What is the origins of Christmas?

[TonyC7]

Did it start with Saturnalia?

 

[Lamb]

Since "Christ" is in the name, wouldn't you think it had to do with the birth of Jesus the Christ?

 

[Albion]

Did it start with Saturnalia?

In the sense that the Christians were willing to put their own holiday up as competition against that one of the pagans, maybe. The early Christians didn't shrink from doing that and would probably consider it weird when modern people say that to do so must necessarily mean that they were adopting the pagan holiday for their own use.

But the Romans had a hundred holidays a year, so avoiding all of them would be a feat. And then too, there is a basis for dating the Nativity of Christ as was done. It's not entirely arbitrary. The belief of early Christians was that Jesus was crucified on the anniversary of his conception which, if true, would put his birthday in late December. Also, keep in mind that Saturnalia was celebrated over the course of a number of days, not just one.

All of this being considered should leave us thinking the claim that Christmas "started with Saturnalia" is a weak one at best.

 

[tango]

In the sense that the Christians were willing to put their own holiday up as competition against that one of the pagans, maybe. The early Christians didn't shrink from doing that and would probably consider it weird when modern people say that to do so must necessarily mean that they were adopting the pagan holiday for their own use.

This is a curiously modern development, to think that something landing on the same day as something else is inherently significant. Sometimes it seems we can barely doing anything without some idiot taking offense because it happened on the same day as something else in history that they want to claim is significant.

 

[Origen]

There is no real evidence for the Saturnalia\Christmas link.

Calculating Christmas Day - The Stream

So how did the early church decide to celebrate Christmas on December 25th? Part three in our series "Born on Christmas Day"

stream.org

Calculating Christmas by William J. Tighe

on the Story Behind December 25

www.touchstonemag.com

 

[atpollard]

Did it start with Saturnalia?

No, it started with Matthew 1 and Luke 2.