Christmas Customs and Folklore by Margaret Baker

Christmas Customs and Folklore by Margaret Baker

Was 25th December really the birthday of Christ? No one knows. The early Christians celebrated Christmas (The Mass of Christ) on dates as widely apart as the 1st and 6th of January, the 29th March and the 29th September. The firm choice of 25th December seems only to have been made by Pope Julius I (A.D. 337-52) and since the end of the fourth century this has been the date for the celebration of Christmas throughout Christendom.

But the choice of dates was not as arbitrary as it seems at first glance. It was a shrewd and practical decision on the part of the early Church Fathers, for mid-winter had always been a season of merry-making for many pagan peoples from whom the young Church intended to draw its converts. In Rome the 25th was observed as the Dies Natalis Invicti Solis (Birthday of the Unconquered Sun), sacred to Mithras, God of Light, and the Phrygian sungod, Attis. The great Roman Saturnalia, a festival of fire and light, notorious for its wild celebrations, began on 17th December and lasted for seven days and this was quickly followed by the New Year celebrations of Kalends. As the Roman empire prospered and spread, these feasts had been carried to its remotest corners and the festivals were celebrated with as much enthusiasm on Hadrian's Wall as in the deserts of North Africa by the exiled Romans and their conquered peoples. 

(Excerpt from the first chapter)