Difference between revisions of "Christmas"

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*ANCIENT SOURCES: see [[Christmas (sources)]]
#REDIRECT [[:Category:Christmas (subject)]]
*SCHOLARLY AND FICTIONAL WORKS: see [[:Category:Christmas (subject)]]
 
 
'''Christmas''' is the Christian celebration of the [[Birth of Jesus]].
 
==Overview==
 
Nothing is said in ancient sources about the date (or the season) when Jesus was born. The custom of celebrating the [[Birth of Jesus]] on December 25 derives from the Christianization of a pagan festival. The cult of Sol Invictus, "Unconquered Sun", the Sun God (El Gabal), was imported by the Emperor Heliogabalus from Syria to Rome in 218 CE. In 270 the emperor Aurelian established the worship and consecrated the temple on December 25, 274, during the feast of the Nativity of the Sun on the day of the winter solstice. The popularity of the cult of the Sun was strengthened when on March 7, 321 the Emperor Constantine declared the Dies Solis (also the day of Jesus' resurrection) the Roman day of rest.
 
The connection between Christ ("light of the world") and the Sun was made official by Pope Julius I in 350, with the celebration of December 25 as the Birth of Jesus. The Dies Solis was also confirmed by Christians as the weekly day of rest. It was renamed Dominica ("Lord's Day"); in English, however, it is still known as "Sunday" ("Sun's Day").
 
The worship of Christ was not able to remove that of the Sun, as illustrated by the sermon delivered in 460 by Pope Leo the Great on Christmas: "The religion of the Sun is so much estimated that some Christians, before entering the Basilica of St. Peter the Apostle, dedicated to the one God living and true, having climbed the stairs leading to the atrium above, they turn to the sun and bending their head bow in honor of the star. We are very distressed and we grieve for this, which is done partly by ignorance and partly by pagan mentality. "
 
==External links==
 
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas Wikipedia]
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm Catholic Encyclopedia]




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