Posted on 12/28/2003 10:32:36 PM PST by freedom44
Archeologists say they have traced the origins of the first Christmas to be celebrated on 25 December, 300 years before the birth of Christ. The original event marked the consecration of the ancient world's largest sun god statue, the 34m tall, 200 ton Colossus of Rhodes.
It has long been known that 25 December was not the real date of Christ's birth and that the decision to turn it into Jesus's birthday was made by Constantine, the Roman Emperor, in the early 4th century AD. But experts believe the origins of that decision go back to 283 BC, when, in Rhodes, the winter solstice occurred at about sunrise on 25 December.
The event was preserved by academics on Rhodes or in Alexandria, and seems to have been passed to Caesar by the Hellenistic Egyptian scientists, who advised him on his calendrical reforms.
The date was chosen because the emperor seems to have believed that the Roman sun god and Christ were virtually one and the same, and the sun's birthday had been decreed as 25 December some 50 years earlier by one of Constantine's predecessors, the Emperor Aurelian. He, in turn, seems to have chosen 25 December because, ever since Julius Caesar's calendar reforms of 46 BC, that date had been fixed as the official winter solstice, even though the real date for the solstice in Caesar's time was 23 December.
Dr Alaric Watson, one of the British historians involved in the current research and author of the major book on the period, Aurelian and the Third Century, said: "Constantine's choice of 25 December as the day on which to celebrate the birth of his divine patron, Christ, must be viewed in terms of the tradition on which Aurelian had drawn and which may well have originated in the celebration of the winter solstice at Rhodes some six centuries earlier.
"Constantine clearly saw his divine patron, initially Sol Invictus but later Christ, in much the same way as Aurelian had done. The imagery of Christ, like that of the ruler cults of the Hellenistic and Roman worlds, owed much to solar theology."
Jesus's real date of birth is not known, although various different pre-4th century traditions and computations put it either in the January to March period or in November.
We already have it 'corralled' here. (Thanks)
Apparently the date of December 25th was settled on primarily because it was longest night (or, considering the primitive time keeping equipment then existing, was mistakenly thought to be the longest night) and it seemed that all the Gospel events that apparently took place at night would have needed as much time as possible to unfold.
Whether Dec 25th was chosen because it was already being used by various pagans is debatable, but it is certain that a lot of pagan cultures had already noticed that the longest night was on or around Dec 25th and were marking that night in various ways.
Another possible reason for picking Dec 25th, or while that date might have prevailed over other candidate dates, is that it comes in the midst of winter. In a pre-industrial age the vast majority of the population in Europe would have dug themselves in as the snows began in November or October, resigned to see no one outside the household and eat nothing but stored roots until the spring thaw; celebrating Christmas on Dec 25th gave them an opportunity and excuse to dig themselves out, socialize and have some amusement midway through this hibernation.
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