The term Christmas is a combination of Christ and mass, which means Christ’s mass. Many churches celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus every year, but there was no Christmas at the time of the early Church; because Christmas started in the 4th century, hundreds of years later. Today, Christmas is celebrated as a global festival beyond country or religion. Let’s take a look at its origin and historical meaning.
December 25, Birthday of the Sun God
Around the 1st century B.C., Mithraism, which was derived from Zoroastrianism in Persia, spread to Rome and was established as the religion of Rome. Mithraism was a religion that believed in the sun god Mithra. The sun god Mithra’s birthday was December 25, the day of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year on the ancient Roman calendar.
Mithra was revered by soldiers, known as Sol Invictus in Latin, which means Unconquered Sun. After Pompey’s (106 BC–48 BC) expedition to the East, Mithra was raised to the position of a tutelary deity of the Roman Empire. After Emperor Aurelian (reigned AD 270 to AD 275) defeated the enemy in Emesa, the hometown of the sun-god Mithra, the people said that Mithra abandoned his people and gave victory to Rome. In 274, December 25 was proclaimed as the birthday of the unconquered sun and the national holiday of the Roman Empire, and a grand celebration was held.
The Church in Rome Accepted the Birthday of the Sun God
Emperor Constantine, who legalized Christianity in 313, liked Mithra, the unconquered sun god. After acknowledging Christianity, he identified the sun god of Mithraism with God of Christianity, trying to combine the two religions. In this situation, the church, which was secularized with many benefits from the Roman Empire, lost its purity and accepted pagan ideas and images. One of them was to celebrate the birthday of the sun god on December 25.
Christianity and pagan customs
“The Christian church took over many pagan ideas and images. From sun-worship, for example, came the celebration of Christ’s birth on the twenty-fifth of December, the birthday of the Sun.” Tim Dowley, The History of Christianity (A Lion Handbook), Lion Publishing, 1994
The birthday of the sun god came into the church, and was celebrated as the birthday of Jesus. Celebration of Christmas began in the church in Rome.
“Christmas, on Dec. 25 . . . commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ . . . This was the date of a pagan festival in Rome . . . the birthday of the unconquered sun (natalis solis invicti), which at the winter solstice begins again to show an increase of light.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2010, under the word, “Christmas”
In 354, the church in Rome began to celebrate Christmas. The church accepted the birthday of a pagan god, which had nothing to do with the birthday of Jesus. This means that none of the members of the early Church, including the apostles, celebrated Christmas. Indeed, there is no record of Christmas anywhere in the Bible.
Christmas, the Date of a Pagan Festival
Another book explains that Christmas originated in the three major festivals held in the city of ancient Rome in December.
“The feast of Christmas . . . We find it first in Rome, in the time of the bishop Liberius . . . The Christmas festival was probably the Christian transformation or regeneration of a series of kindred heathen festivals—the Saturnalia, Sigillaria, Juvenalia, and Brumalia—which were kept in Rome in the month of December . . . The Saturnalia were the feast of Saturn or Kronos, in representation of the golden days of his reign, when all labor ceased, prisoners were set free, slaves went about in gentlemen’s clothes and in the hat (the mark of a freeman), and all classes gave themselves up to mirth and rejoicing. The Sigillaria were a festival of images and puppets at the close of the Saturnalia on the 21st and 22nd of December, when miniature images of the gods, wax tapers, and all sorts of articles of beauty and luxury were distributed to children and among kinsfolk. The Brumalia, from bruma (brevissima, the shortest day), had reference to the winter solstice, and the return of the Sol invictus.”
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Vol. III, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006
As such, Christmas was created by secularized Christians who set the date of Jesus’ birth, which is not specified in the Bible, as December 25, the feast day of the birth of the sun god. Many pagans who believed in the sun god converted to Roman Catholicism, but in reality, they changed only some of their rituals and continued their religious life.
The Protestants, which branched out of Roman Catholicism after the 16th century, adopted the tradition of Roman Catholicism as it is. That is why they still keep Christmas which includes the term mass used in the Roman Catholic Church.
Christmas Against God’s Will
Christmas is widely known as the birthday of Jesus, but in actuality it is just a pagan custom that worships the sun. It is quite contradictory that Christians and non-Christians alike call on Christ and pray for peace and hope on December 25 of which the origin has nothing to do with Christianity. The same is true of the fact that many churches keep the birthday of the sun god, though they say that they celebrate the day when God became flesh on the earth.
Christian faith should be based on God’s word, not on the customs of any nation or pagan religion. God told His people not to do the same as those who serve other gods do (Dt 12:30). He also warned that He would punish those who had conformed to the standards of the nations around them (Eze 11:8–12). Nevertheless, if anyone insists on keeping December 25, which is the custom of sun worship, as the birthday of Jesus, it is definitely a rebellion against God’s will, bringing punishment upon themselves.
