Christmas Was Not Originally A Christian Holiday

Did you know that a pagan winter festival was traditionally the most popular festival of the year in many cultures long before Jesus ever came to this earth?

Did you know that December 25th was celebrated as the "birthday" of pagan gods such as Mithras and Sol long before it became Christianized?

Did you know that Jesus WAS NOT born on December 25th?

One of the pagan pre-Christian festivals was called Saturnalia.

It was a holiday when the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of their god Saturn, which was on the 17th of December and the festival would last for a whole week until the 23rd of December.

Later the Romans also started holding a festival on December 25 called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, which means "the birthday of the undefeated sun."

Pagan Scandinavia also celebrated a winter festival called Yule, which was held from late December to early January. Yule logs were lit to honor the god "Thor". The holiday would continue until the Yule log burned out, which could take as many as twelve days. Thus this is where we get the "12 days of Christmas".

In the year 350 A.D., Pope Julius I declared that "Christ’s birth" would be celebrated on December 25th from then on.

His rationale was that he was trying to make it easier for pagan Romans to convert to Christianity.

But Jesus was not born on December 25th.

It would have been way too cold for shepherds to be out with their sheep at night during that time.

Jesus was actually born during the Feast of Tabernacles.