Chapter 21

It's Made Official

In the forth century AD, the Roman Catholic Pope Julius I officially decreed
December 25th to be the day to observe the birth of Jesus Christ.

ìIn 375 AD, the [Catholic] Church announced that the birth

date of Christ had been discovered to be December 25th,

and allowed some of theÖcustoms of [Saturnalia], such as

feasting, dancing and the exchanging of gifts, to be

incorporated into the reverent observance of Christmasî. 1

ìHow, then, did the [Roman] Church fix on December 25th

as Christmas-day? Why, thus: Long before the fourth

century, and long before the Christian era itself, a festival

was celebrated among the heathen, at that precise time of

year, in honour of the birth of the son of the Babylonian

queen of heaven; and it may fairly be presumed that, in

order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of

the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival

was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it only the name

of Christ.î 2 (emphasis mine)

Even the Catholic Church in their Official publications acknowledges the root of
the celebration of the ìbirthday of Christî.

ìDecember 25 seems to have been chosen on account of the

Roman custom of keeping this day as the festival of Sol

Invictus ñ i.e. of the re-birth of the sun; it was judged fitting

to substitute for the pagan feast a Christian one

commemorating the birth of the true Sun of the world and

Redeemer of mankind.î 3

ìChristmas was not among the earliest festivals of the

[Catholic] ChurchÖIn the Scriptures, no one is recorded to

have kept a feast or held a great banquet on [Jesus]

birthday. It is only sinners who make great rejoicings over

the day in which they are born into this world. î 4

Although Nativity scenes are put on every year telling the story of the ìFirst
Christmasî, it was over 300 years after the death of Christ that this holiday
began.