Christmas Is Not About Christ
Christmas' Non-Christian Origins
So, you keep hearing this Christian bullshit of ‘keeping Christ in Christmas,’ right? They say there’s a war on Christmas if you wish folks happy holidays instead. Interestingly enough, these false Christians don’t realize the true history of their beloved holiday. Guess what – Jesus Christ was not born in December.
Many historians dispute that Jesus was born in December. Even the Catholic Church tosses out hints that this may not be the case. For example, Mary, the so-called Virgin Mother, immaculately conceived him on December 8th according to the Church’s calendar. Either she was very lucky with just a three-week pregnancy (of course, with God all things are possible) or it took her over a year to deliver the Christ child.
Generally speaking, these historians believe that Jesus was born in March or April. They also don’t think he was born in the year 1 AD either. He probably entered the world in 4 or 6 AD which would make our calendars bullshit too. Also interesting to note is that the Gospels themselves don’t make mention of what month Jesus was born. Go on. Take a moment to look. I’ll wait.
But let’s not stop there.
The Church itself took about 300 years to decide when to celebrate Christ’s birth. Yup! It wasn’t until the reign of the Emperor Constantine. Many believe that Christmas was meant to subvert Saturnalia, which began on December 17th and featured seven days’ worth of celebrations with people enjoying time off, relaxing and having fun. Some believe that the day was coopted from Mithraism. Mithras, the bull-god, was celebrated in parts of the middle east. Guess what – he was born on December 25th! Wow! Who could’ve seen that coming?
Regardless or what you may or may not believe, it’s hardly a coincidence that December 25th was ‘chosen’ as Christ’s birthday. The Church wanted to subvert other traditions and weaken paganism’s hold on to their dark ages’ populace. They also figured that if they “Christianized” pagan holidays, they’d get more people to come on over to their side. Isn’t acclimation great, folks?
So, when people tell you that you need to put “Christ” in Christmas, perhaps you can point out to them that Christ wasn’t always in Christmas. The modern holiday of Christmas is also a construct of the Victorian era in England. Many credit Charles Dickens, the writer of A Christmas Carol in popularizing the holiday.
Christmas wasn’t even a national holiday in the United States until June 26, 1874. There is no “WAR” on Christmas as right-wing pundits would have you believe. They just conveniently forget that there are a myriad of holidays during the month of December such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Bodhi Day (Buddhism) encompassing most if not all of the world’s major religions. Christians don’t corner the market on December holidays.
Happy Holidays, y’all. Till next week! Rant over!
It is also well established that the winter solstice is a day of celebration for most of the humans in the northern hemisphere. One of the fastest ways to discourage people from joining your cult is to take away their fun and usually, holidays are fun.