Why do we celebrate december 25th

It can get very cold in the winter and it's unlikely that the shepherds would have been keeping sheep out on the hills as those hills can get quite a lot of snow sometimes! During the spring in March or April there's a Jewish festival called 'Passover'.

This festival remembers when the Jews had escaped from slavery in Egypt about years before Jesus was born. Lots of lambs would have been needed during the Passover Festival, to be sacrificed in the Temple in Jerusalem. Jews from all over the Roman Empire traveled to Jerusalem for the Passover Festival, so it would have been a good time for the Romans to take a census.

Mary and Joseph went to Bethlehem for the census Bethlehem is about six miles from Jerusalem. It's the festival that's mentioned the most times in the Bible! It is when Jewish people remember that they depended on God for all they had after they had escaped from Egypt and spent 40 years in the desert.

It also celebrates the end of the harvest. During the festival, Jews live outside in temporary shelters the word 'tabernacle' come from a latin word meaning 'booth' or 'hut'. Many people who have studied the Bible, think that Sukkot would be a likely time for the birth of Jesus as it might fit with the description of there being 'no room in the inn'. It wouldn't have been practical for Joseph and Mary to carry their own shelter as Mary was pregnant. The possibilities for the Star of Bethlehem seems to point either spring or autumn.

The possible dating of Jesus birth can also be taken from when Zechariah who was married to Mary's cousin Elizabeth was on duty in the Jewish Temple as a Priest and had an amazing experience. There is an excellent article on the dating of Christmas based on the dates of Zechariah's experience, on the blog of theologian, Ian Paul.

With those dates, you get Jesus being born in September - which also fits with Sukkot! In the Bible, John says "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us So John seems to have clearly been drawing on this analogy saying that Jesus 'pitched his tent' as a human and also quite possibly he is making the link to the time of Jesus's birth.

John certainly knew both Jesus and Mary and so would have known when Jesus was born! The year that Jesus was born isn't known. In short, many ancient Romans were well-accustomed to celebrating something in late December by the time Christianity entered the mainstream. In , Constantine and his fellow ruler Licinius issued the Edict of Milan , which basically legalized Christianity and condemned the ongoing persecution of anyone who practiced it.

Constantine was a devout Christian himself, and he spent the rest of his reign spreading the religion throughout the empire. Whether Christians celebrated Christmas on December 25 before may forever be unknown, but we do know that the custom quickly caught on spending the holiday watching A Christmas Story marathon wouldn't come until much later. By the end of the 4th century, Christian bishops were holding Christmas Mass all over Rome, and pagan festivals soon fell out of fashion.

According to Christianity Today , it was around the year that the church considered commandeering the existing pagan festival of winter solstice as fitting time to honor the son of God. It helped that December 25th already hosted two debaucherous holidays: natalis solis invicti the Roman "birth of the unconquered sun" , and the birthday of Mithras, the Iranian "Sun of Righteousness.

Christmas wasn't widely observed until after Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and declared it the Roman empire's favored religion. How Christmas Was Celebrated in the 13 Colonies. Christmas History Facts and Trivia. When Massachusetts Banned Christmas. History of Christmas.