Why is Christmas celebrated on Dec 25?

[task0778]

FYI:

Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. The oldest existing record of a Christmas celebration is found in a Roman almanac that tells of a Christ’s Nativity festival led by the church of Rome in 336 A.D. The precise reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains obscure, but most researchers believe that Christmas originated as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.

To early Christians (and to many Christians today), the most important holiday on the Christian calendar was Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, as Christianity began to take hold in the Roman world, in the early fourth century, church leaders had to contend with a popular Roman pagan holiday commemorating the “birthday of the unconquered sun” (natalis solis invicti)–the Roman name for the winter solstice.

Every winter, Romans honored the pagan god Saturn, the god of agriculture, with a festival that began on December 17 and usually ended on or around December 25 with a winter-solstice celebration in honor of the beginning of the new solar cycle. This festival was a time of merrymaking, and families and friends would exchange gifts. At the same time, Mithraism–worship of the ancient Persian god of light–was popular in the Roman army, and the cult held some of its most important rituals on the winter solstice.

Santa Claus,” a derivative of the Dutch name for St. Nicholas–Sinterklaas.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/christ-is-born

Whether you believe in God or Christianity or not, I see no reason not to hope for peace on earth, good will towards men. Have a happy holiday season.

 

[harmonica]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

 

[task0778]

Added, just for fun:

Over the centuries, notable politicians picked December 25 for their coronation dates, hoping some of the fame and goodwill of the day would rub off on them. For example, Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day as Holy Roman Emperor in the year 800. And in London’s Westminster Abbey in 1066, William the Conqueror formally assumed the English throne.

Ten years later, on December 25 in 1076, a lesser-known monarch with a name that sounds like a side dish, Boleslaw the Generous, became King of Poland. In 1100, Baldwin of Boulogne was crowned the first King of Jerusalem (even though he wasn’t) at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Americans who know their history will recall that it was Christmas Day in 1776 that George Washington and his ragged but indefatigable Continental Army secretly crossed the freezing Delaware River. Their objective? To get in position to attack Hessian forces the next day at Trenton, New Jersey. It was one of the few battles during the Revolutionary War that Rebels actually won, and an inspiration for new, much-needed recruits.

Here’s a list of other fascinating historical events on this date:

• The Eggnog Riot of 1826. A drunken Christmas Eve party at the US Army’s West Point Academy in New York led to an outbreak of hooliganism that involved about a third of the school’s cadets. Twenty-one were court-martialed. (anybody here ever been involved in an eggnog riot?)
• US President Andrew Johnson took the Christmas spirit seriously when, on this date in 1868, he issued an unconditional pardon to all Confederate veterans. It was wildly unpopular in certain circles, but likely a necessary move toward sectional reconciliation.
• World War I remains a ghastly folly in human history but it also produced one of the most amazing and unofficial moments of human decency, the Christmas truce of 1914. All across the European front, soldiers on both sides arranged ceasefires, even exchanging food, souvenirs, and gifts and singing carols together. Several films tell the story, my favorite being “Joyeux Noel” from 2006. (my favorite, other than the eggnog riot. Wonder if Dems and Repubs can do the same, some day.)
• After being thrown out of communist Poland in 1986, I returned in November 1989 as a guest of friends in the newly-elected Parliament of a free, post-communist Poland. While in Warsaw, we learned that next door in Czechoslovakia, the “Velvet Revolution” had begun. I turned to a Polish friend and asked about another domino I hoped would fall someday. “When do you think freedom will come to Romania?” He shook his head sadly and replied, “That may take years. The secret police of the dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, is incredibly powerful.” A month later, on Christmas Day 1989, Ceausescu and his tyrant wife Elena, were dispatched by firing squad.
• Just two years later, on December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the last President of the Evil Empire (formally known as the Soviet Union). The communist despotism that bedeviled the world for three-quarters of a century and was proclaimed “eternal” evaporated. Poof!

Why Christmas Is Celebrated on December 25 | Lawrence W. Reed

 

[task0778]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

Maybe they did, influenced by the Almighty. Can't be proved one way or the other.

 

[miketx]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

They found the dates when they found the rosetta stones.

 

[harmonica]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

Maybe they did, influenced by the Almighty. Can't be proved one way or the other.

you are correct--it can't be proven = not real..bullshit--fake
you can't prove there is an ''Almighty'' = there is not one

 

[Bo Didleysquat]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

Maybe they did, influenced by the Almighty. Can't be proved one way or the other.

Yes, the faifful will always claim god said so.

 

[Pogo]

Because in the Northern Hemisphere the sun stops "dying" (days shortening) on the Winter Solstice December 21/22, hangs for three days on the (Southern) Cross, and then "resurrects" (days lengthening). So the earth showed humans December 25 as soon as there were humans to observe it. The Church then glommed onto it as the date was already established and all they had to do was redefine it. As was the case with Valentine's Day, Hallowe'en etc.

 

[Bo Didleysquat]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

Maybe they did, influenced by the Almighty. Can't be proved one way or the other.

you are correct--it can't be proven = not real..bullshit--fake
you can't prove there is an ''Almighty'' = there is not one

It can certainly be leveraged to rule over others if ya can get them to believe.

 

[Bo Didleysquat]

Because in the Northern Hemisphere the sun stops "dying" (days shortening) on the Winter Solstice December 21/22, hangs for three days on the (Southern) Cross, and then "resurrects" (days lengthening). So the earth showed humans December 25 as soon as there were humans to observe it. The Church then glommed onto it as the date was already established and all they had to do was redefine it. As was the case with Valentine's Day, Hallowe'en etc.

Much of it had to be married into the spirituality of various tribes who refused to convert. A spiritual perceptual reality had to be replaced with a religious perceptual reality. Let's recall, the first transnational corporation was the Roman Catholic Church.

 

[task0778]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

Maybe they did, influenced by the Almighty. Can't be proved one way or the other.

you are correct--it can't be proven = not real..bullshit--fake
you can't prove there is an ''Almighty'' = there is not one

Faulty logic. If something can't be proven true, then you do not know for sure if it is true or false, unless you can prove it to be false. Which you can't do in this case. The basic idea is that if you cannot prove something then it is considered to be unknown or untested, and therefore neither true nor false. Since it cannot be proved there is no God, a reasonable person leaves the question unanswered. Undetermined IOW.

Each of us can assume the answer to the question of God's existence for ourselves. Live and let live, dude.

 

[harmonica]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

Maybe they did, influenced by the Almighty. Can't be proved one way or the other.

you are correct--it can't be proven = not real..bullshit--fake
you can't prove there is an ''Almighty'' = there is not one

Faulty logic. If something can't be proven true, then you do not know for sure if it is true or false, unless you can prove it to be false. Which you can't do in this case. The basic idea is that if you cannot prove something then it is considered to be unknown or untested, and therefore neither true nor false. Since it cannot be proved there is no God, a reasonable person leaves the question unanswered. Undetermined IOW.

Each of us can assume the answer to the question of God's existence for ourselves. Live and let live, dude.

hahahhahahahhahahahahhaha
..this is the same childish idiocy everyone says and it's ridiculous ......
you can't prove there is a god/etc = no god plain and simple
it's like the impeachment/courts/etc = if you can't prove it, it's bullshit

 

[Toro]

If you're coming over, you can bring the gold but please leave the myrrh and the frankincense behind.

TIA

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

but most researchers believe that Christmas originated as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.

December 21st is the shortest day of the year. Pagan cultures celebrated the "return of the sun" on December 25ish.

The Great Counterfeit church, started by Simon Magus, their first pope, brought new members into that church by allowing them to continue the practice as long a they did it to honor the birth of the Son. To this day, the unconverted world prefers "the traditions of men" over the clear Word of God.

 

[CarlinAnnArbor]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

The devil has performed his greatest miracle in your life

 

[gulfman]

A Viking named Bjorn Macy came up with the date.It was usually a slow week for business back then.

 

[Paulie]

People assume that because the story of the sun’s yearly travel is really just the story of the son of God, that it somehow disproves God. It’s ridiculous. Either story does absolutely nothing to disprove the existence of the Creator. In fact, all it does is prove that man has done everything it could to muddy the waters about God.

“Let God be true though every man a liar”.

Merry Christmas

 

[Dekster]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

As a child did you complain that the guns were just toys instead of the real things and there was no such thing as bionic people?

 

[harmonica]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

As a child did you complain that the guns were just toys instead of the real things and there was no such thing as bionic people?

irrelevant/idiotic analogy/etc = it's all fake

 

[Dekster]

it's all man made stuff = fake ..humans made up the date/etc

As a child did you complain that the guns were just toys instead of the real things and there was no such thing as bionic people?

irrelevant/idiotic analogy/etc = it's all fake

Ok, just as I suspected, Billy No Mates