1 post tagged “christmas day”

I thought I would comment just to straighten out some of your "facts". Since early in the first century there was a desire to celebrate the birth of the Messiah by those who in Antioch were first called Christians. The problem was that gathering together in a celebration was a dangerous thing to do. The church was under terrible persectution by the Roman Empire from 64 AD with Nero...all the way to the Edict of Milian in 313 AD. The most severe was under Diocleation at the end of the third century and the begining of the 4th. Under his edict Christians gathering together or possessing any Christian writings was punishable by death. Now during the year there were a number of pagan festivals, usually following the harvests and lunar cycles. One of them, the Roman feast of Saturnalia, was held during the winter solstice. They already had a festival in April ..Resurection Day..later called Easter. The festival of Hanahka is held in Kislev 25 which is prestty close to our December 25th. By celebrating at the same time others were celebrating there pagan festivals...the Christians did not stand out and relieved them of much additional persecution. After the conversion of Anglo-Saxons in England from their polytheism in the very early 7th centurym Christmas was called geol, which is the name of the native pre-christian Germanic solstice festival. From geol...the current English word "yule" is derived. The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after the crowing of Charlemagne on Christmas Day, 800AD. The earliest writing referring to the celebration of Christmas is 354 AD which speaks of Epiphany as January 6th....12 days after Christmas Day. Tradition says that was the time between his birth and the arrival of the Magi bearing gifts for the newborn king.