Origin of Christmas – The Biblical Account
Posted by the Speaker - 12/11/11 at 07:11:55 pm
The origin of Christmas is detailed in the biblical account in the book of Luke. We’ll discuss how the story came to be and how other traditions became associated with this holiday.
So most Christians, the origin of Christmas is tied directly with the birth of Jesus Christ as detailed in the bible. But there are a number of customs and traditions related to Christmas which have absolutely nothing to do with the celebration of the birth of Christ.
For example Dec. 25th is the Christmas day. However no one is actually sure exactly when Christ was born. It was most likely in late summer or early fall about 2,000 years ago. So the use of this date probably originated with the ancient birthday of the son god Mithra who was a pagan deity. The significance of this deity became widespread in the Roman Empire during the first few centuries after the birth of Christ.
This lead to a celebration of various Pagan deities around this time of year. Eventually Rome converted this Pagan celebration to a celebration of the god Saturn and the rebirth of the god during the winder solstice period. This winter holiday became known as Saturnalia and it began a week prior to December 25th. This festival was characterized by gift giving, feasts and merriment. It was a very joyous and festive time.
Variations of this holiday flourished during the first few centuries of the new millennium. But in 336AD, Emperor Constantine officially converted this pagan holiday into the Christian holiday of Christmas.
No Comments yet »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI