Who Decides That Christmas Is On Dec 25?

Does anyone know who decides that Christmas is on Dec 25? I want to know because I need to ask them to push the date back this year.

Yes, I am working on Christmas story, one involving a pair of college students spending several days a secluded cabin followed by visits to both sets of parents. I have currently finished the set up and most of the first day at the cabin, but I'll need much more time to finish it.

There has to be a workaround... Found one!

Suggestion:
The library relocates to Russia. That would give me until Jan 7 to finish. Yes, that's a workable plan isn't it?

Failing pushing back the date of Christmas or relocating the library, I guess I'll have to move to Russia myself. Note that if I have to do that I'll use a VPN to make it appear as if I am still logging in from my house. Yeah, that's the ticket.

And in January, I'm going to get into the Christmas mood and write a Christmas story or two so I'm not racing a deadline next year.

Or, just go ahead and write it anyway. I'm sure everyone will appreciate it as a story instead of a "Christmas" story, even if it's holiday themed. Think of it as a belated Christmas present...

I've always understood that December 25th was chosen because the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere and ancient pagan festivals such as Yule were celebrated around that date. So it was a time when people were celebrating anyway.

In Denmark Yule is the 24. That is the evening everybody looks forward to.

d

If you look up the origins of the celebration of Christmas it will tell of the early origins were certainly of pagan origins. King Constantine knew the pagans would never give up a good party celebrating the return of the physical son in and around Dec 21, so when he wanted his realm to be considered a Christian one, he declared Dec 25 to be the celebration of the Son of God. Smart idea actually, replacing the 'sun' with the 'Son' meant people could go around talking about their celebration and depending on who was listening one could never be sure which (Son or sun) was being referred to.

Many historians believe Christ was born in the later part of October, but of course at the time of Constantine there were not enough of a celebration around for Constantine to use as an excuse for his so called Christianity. Lots of pagan beliefs tied into Christmas, but to me the biggest belief celebrated today is the one of pure commercial greed, which of course is not pagan, but just as bad.

CS

CS: Constantine didn't speak English, poor man, so the son (filius)/sun(solis) confusion doesn't work. Otherwise you're bang on and efforts to make Christianity easy for pagans were quite open. Not only does this apply to giving new meanings to pagan symbols like the holly and mistletoe, I remember seeing on TV about a kind of PAGAN-CHRISTIAN translation phrasebook that was produced in stone.

A final point is of course that no-one actually knows when precisely Jesus was born, so to celebrate his birthday, you need to pick some date or other.

In Australia, of course, Christmas is on 21.52.

barretthunter
Actually no one can prove 'he' was born at all. The "Jesus" story seems to be based on several itinerant reformers preaching at the time....perhaps one of them was born in October?

Must have had a problem with the Internet.

I believe that i have read somewhere that the date was based on a mid winter celebration by the Germans tribe. At least that is in Europe the case.

More Calendar trivia. The Egyptians had a 12 mo of 30 days with 5 days left over to party. This happened during the winter solstice. The Romans gave us nearly the calendar we have now, but liked the party. They extended it to a week and thus the solstice was set for the night of the 24th. New Year meant you had to sober up. Christmas was set here because no one knows when Jesus was born. The solstice is now three days earlier due to 15th century Pope Gregory calendar correction.

Whatever happened to the seven day party?