Christmas | Origin, Definition, Traditions, History, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com . Retrieved December 22, 2021. Pokhilko, Hieromonk Nicholas. "History of Epiphany". Archived from the original on September 23, 2016 . Retrieved December 27, 2017. European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in Nazi Germany, "because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize—or eliminate altogether—the Christian aspects of the holiday" and that "Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime's racial ideologies." [166] The "Calculation hypothesis", suggests that Christmas was calculated as nine months after a date linked to Christ's conception (the Annunciation): March 25, the Roman date of the spring equinox. The hypothesis was first proposed by French writer Louis Duchesne in 1889. [65] [60] [66] Susan Roll (1995) wrote that the calculation hypothesis is historically the "minority opinion" on the origin of Christmas, but was "taught in graduate liturgy programs as a thoroughly viable hypothesis". [67] Lejeune, Marie Claire. Compendium of symbolic and ritual plants in Europe, p.550. University of Michigan ISBN 90-77135-04-9.

Bartlett, Robert (2015). Why Can the Dead Do Such Great Things?: Saints and Worshippers from the Martyrs to the Reformation. Princeton University Press. p.154.Hutton, Ronald, The Stations of the Sun: The Ritual Year in England. 1996. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 113. ISBN 0-19-285448-8. In the Early Middle Ages, Christmas Day was overshadowed by Epiphany, which in western Christianity focused on the visit of the magi. But the medieval calendar was dominated by Christmas-related holidays. The forty days before Christmas became the "forty days of St. Martin" (which began on November 11, the feast of St. Martin of Tours), now known as Advent. [90] In Italy, former Saturnalian traditions were attached to Advent. [90] Around the 12th century, these traditions transferred again to the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 – January 5); a time that appears in the liturgical calendars as Christmastide or Twelve Holy Days. [90] The theory is mentioned in an annotation of uncertain date added to a manuscript by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe wrote: Related to the winter solstice theory above, the "History of Religions" hypothesis proposes the Church chose December 25 as Christ's birthday ( dies Natalis Christi) [77] to appropriate the Roman winter solstice festival dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the Unconquered Sun), held on the same date. [63] [78] It honored the sun god Sol Invictus, whose cult was revived by the emperor Aurelian in AD 274. In Rome this yearly festival was celebrated with thirty chariot races. [78] Gary Forsythe, Professor of Ancient History, says "This celebration would have formed a welcome addition to the seven-day period of the Saturnalia (December 17–23), Rome's most joyous holiday season since Republican times, characterized by parties, banquets, and exchanges of gifts". [78] In AD 362, the emperor Julian wrote in his Hymn to King Helios that the agon Solis was a festival of the sun held at the end of the Saturnalia in late December. [79] [80]

Main article: Date of birth of Jesus Mosaic in Mausoleum M in the pre-fourth-century necropolis under St Peter's Basilica in Rome, interpreted by some as Jesus represented as Christus Sol (Christ the Sun). [50] a b Melton, J. Gordon (2011). Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations. ABC-CLIO. p.39. ISBN 978-1-59884-206-7. The March 25 date, which tied together the beginning of Mary's pregnancy and the incarnation of God in Jesus as occurring nine months before Christmas (December 25), supplied the rationale for setting the beginning of the ecclesiastical and legal year. ... Both the Anglicans and the Lutherans have continued to observe the March 25 date for celebrating the Annunciation. Steven Hijmans of the University of Alberta says the idea that the date was chosen to appropriate the pagan festival "has received wide acceptance". He agrees that the Church chose the date because it was the winter solstice, but he argues that "While they were aware that pagans called this day the 'birthday' of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any role in their choice of date for Christmas". [58] Hijmans says: "while the winter solstice on or around December 25 was well established in the Roman imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a religious celebration of Sol on that day antedated the celebration of Christmas". [85] Thomas Talley argues that Aurelian instituted the Dies Natalis Solis Invicti partly to give a pagan significance to a date he argues was already important for Christians. [62] The Church of England Liturgical Commission says this hypothesis has been challenged. [86] According to music scholar Michael Anderson, "Thomas Talley has shown that [...] pagan Rome ironically did not celebrate the winter solstice". [87] [ bettersourceneeded] The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought remarks that the "calculations hypothesis potentially establishes 25 December as a Christian festival before Aurelian's decree". [88] Relation to concurrent celebrations Nativity of Christ, medieval illustration from the Hortus deliciarum of Herrad of Landsberg (12th century) Adam C. English, professor of religion at Campbell University, has argued for the veracity of December 25 as Jesus's date of birth. [75] The Bible in Luke 1:26 records the annunciation to Mary to be at the time when Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, was in her sixth month of pregnancy. [75] [76] English assumes that Zechariah's ministry in the Temple, as described in Luke 1:5–23, took place on Yom Kippur the year before Jesus's birth; he then traces Luke's narrative through the Annunciation and the birth of John the Baptist to conclude that Jesus was born on December 25. [75] History of religions hypothesis Poll: In a changing nation, Santa endures". Associated Press. December 22, 2006. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018 . Retrieved December 24, 2018.Elm, Susanna (2012). Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church. University of California Press. p.287. Stephen W. Nissenbaum, "Christmas in Early New England, 1620–1820: Puritanism, Popular Culture, and the Printed Word", Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 106:1:79 (January 1, 1996) Jespersen, Knud J. V. (June 21, 2011). A History of Denmark. Macmillan International Higher Education. p.91. ISBN 978-0-230-34417-4. It is quite normal to go to church on Christmas Eve, and many people like to celebrate a christening or wedding in church. The Church is especially important at the end of a life; by far the majority of funerals are still conducted in a church by a minister. Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article "Christmas". The School Journal, Volume 49. Harvard University. 1894 . Retrieved April 2, 2009. Throughout the Christian world the 25th of December is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ. There was a time when the churches were not united regarding the date of the joyous event. Many Christians kept their Christmas in April, others in May, and still others at the close of September, till finally December 25 was agreed upon as the most appropriate date. The choice of that day was, of course, wholly arbitrary, for neither the exact date not the period of the year at which the birth of Christ occurred is known. For purposes of commemoration, however, it is unimportant whether the celebration shall fall or not at the precise anniversary of the joyous event.

Sandys, William (1852). Christmastide: its history, festivities and carols. London: John Russell Smith. pp.119–120. Steven Hijmans of the University of Alberta wrote: "It is cosmic symbolism ... which inspired the Church leadership in Rome to elect the southern solstice, December 25, as the birthday of Christ, and the northern solstice as that of John the Baptist, supplemented by the equinoxes as their respective dates of conception". [58] The Christian treatise De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae ('On the solstice and equinox conception and birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ and John the Baptist'), [59] from the second half of the fourth century, [60] dates John's birth to the summer solstice and Jesus's birth to the winter solstice. [42] [61] Christmas Strongly Religious For Half in U.S. Who Celebrate It". Gallup, Inc. December 24, 2010. Archived from the original on December 7, 2012 . Retrieved December 16, 2012. Collins, Ace (April 1, 2010). Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-87388-4 . Retrieved December 2, 2010. Alkan, Sena (December 19, 2015). "The history behind Christmas and Turkey". Daily Sabah . Retrieved November 30, 2022.Further information: Hanging of the greens A typical Neapolitan presepe or presepio, or Nativity scene. Local crèches are renowned for their ornate decorations and symbolic figurines, often mirroring daily life. Old, Hughes Oliphant (2002). Worship: Reformed According to Scripture. Westminster John Knox Press. p.29. ISBN 978-0-664-22579-7. Within a few years the Reformed church calendar was fairly well established. The heart of it was the weekly observance of the resurrection on the Lord's Day. Instead of liturgical seasons being observed, "the five evangelical feast days" were observed: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. They were chosen because they were understood to mark the essential stages in the history of salvation.