Christmas wasn’t a Christian hijack of a pagan date
The claim
A long standing myth of Christian history is that the date and celebration of Christmas were based on a pagan date which was ‘Christianized’ by the church. This myth appears is reinforced by its appearance in standard reference works such as the New Encyclopedia Britannica,[1] and Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions.[2]
Even Snopes manages to get this wrong, with an extremely brief article which makes this false claim.
“The idea of celebrating the Nativity on December 25 was first suggested early in the fourth century CE, a clever move on the part of Church fathers who wished to eclipse the December 25 festivities of a rival pagan religion, Mithraism, which threatened the existence of Christianity.”
In reality, the choice of December 25 has nothing to do with pagan festivities, and absolutely nothing to do with Mithraism, which by the fourth century was virtually comatose and no threat to Christianity whatsoever. In fact by this time the Mithraites were willingly converting to Christianity.[3]
Scholarly consensus
Current scholarship on early Christianity, as well as on early Roman religion, has long since dismissed this myth. During the very time that December 25 was adopted widely by the Church as the date of Jesus’ birth, the key dates for festive activities in celebration of Sol were in October and August, not December. Intriguingly, Hijmans points out that in fact the possibility of the pagans adopting December 25 in response to the already established Christian festivity, cannot be ruled out.[4]
It is therefore unsurprising that current scholarship typically dismisses the idea that identification of December 25 as the date of Jesus’ birth was predicated on adoption, co-option, borrowing, hijacking, or replacement of pagan equinox festivities such as those for ‘Sol Invictus’, especially given the lack of evidence for such a pagan festival on this date prior to the Christian fixation on December 25 as the birth of Jesus.[5]
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[1] ‘The reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains uncertain, but most probably the reason is that early Christians wished the date to coincide with the pagan Roman festival marking the “birthday of the unconquered sun” (natalis solis invicti); this festival celebrated the winter solstice, when the days again begin to lengthen and the sun begins to climb higher in the sky. The traditional customs connected with Christmas have accordingly developed from several sources as a result of the coincidence of the celebration of the birth of Christ with the pagan agricultural and solar observances at midwinter. In the Roman world the Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merrymaking and exchanging of gifts. December 25 was also regarded as the birthdate of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness. On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Yule rites when the Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain and central Europe. Food and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, gifts and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festive season. Fires and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian.’, article ‘Christmas’, in Yust (ed.), ‘The New Encyclopedia Britannica’, volume 3, p, 283 (15th ed. 1998).
[2] Article ‘Christmas’, in Doniger (ed.), ‘Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions’, p. 236 (1999); the text in this article is identical to that of the article in the New Encyclopedia Britannica since Merriam-Webster used material from Britannica, ‘The broad scope of Encyclopedia Britannica has here been melded with the lexical resources of Merriam-Webster to produce a work that is notable both for the rigor of its scholarship and the exacting detail of its pronunciations and etymologies.’, Doniger (ed.), ‘Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of World Religions’, p. viii (1999).
[3] ‘When Constantine lent his support to Christianity, the Mithras initiates who were frequently imperial employees and soldiers, apparently abandoned their cult with almost no opposition.’, R. Merkelbach, “Mithras, Mithraism,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 878.
[4] ‘On the evidence currently available we cannot exclude the possibility that, for instance, the 30 chariot races held in honor of Sol on December 25 were instituted in reaction to the Christian claim of December 25 as the birthday of Christ. In general, the extent to which late pagan festivals copied, incorporated, or responded to Christian practices, elements, and dates deserves far more attention than it has received; cf. Bowersock 1990, 26–7, 44–53.’, Steven E Hijmans, Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome (S.l.; Groningen: s.n.; University Library Groningen 2009), 588.
[5] ‘All this casts doubt on the contention that Christmas was instituted on December 25th to counteract a popular pagan religious festival, doubts that are reinforced when one looks at the underlying understanding of Sol and his cult.’, Steven E Hijmans, Sol: The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome (S.l.; Groningen: s.n.; University Library Groningen 2009), 592.