16 Pagan Christmas Traditions that People Mistakenly Credit to Christianity

1. Christmas Day was the date of the Rebirth of the Sun before it was the Birthday of the Son of God.

No one knows when the birth of Jesus Christ took place. For the first two centuries of Christianity, no one cared, as early Christians focused more on the dates of the martyrdom of Christ and the saint. However, in 221AD, Sextus Julius Africanus became the first person to link the birth of Christ to December 25^thand in 354AD, the date had become inscribed on the calendar of Philocalus in Rome. Over the next two centuries, the idea spread and Christians across the eastern and western empire began to accept December 25th as Christ’s birthday.

December 25^thwas chosen as the birthday of the Son of God because it was already the day of the rebirth of the sun. December 25^thwas the first-day people could appreciate increased light after the ‘sun standing still’ at the winter solstice. So, they marked the day as the birthdate of sun gods such as Mithras or the Sun god Sol Invictus: the victorious sun. So, the early church chose December 25 to ‘absorb’ the festivities surrounding these deities- and refocus them on the birth of Christ. While some Christians regarded this acquisition as a victory, others such as Augustine of Hippo had to keep reminding people it was the Son of God and not the sun they were worshipping.

Where Do We Get This stuff? Here are our sources:

Nine Christmas Customs with Pagan Roots, Patti Wigington, Learn Religions, June 18, 2017

Christmas, BBC, June 22, 2009

Lord of Misrule, Encyclopedia Britannica, August 13, 2015

Christmas tree, Encyclopedia Britannica, October 15, 2018

Chambers Dictionary of Beliefs and religions, ed Mark Vernon, Chambers, 2010

Chambers Book of Days, ed R Chambers, Chambers, 2004

Christmas wreaths, Christmas Forest

Stations of the Sun: A history of the Ritual Year in Britain, Ronald Hutton, 1996

Tree worship: why are our trees so sacred? Ed Cumming, The Telegraph, December 19, 2013

The Contest of the Ivy and the Holly, in Songs of the nativity by William Henry Husk, John Camden Hotten.

Ancient mysteries described: especially the English miracle plays, founded on apocryphal New Testament story, extant among the unpublished manuscripts in the British Museum: including notices of ecclesiastical shows. William Hone, London: W. Hone, 1823