Comment on Where do British Christmas traditions really come from?
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 day agoThe 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”.
piccolo@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
They also didnt celebrate jesus birth at that time, instead of focusing on death (and rising). It wasnt until around Constantine when Christians started celebrating his birth.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 16 hours ago
It wasn’t until Constantine that Christians could practice more openly. Also, after Constantine is the first recording of Christmas being celebrated, it doesn’t mean that it wasn’t celebrated beforehand. Interestingly enough, our source for that - the Roman almanac in 336 - is older than the earliest source for sol invictus being on the 25th of December in the Chronography of 354. If anything, it could have very well been the pagans changing their dates to compete with Christians, which is what happened in Scandinavia when Yule was moved to the 25th of December to coincide with Christmas.