The History and Traditions of Christmas

Christmas is a religious and cultural celebration that falls on December 25th.

The holiday is celebrated by Christians and many non-Christians alike.

Christmas typically involves giving and receiving gifts, attending church services, and eating a special meal.

The Christmas season has gradually grown in economic significance over the past few centuries.

The earliest recorded Christmas celebration was in Rome on December 25, 336.

The date of the nativity was the subject of great interest for the early Christians.

Around AD 200, Clement of Alexandria wrote that 25 December was the date of the nativity because it was nine months after the date linked to the conception of Jesus—March 25—and it was the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar.

The early Church Fathers John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome attested to 25 December as the date of the nativity.

Christmas is celebrated on December 25th

The early Christian writer Lactantius wrote that the east is attached to God because he is the source of light and the illuminator of the world.

Christmas regained prominence after 800 when Charlemagne was crowned emperor on Christmas Day.

In Puritan England, Christmas was banned, with Puritans considering it a Catholic invention and also associating the day with drunkenness and other misbehaviour.

It was restored as a legal holiday in England in 1660 when Puritan legislation was declared null and void, but it remained disreputable in the minds of some.

Christmas festivities and services became widespread with the rise of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor, alongside Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and other authors emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and Santa Claus (for Irving), or Father Christmas (for Dickens).

Various theories have been offered with respect to the establishment of the dates on which the Christian Churches came to celebrate Christmas.

The calculation hypothesis suggests that an earlier holiday, the Annunciation (which celebrated the conception of Jesus), held on March 25 became associated with the Incarnation. Christmas was then calculated as nine months later.

In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions Passover, presumably celebrated according to the local calendar in Corinth.

Tertullian (d. 220), who lived in Latin-speaking North Africa, gives the date of passion celebration as March 25.

The date of the passion was moved to Good Friday in 165. According to the calculation hypothesis, the celebration of the Quartodeciman continued in some areas until the 4th century.

The calculation hypothesis suggests that Jesus was conceived on March 25 and died on March 25, both of which coincided with the Jewish holiday of 14 Nisan.

The feast of Christ's incarnation became associated with the winter solstice.

Various Biblical passages support the idea that Jesus was linked to the Sun.

Newton argued that the date of Christmas may have been selected to correspond with the solstice.

The history of religions hypothesis suggests that the feast of Christ's incarnation was linked to the winter solstice because it was seen as a time when the Sun was at its lowest in the sky.