Do you know why Christmas is held on Dec 25th? It is known but not much spoken of.
It was not that anyone originally believed that Jesus was born on that day or any
time near that day. The birth date of Jesus had nothing to do with it.
In short it was something like this (you find more about the heathen origin googling Christmas Origin):
In the first centuries of Christianity the Romans often persecuted the Christians
(and the Jews). They were jailed, tortured, thrown before the lions in the arena, thrown before gladiators etc. The persecution was so hard that Christians finally had to go under ground, even to the Catacombs, to pray and
have their services, and some even had to stay down there.
The Romans held the feast of the Sun which they belived was born anew on Dec 25th. This was a heathen feast with a lot of drinking and orgy. At this feast the
law enforcement was down, as everyone was feasting for the rising Sun (god)
and getting drunk. The Christians found out that they could disguise their
services in the homes or in the open by holding these at the
feasting days of the rising of the Sun. In the eyes of the Christians, Jesus was their spiritual sun, so there was not a big problems for them to say that they were feasting the rebirth of the Sun. They were used to allegories.
So, the feast of the rising Sun gradually became the feast of the birth of Jesus
for the Christians. And in time it stuck so that when Christianity was made
the public religion, the feast of the rising of the Sun was officially
changed to Mass of the birth of Christ, or Christmas.
Souldn't we today think more of the suffering of Christians all over the world when we know how Christmas came about?
Merry Christmas -- or, rather, reverent Christmas.
