If what I just said confused you then you better splash some cold water on your face (for some who live on certain locations, smudge your face with snow).
December 25. It's the day of Christ's birth (well, according to Christianity, that is).
It is nevertheless a universal date imprinted in our brains as one of the most important holidays we have in the calendar, the currently used Gregorian calendar system. Before the Gregorian calendar was introduced, the Julian calendar was the more used version. A few places still use the Julian calendar, such as the Orthodox churches where they celebrate the Nativity on January 7 (as opposed to the Gregorian on December 25).
I remember asking myself during my days as an altar-boy at church What WAS Christmas all about? and what gift-giving had to do with the birth of Jesus. And almost always did I find myself waved off with explanations such as "Christmas is the time we celebrate the birth of our savior and that day reminds us that we should love one another and be more kind to others." and "Well, duh, the three wise men gave Jesus gifts...".
Even if the term derives from "Christ's Mass" many non-Christians still follow the traditional celebrations of spending time with loved ones; exchanging gifts and spreading love. Singing songs; catchy and beautiful as they may be, some are filled with lyrics that portray the story of Jesus and his birth.
For most parts of my life I've believed this day to being the birthday of Christianity's savior, the Nativity story was told so beautifully crisp that it left no room for doubt otherwise. Personally I think it's a little bit too good to be true.
Investigated studies by historians and biblical scholars alike was undertaken (and still is) to try to pin-point the accurate (or at least the most probable) birthdate of Jesus based upon what was written in the New Testament and also from the factual archeological proofs at hand. The birthdate of Jesus is nearly as difficult to pin-point as answering the question whether or not he resurrected. The conclusions drew to several possible dates, some believed firmly of Jesus being born some time in April (or at least spring-time) and some had the mathematics for some time in September. Whatever the real date is, Jesus was not born on December 25.
Otherwise, this day was (long before Jesus) celebrated as the birth of the pre-Christian god
Mithra (also known as Mithras)... the Zoroastranistic deity, on which beliefs accounts to have morphed with Judaic beliefs that has most likely influenced the spawning of the religion we all know today as Christianity. The ending of the Mithraic belief came under the hands of Constantine I when it was appointed that Christianity would become the religion and anything else were paganistic beliefs that need to be eradicated.Even skimming through the documents about Mithra one cannot escape realizing a series of identical stories and identical mass ceremonial procedures which can be seen on any given day at any given Catholic/Orthodox Christian churches. Be aware that Mithra has been around six centuries before Jesus was even born.
Just as an extra note of ancient Roman beliefs and celebrations while on the subject of December and celebrations, the Saturnalia was a very popular one which took place on December 17 but became such a crowd-pleaser among the Roman citizens that the celebrations went on for a few more days, even up until a week. The celebration was in honor of the god Saturn, he festival was a very humorous one and mainly consisted of reversing the social roles (masters took on the roles as slaves and vice-versa), like a long Halloween-party but with only two costume categories to pick from. Sounds like great fun.
The mere fact about Mithra would seriosly jeopardize many aspects of our modern social culture as well as shake somewhat the financial aspect of this money hungry world. Christians face the moral dilemma of doing as they preach, what should they do? Continue celebrating a lie (even if it gets proven)? One of the best quotes I know by heart comes from the words of Russian Revolutionary politician Vladimir Lenin: "A lie told often enough becomes the truth."
A facing problem would then be: What would we call this day instead?
Personally I like this holiday for it does concentrate us on the people that truly matter to us and showing love and care for them. I'd like to think of it as a "compulsory holiday" to end the rough year off with a great treat before the new one commences.
With the general public and its best in mind, my 2-cents on this question would be to keep calling it X-mas. Because a) "X" could be any particular noun of choice to anyone; love, sharing, caring, giving, happiness, joy etc. And b) "mas" won't be deriving from "mass" as it did with "Christmas" but because in Spanish "mas" translates to "more"... and a day to celebrate MORE of love, sharing, caring, giving, happiness and joy is a day EVEYBODY in the world should celebrate and have marked on their calendars, regardless of cultural or religious background.
Merry X-Mas to You All and have a splendid Holiday Season!
