What is the origin of Christmas? | GotQuestions.org

Where did the celebration of Christmas come from? Are Christmas traditions related to pagan worship? In this video, we answer your question: What is the origin of Christmas?

[faithinwhatChristdidonthecross]

Jesus in his 33 years here on earth, had no such celebration of his birth and we are to follow in his footsteps. I am so hungry and thirsty to walk in the ways of our Savior. This is my first year in 55 years where I feel the urgency to leave this man made tradition and walk in the ways of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ . He nowhere in his word emphasized the date of his birth. I myself I’m so grateful for his truths that set us free

[olaoluwaelijah]

Let those troubled about seeing others celebrating Christmas let it go. Let they themselves focus on obeying the clear commandments of Christ and trust Him, and not fuss about doubtful things.

The Bible does not condemn esteeming a particular day than the others for the Lord. Please read Romans 14:1-12 and try to understand and repent.

If you think Christmas had some blend with initial pagan culture, let me break it to you, virtually everything does because we were originally sinners.

Give it a rest and do something worthwhile for the Lord. Don't make Christmas your season of anger.

[deanfry]

What holiday would Satan most like to get rid of? "The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice" (Philippians 2:18). Everyone knows very well Christ is preached more at this time of year than any other. Let us rejoice.

[CJ-vdpo]

I think Christmas is more about the event than the actual date. It’s one of two events that remind us of why God sent Jesus to the earth. The other one is of course, Easter.

[Ashleyunfiltered]

REAL followers of Christ. Don’t celebrate Christmas. Point blank period. End of discussion.

[TeStOs]

By the time you hear "the mass of Christ" you think Roman Catholicism, which refers to the Communion as the mass or the Eucharist, which they claim that wine & bread is transformed into the literal blood and body of Christ by the priest - ALL HERESY!! With a church that is the mother of all paganism mixed with Christianity, the name already gives away itself as being more about the traditions of men, Santa Claus, and all the other factionary things which may well represent pagan things. If it's really a day about the birth, then it wouldn't even be coined after a name that the Catholics use for their Communion, which points to his death.

IF YOU WANT TO CELEBRATE A DAY, THEN KEEPS THE LORD'S DAY WHICH HE HAS GIVEN IN HIS 10 COMMANDMENTS.

But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’” - Matt 15:9

[sherrcon]

we do not have much time...be careful...after xmas, many will forget about Jesus...Revelation 3:16 "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth".

[LukeKime]

I'm a follow of Christ and want to live at peace with my brothers and sisters by all means possible (Rom. 12:8). However, I think something to consider is...if the 25th, the tree, or anything else involved with the Christ...MAS holiday has AAAANNNNYYYY chance of being pagan then how dare we say we honor our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ while also honoring other pagan practices and gods.

I would suggest pulling away from everything that might be pagan and worldly. Instead, simply do presents, feasts, and celebration ( which is biblical) on thanksgiving or on the feast of tabernacles (When God tabernacled with the People and is the time when Shepards would be out). "Do Everything for the glory of God." -1 Cor 10:31

[loveforgood]

The question is does Gods word lead us to the conclusion that Christmas is redeemable? Somw say yes, some say absolutely not. If Gods word says to absolutely have nothing to do with pagan holidays or anything of paganism, then that would mean to stop celebrating Christmas and figure something else put and spread the word. We should be honoring God and blending in with the world.

[JosephSmith-phxr]

Anhonest appraisal of the origins of Christmas. But the fact that it was not celebrated by Christians for hundreds pof years should tell toy something .

[FirstLast-zkow]

Jesus was born in September (or October). Dec 8th is the recognition of the Immaculate Conception. Jesus was born 9 months later, during Sukkot, or the Feast of Tabernacles. When the Lord came down and dwelt among us. December 25 is purely pagan and has nothing to do with Christ.

[sonnyh]

The Bible is clear you do not adopt the ways of the pagans, and use the way they worship their false gods and do the same in the name of YHWH. To understand that December 25th was celebrated as the birth of Tammuz/or other equivalent sun god, and that bringing in an evergreen tree into the home around the winter solstice is clearly pagan and was syncretized by Rome into "christianity", and come to the conclusion its fine to worship Jesus in this way is just grasping to hold on to beloved and cherished traditions of men because its too hard to let go.

[timhaley]

How do you attract people to a celebration that is already known for its "folklore", such as Christmas ? By embellishing it with all sorts of "bells and whistles". For example, what does Santa Claus and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer have to do with Jesus so-called birth on December 25th that the Catholic church created ?


Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005 brings to our attention that the "familiar image of Santa Claus is a North American invention of the 19th century, (and) it has ancient European roots and continues to influence the celebration of Christmas throughout the world. The popular image of Santa Claus developed from literary descriptions by (American) novelist Washington Irving (1783-1859) and poet Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) and the fanciful drawings of illustrator Thomas Nast (1840-1902)."


The modern concept of Christmas, with Santa Claus being the hefty fellow, was embellished by Coca-Cola in 1931 and Rudolph, the ninth reindeer, with a red and shiny nose, was invented in 1939 by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward Company.


And of the origin of Christmas, an encyclopedia states: "Historians are unsure exactly when Christians first began celebrating the Nativity of Christ. However, most scholars believe that Christmas originated in the 4th century as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Before the introduction of Christmas, each year beginning on December 17 Romans honored Saturn, the ancient god of agriculture, in a festival called Saturnalia."


"This festival lasted for seven days and included the winter solstice, which usually occurred around December 25 on the ancient Julian calendar. During Saturnalia the Romans feasted, postponed all business and warfare, exchanged gifts, and temporarily freed their slaves. Many Romans also celebrated the lengthening of daylight following the winter solstice by participating in rituals to glorify Mithra, the ancient Persian god of light" on December 25.(Microsoft Encarta Reference Library 2005)


So, Christmas is NOT based on the Bible, but rather an absorption of pagan Rome's celebrations of Saturnalia (that ran from Dec 17-24 and whereby all business and warfare was postponed, gifts were exchanged, and slaves were temporarily freed) and the birthday of the Persian god of light Mithra on December 25, called Natalis Solis Invicti or "birthday of the invincible sun", and that was altered to "birthday of the invincible Son", by the Catholic church.(Note: the word "catholic" means "all-embracing, all-inclusive", so that the Catholic church embraced Rome's pagan festivals of Saturnalia and Mithra, Christianizing them and renaming them as "Christmas")


How many who call themselves "Christian" have carefully examined Jesus birth ? For example, how many have looked in detail at Luke 2, that shows shepherds were "living out of doors and keeping watch in the night over their flocks" (Luke 2:8), showing the weather to be mild and comfortable and not during the cold and rainy weather of December ?(see Ezra 10:9 and Jer 36:22)


How many who call themselves "Christian" have come to recognize that Jesus death was far more important than his birth (see Ecc 7:1 that says that the day of death is "better" than the day of birth), establishing that true Christians were to observe the day of his death that corresponded to Nisan 14 of the Jewish calendar as Jesus commanded ?(Ex 12:6, 14; 13:3, 4; Luke 22:19, 20; 1 Cor 11:23-26)


How many who profess to be Christian are diligent in applying what the apostle Paul wrote at 2 Corinthians 6:14, 17, 18: "For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have ? Or what sharing does light (of Bible truth) have with darkness (of falsehoods and lies, such as Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Mother's day, Father's Day, Memorial day, etc) get out from among them, and separate yourselves, ’ says Jehovah (God's name, see Isa 12:2, KJV), ‘and QUIT touching the unclean thing’”; “‘and I will take you in. And I will become a father to you, and you will become sons and daughters to me, ’ says Jehovah, the Almighty.” ?

[deanfry]

So, what I am getting from some of the comments is that because the pagans slandered the meaning of evergreen and other such things, we can no longer use them in the true worship of God, even though He created them to be good. If we are not to use "pagan practices", why did Jesus accept the laying of palm branches, a symbol of the god Apollo and other pagan uses, before Him during the Triumphal Entry?

[SantaFe]

You will find a lot of websites that claim that Christmas tree and other Christmas customs came from paganism, but you will be hard pressed to find any with scholarly research to back them up,

[kellydorney]

You may want to research this as there have been early church documents recently translated that show the early church father's believed Jesus was born on December 25th, centuries and decades before any Roman festival was declared. These are the church fathers, Hippolytus of Rome, who was martyred, Clement of Alexandria, and Julius Africanus of Alexandria speak about Jesus' birth in the 2nd century.✝️

[EL-SHADDAI-ELOHIM]

But exactly no one knows when our lord and Savior was born the KJV doesn’t say it.. they’re just assuming or guessing… the only thing we can do is wait til our Savior Jesus Christ comes… he will tell us exactly the day when he was born. I believe in God Jesus and I do believe in his word the KJV Bible and not in a tree. WE SHOULD HONOR GOD JESUS AND NOT A RIDICULOUS TREE.

GOD BLESS ISRAEL 🇮🇱

[brittonprice]

So it's ok to celebrate pagan holidays as long as we do it in the name of Jesus?

[grayscar]

Deuteronomy 12:4 is where God tells us to not worship Him like the pagans. This is exactly what Christmas and Easter and just Christianity as whole does. The only thing that can and should be redeemed is a soul ... you can't take a pagan holiday and say it's for God now. God only told us to redeem souls and not pagan rituals/holidays anyway

[stefanlabuschagne]

I ask myself the question is it wrong to celebrate a turning point in world history that offer eternal salvation as it is described (the birth of our Lord Jesus) in so much detail in the Word of God? If one feel it is wrong then one have the freedom in Christ not to celebrate it.