Many people world over, Christians and non Christians celebrate 25th December as the date of birth for Jesus Christ. But why is this so? Chris Mwesigye Bishaka shares a very interesting researched piece about this largely accepted notion which reveals the contrary to many believers
Once again, we are at that time of the year when multitudes try to keep up with the Joneses by traveling “to the village”, buying more meat than they can possibly consume, drinking themselves to a stupor and of course purchasing clothes they can hardly afford then thereafter spending the next two months crying about being broke.
Which brings me to the banality of Christmas.
Why do we celebrate this Pagan holiday every year?
According to the internet, “December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date.
“One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the “dies solis invicti nati” (“day of the birth of the unconquered sun”), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer.
“Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son.”