The Onymous November-December 2013, issue 7 | страница 12

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Issue 7 November-December 2013

traila and New Zealand, Father
Christmas and Santa Claus are
popular but he doesn’t ride a
sleigh, as December comes during
the summer. In the USA, Santa
Claus is virtually universally
known, and is more popular there
then in any other country worldwide.
December 25
Christmas isn’t celebrated by everyone, and of those who do celebrate
it, some don’t celebrate it on the 25
of December. In fact, not all Christians celebrate it at all. On the other
hand, many people who do not
even believe in Jesus celebrate
Christmas, not as his birthday, but
as a holiday about gifts, family,
and traditions.
The first known mention of Jesus’
birthday being on December 25th
was in A.D. 336 in a Roman calendar. The celebration of this day as
Jesus? birth date was almost definitely influenced by other festivals
held around that time. The ancient
Romans held celebrations at the
end of the year to honor their harvest god, Saturn, and Mithras, their
god of light. Likewise, many people in northern Europe and north
Africa whom the Romans conquered had year-end celebrations.
As part of some of the celebrations,
people prepared special foods,
decorated their homes, and

sang songs and gave presents.
When Christianity became the
official religion of the Roman
Empire in the late A.D. 300s,
these traditions became associated with Christmas.
Christmas slowly became popular, and by 1100, it had become
the most important religious festival in Europe. And Saint Nicholas, a symbol of giving, grew
steadily in popularity too. Christmas’s popularity continued to
grow until the Reformation in the
1500s, during which many Christians began to consider Christmas
a pagan celebration because of all
the nonreligious traditions associated with it… Despite the fact
that Christmas is, fundamentally,
the celebration of Jesus’ birthday.
In fact, Christmas was outlawed
in England in the 1600s! But it
made a full recovery, as we can
see today.
Nowadays, Christmas is widely
commercialized and many people who are not Christians celebrate Jesus’ birthday!1 They don’t
necessarily connect their Christmas celebration with Jesus in any
way, but it’s still actually his
birthday celebration. Santa’s not
bad, but Christmas isn’t about
him. For those of us who do follow Jesus, it’s important not to
forget that it is his birthday.

1. See ‘Why is Jesus so famous?’, May-June issue.