Debunking the Myth of ‘Pagan’ Christmas
John Reinhard Weguelin The Roman Saturnalia (1884)
At this time of the year, Catholics are liable to be lectured with the inaccurate notion that the celebration of Christmas on December 25 derives from an appropriation of pagan feasts.
Some Catholics have bought into that assumption as well, and repeat it in good faith. More often, however, it is trotted out by people who seek to delegitimise the feast of the Nativity.
In brief, the argument goes, the early Christians usurped the pagan feasts of Saturnalia (a celebration from between December 17 and 23 that culminated in human sacrifice but also included gift-giving and festivities) and Sol Invictus to create the feast of the Nativity, or Christmas.
Since some of the popular practices of the Christmas celebration — such as the now ubiquitous decorated trees or the use of holly — have pagan origins, the myth has a superficial appearance of plausibility.
Moreover, the feast of Sol Invictus — or Dies Natalis Solis Invicti — celebrated the birthday of the pagan sun god Mithra, whose holy day happened to be on Sunday (the Germanic rendering of “dies Solis” is where we derive that day’s name from). For some of those who are already inclined to claim, absurdly, that the story of Jesus Christ is an amalgamation of diverse pagan myths, these coincidences serve as evidence. Their theory, however, is contradicted by historical fact.
For some of those who are already inclined to claim, absurdly, that the story of Jesus Christ is an amalgamation of diverse pagan myths, these coincidences serve as evidence. Their theory, however, is contradicted by historical fact.
The canonical dating of Christmas in the 4th century has no relation to these Roman pagan feasts.
The early Christians did not attach great importance to the feast of the Nativity. For the first three centuries of Christianity, the celebration of Christ’s birth had no official date or form. For the Church, the principal feast was, as it is today, Easter. The early Christians did not attach great importance to the feast of the Nativity. For the first three centuries of Christianity, the celebration of Christ’s birth had no official date or form. For the Church, the principal feast was, as it is today, Easter.
The celebration of the feast of the Nativity is first mentioned in a surviving document from 336, in the Roman Deposito Martyrum, before Pope Julius I (337-52) officially set the feast’s date on December 25.
That date most likely had already been widely accepted as Jesus’ “birthday”, based on the calculation of the Jerusalem scholar Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 AD.
That was a time when Christians were not assimilating pagan traditions into their practices. Indeed, the early Christians were prepared to be martyred rather than to submit to pagan observances.
They sought distance from paganism, not to usurp it. This changed only after Christianity had become the state religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century.
In the early third century, Africanus affirmed that the Annunciation should be dated to March 25, the northern spring equinox and the 14th Nisan in the Jewish calendar, which at the time was believed to be the date on which God created the world.
It was also believed that Jesus was crucified and died on the date of God’s creation and of his incarnation at the Annunciation: on March 25.
By simple arithmetic, if we add nine months to March 25, the date on which Mary conceived the Lord by the Holy Spirit, we arrive at December 25 for the date of his birth. Importantly, the affirmation of the date of the Annunciation on March 25 by Africanus precedes the celebration of the Sol Invictus by half a century.
Importantly, the affirmation of the date of the Annunciation on March 25 by Africanus precedes the celebration of the Sol Invictus by half a century.
Of course, Scripture gives no indication as to when Jesus was conceived or born, since the evangelists’ concern was theology, not biography. We know neither the date, nor the season, nor even the year (though the latter must have been before 4BC, the year of King Herod’s death).
The references to shepherds tending their sheep at night would suggest that the birth of the Lord could not have taken place in the northern winter.
Speculation about the authentic date of Jesus’ birth can teach us a lot about the historical, social and religious context of Jesus’ time, but it teaches us nothing about the meaning of Christmas: the birth of God-made-human so that we all may be redeemed.
While we must correct the suggestion that Christmas in some ways usurped pagan feasts — with that assertion’s implied delegitimisation of the feast of the Nativity — it is this truth that we must keep our eyes on.
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