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God and savior of the world.
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 and then came back to life. The ‘Christ-Mass’ service was the only one that was allowed to take place after sunset (and before sunrise the next day), so people had it at Midnight! So we get the name Christ-Mass, shortened to Christmas. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the word Christmas was first recorded, in Old English, in 1038 as ‘Crīstesmæsse’ and as ‘Cristes-messe’ in 1131.
Christmas is now celebrated by people around the world, whether they are Christians or not. It’s a time when family and friends come together and remember the good things they have. People, and especially children, also like Christmas as it’s a time when you give and receive presents!.
Why is December 25th the Date of Christmas?
No one knows the real birthday of Jesus! No date is given in the Bible, so why do we celebrate it on the 25th of December? The early Christians certainly had many arguments as to when it should be celebrated! Also, the birth of Jesus probably didn’t happen in the year 1 but slightly earlier, somewhere between 2 BCE/BC and 7 BCE/BC, possibly in 4 BCE/BC (there isn’t a 0 – the years go from 1 BC/BCE to 1!).
The first ‘official’ recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). But it was not an official Roman state festival at this time.
However, there are many different traditions and theories as to why Christmas is celebrated on December 25th.
A very early Christian tradition said that the day when Mary was told that she would have a very special baby, Jesus (called the Annunciation) was on March 25th – and it’s still celebrated today on the 25th March. 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 and they thought that Jesus was conceived and had died on the same day of the year. Jesus died on Nisan 14 in the Jewish calendar – the date of the Jewish festival of Passover. The Jewish calendar is lunar (based on the moon, rather than fixed dates) and so it moves around compared with dates on ‘fixed’ calendars like the Gregorian (or earlier Julian) calendar.
The main source for the dating, of the conception of Jesus being on the 25th March, was an early church historian called Sextus Julius Africanus (c160 – c240) who’s quoted as suggesting this in the year 221. However, much of the quotes/works of Sextus Julius Africanus come from later documents. Saint Ephrem the Syrian (306 – 373) taught that Jesus was conceived on Nisan 10! So March 25th became a ‘fixed’ date to mark these ‘moveable’ dates on the Jewish calendar.
