Is December 25 the day Jesus was born?
The Bible says nothing about the calendar day or year of the Nativity, but does refer to historical personages and events, such as the reign of King Herod. As a result no one knows what day Jesus was born, or even exactly what year. Christmas was not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church as the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than their birth. What is known is the first mention of the birthday is from the year 354, Christian leaders in 336 A.D. set the date to December 25 in an attempt to eclipse a popular pagan holiday in Rome (Saturnalia) that celebrated the Winter Solstice. By instituting Christmas at this time, the Church hoped to keep people from participating in the pagan rituals of the winter solstice. In the fifth century the western church (Roman Catholic) ordered it to be celebrated forever on the day of the old Roman feast of the birth of Sol.” (The Western Church, based in Rome, chose December 25 to cele
