Yesterday in church, one of the pastors discussed a little bit of the history of Christmas.  It wasn’t the sermon, but more of a history lesson of how it all came about.  I thought it was pretty interesting, so I thought I’d mention it here.

First of all, early Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ.  They celebrated Easter, but there was no celebration of when Jesus was born.  There were some small celebrations, but nothing like we expected this day. 

In the 300s AD, the Emperor of Rome was looking for a way to unite a fractured kingdom.  His idea was to create a holiday for a “made-up” God.  The “made-up” God was Sol Invictus, or the unconquered sun.  The date of December 25 was chosen because it was the day the sun stopped its trek to the south and reversed course (with our more accurate calendar that actually happens a couple days earlier on the Winter Solstice).  Sol Invictus was great because it could encompass a whole bunch of other gods in its worship.  The Emperor at the time also allowed for everyone to worship their own gods (or God) without fear of persecution.  Sol Invictus was at the top. 

It’s ironic that the day for worship of Sol Invictus, the unconquered son, became a day of worship for The Unconquered Son.  This happened when Constantine, another emperor of Rome, made Christianity the national religion.  (He’s also the one that made the cross a symbol of the religion, by emblazing it on the shield of the Roman army.)  In order to get so many pagans into the religion, Constantine made December 25th the official holiday to celebrate the birth of the Christ.  Christmas has its roots in a purely pagan holiday. 

During the Middle Ages, it wasn’t Christmas on the minds of believers though, it was Epiphany.  Epiphany focused on the Three Kings’ visit (We Three Kings of Orient Are)…

It was considered pagan so much that in the Protestant Reformation, groups like the Puritans didn’t celebrate Christmas!  They considered it a “Catholic invention”.  It went so far that Puritans in Boston banned Christmas from 1659 to 1681.  Catholics responded by focusing the holiday on a more religious tone (it was more of a holiday of revelry previous to that), but it wasn’t until the mid-1800s that it once again became acceptable to celebrate the holiday. 

It’s got an interesting history… some of this I took from this morning’s church and other parts from Wikipedia.  I highly suggest a more in-depth read-through on Wikipedia.  It’ll blow your mind. (Maybe not… but I wanted to say that.)