Comment on Where do British Christmas traditions really come from?

• piccolo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Debunked? Sure… it was just a coincidence the Romans held were doing christmas-like activities on dec 25th. and it wasnt limited to just one. But there were others.

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  • Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    According to some scholars, the emperor Aurelian instituted in AD 274 the festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (‘birthday of the Invincible Sun’) on 25 December

    christianhistoryinstitute.org/…/ff-christmas

    Sextus Julius Africanus (160–240), an early third-century Christian historian, is among the first to refer to Jesus’s conception on March 25 and thus, by simple math, his birth nine months later on December 25.

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    • piccolo@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Totally pure conciendence he choose march 25th as the day of conception. (Spring equinox) which meant jesus would be born around winter solstice. Despite the evidence in the bible would strongly disagree with a winter birth. There may not be direct influence, but previous traditions most certainly influenced Christian traditions.

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      • Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        The Early Christians weren’t keen to imitate the idolatrous romans who were persecuting them at the time. It really is a long stretch.

        Despite the evidence in the bible would strongly disagree with a winter birth.

        The only reason is that the shepherds were out tending a flock at night. It turns out the temperature in Palestine was actually suitable enough to do this in December, and it was early lambing season. So it’s still a possibility, although emphasis on “possibility”.

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• stsquad@lemmy.ml ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  A lot of peoples have had some sort of festival in the depths of winter around the time of the solstice.

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  • Flax_vert@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    A lot of cultures had festivals at a lot of time periods in the year. For example, the Christian harvest festival generally coincides with the Chinese mid-autumn festival.

    The general explanation for Christmas is that Jesus was believed to have been conceived on the 25th of March. Either this is due to it being the spring equinox and “the day the world was created” or because it was believed at one point to be the date He died and thus had a cycle of life thing going on.

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• MagnificentSteiner@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Thats what I said. I said it is either a Christian or Consumerist occasion.

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