[fanoff]

Originally Posted by Amber

Jesus was not born on a 25th of December, nobody knows when Jesus was born. Before Christianity, Europeans used to celebrate the Winter Solstice (the longest night of the year), this was common in the Roman Empire but also among Celtic and Germanic tribes in northern Europe. Long after the Christianization of Europe, people continued to celebrate the Winter Solstice even though it was a pagan rite, the Christian Church realized that there was no way it would manage to forbid people to continue that celebration, so it was arbitrary declared that Jesus was born on the same date as the Winter Solstice, it was a way for the Christian Church to give a Christian face to a pagan celebration it was unable to ban.

Nowadays in Europe, Christmas is essentially a commercial celebration and the Christian religious meaning is lost on most people, in a way this celebration is going back to its true Winter Solstice origin by becoming essentially an occasion for families to gather to eat and drink a lot.

thanks for the info!