Merry Christmas!
Why do we celebrate Christmas Day every year on December 25? Here’s a brief history of this all-important Christian festival. Plus, learn the meaning beyond the rituals and symbols of the season. There is so much comfort in these traditions.
When Is Christmas Day?
For Western Christian churches, Christmas Day always occurs on December 25, though some cultures observe the main celebration on the night prior, Christmas Eve.
Specifically, the meaning of Christmas comes in the remembrance and celebration of God’s presence in our world through Jesus, God-made flesh. “Christmas” comes from the Old English Cristes maesse, meaning “Christ’s Mass.”
Christmas is also extensively celebrated by non-Christians as a seasonal holiday, on which popular traditions such as gift-giving, feasting, and caroling occur.
Why Do We Celebrate on December 25?
Although the actual date of Christ’s birth is unknown, Christmas has been symbolically celebrated on the 25th of December since the 4th century.
Scholars can’t agree on exactly when Christ was born, and the exact circumstances of the beginning of Christmas as we know it remain obscure. Some chronographers of the third century reckoned December 25, around the winter solstice, was the most likely day of Christ’s birth, although other dates had been suggested, including several in spring and fall.
The oldest existing record of a feast to celebrate the birth of Christ in the Western Church is in the Roman almanac called the Chronographer (or Chronography) of 354, also known as the Philocalian Calendar. This almanac noted that the church in Rome observed a festival commemorating Christ’s birth in the year 336.
About 350 A.D., Pope Julius I set December 25 as the date the Church would commemorate when Jesus was born. Many historians believe that the Church stirred up interest in a festival at this time of year to counter the pagan festivals surrounding the solstice, but no historical document unequivocally explains Rome’s reasons for setting the date as December 25.
If interested in digging deeper, see this article on How December 25 Became Christmas from the Biblical Archaeology Society.
To read more and learn the history of Christmas in Catherine Boeckmann’s article, Discover Christmas Traditions, Folklore, Recipes, and More click on this link.
