Many people, including Christians, believe the origin of the date of Christmas is related to the pagan feasts to worship the solar god Sol Invictus, Saturn’s god Saturnalia, or the Persian solar god adopted by the Romans, Mithras.
Academically, this view is also known as historical religions theory. The theory suggests the Catholic Church in Rome, Italy, began celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336 AD to replace the pagan celebrations.
However, several ancient manuscripts and theories reveal that the original celebrations of Christmas began even earlier than 336 AD, some bringing it right back to the second century.
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Some sources from around 200 AD implicitly and explicitly show how December 25 was determined as the date of Jesus’s birth.
Hippolytus (170-235 AD), a prominent theologian of the Catholic Church in Rome, mentioned the date of Jesus birth in his 204 AD work, “Commentary on Daniel”.
Continue here: Ancient Origins
