With December approaching fast, and everyone’s favourite holidays on their minds, I thought I would do a little research into where this holiday actually originated. Though many would say, well you’re a dumb fuck, errybody knows Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. Though in time you will see this is true in a sense, I obviously wouldn’t be writing this if I had not discovered otherwise. The birth of Jesus Christ was actually the first research I had actually gone into in depth.
I would first off like to state that this is not an attempt to dispute the existence of Jesus, or any type of god, or disprove the concept of religion. Those who have known me for a while will know that was a hobby of mine, but I am past that stage now. This article is about the the origins of a holiday, nothing else.
Anywho, as pointed out earlier, the first part of this discussion is about the birthdate of Christ. I thought this an appropriate starting point since this is widely believed to be the true origin of the holiday. Of course we all know that Jesus was supposèd to have been born on December 25th, 1 AD. Of course, that date has since been disputed, and many know believe it to be somewhere around the date of 5 B.C., but the year is not exactly pertinent to this discussion. Now, the first clue as to why many scholars (including Christian scholars) believe the 25th of December to not in fact be the date of Christ’s birth is due to the fact that it is not stated in the bible anywhere that Jesus was born on the 25th of December. In fact, there is no exact date referenced at all in the bible as to his date of birth. Though this was not the only clue. Take for example the three wisemen that travelled to Jesus upon his birth bearing gifts (which is the general thought of why we give gifts to each other on Christmas). Note that Jesus was born in Israel, which as we know is a country in the middle east. Be that as it may, it was still a country that suffered the hardships of winter. Though winter may not have been as extreme as we feel it, temperatures would still drop as low as 0oC. Once again, that may not seem like much, but to a people that experience a tropical climate during the summer, that drop is fairly intense. Also note that the tale goes that they were following the north star, meaning it was winter time, making temperatures even cooler. They would as well not have the same types of warm clothing that we cover ourselves with today, therefore increasing the negative effects of the cold. This revelation could have meant one of two things. Either Jesus was not born in December, or the kings travelled much later after the birth of Christ than we have been led to believe. Also, shepherds were seen in the fields watching over their flocks at night. This was not done during winter time as the flocks were not left outside during winter.
Now of course, this brings the question of when exactly was Jesus born? Well, sources in the bible hint that John the Baptist was conceived while his father Zechariah was serving in the course of Abijah, which was believed to be in early June. This would place John’s birth 9 months later in the month of March. We also know that he was six months older than Christ, so that would place Jesus’ birth around the month of September. Some people (normally a little more paranoid than others) have placed his birth on the date of September 11th.
So, based on the information displayed here, it is quite likely that the birth of Jesus Christ was not in December, but likely in the fall months. This would also show that the birth of Jesus was not exactly where the first celebrations of Christmas originate from*.
*But it still plays a factor, pay attention to further posts to discover what I mean.
-Jared
mtfbwy
