To many, Christmas is celebrated with a mindset that it is the day Jesus Christ the light of the world and son of God was born. However, a certain segment of people perceive it differently to the extent that some don’t exhibit the slightest recognition of this famous day.

This controversy has its roots from the philosophies behind different religions and their perceptions of Jesus himself. Some religious scholars have also presented controversies on when Jesus was exactly born. Below are some of the controversies stemming from the Christmas day.

When was Jesus born?

The exact day Jesus was born has attracted muck controversy and has been the center of doctrinal and academic arguments for centuries; however the popular orientation puts his birth on December 25 in the year 1 C.E.

The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus’ birth.  The earliest gospel – St. Mark’s, written about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus. 

This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked interest in or knowledge of Jesus’ birth date. According to Laurence Kelemen, the year of Jesus’ birth was determined by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, "abbot of a Roman monastery. 
His calculation went as follows:

In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita ("the founding of the City” [Rome]).  Thus 1 AUC signifies the year Rome was founded, 5 AUC signifies the 5th year of Rome’s reign, etc.

Dionysius received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years, and was followed by the emperor Tiberius.

Luke 3:1, 23 indicates that when Jesus turned 30 years old, it was the 15th year of Tiberius reign.

If Jesus was 30 years old in Tiberius’ reign, then he lived 15 years under Augustus (placing Jesus birth in Augustus’ 28th year of reign).

Augustus took power in 727 AUC.  Therefore, Dionysius put Jesus birth in 754 AUC.

However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus’ birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC – four years before the year in which Dionysius places Jesus birth.

Joseph A. Fitzmyer – Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America, the writing in the Catholic Church’s official commentary on the New Testament, criticized Doinysius Exguus’s version that it was based on miscalculation, "Though the year [of Jesus birth is not reckoned with certainty, the birth did not occur in AD 1. 

The Christian era, supposed to have its starting point in the year of Jesus birth, is based on a miscalculation introduced ca. 533 by Dionysius Exiguus.” Said Emeritus.

The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed to have been written in North Africa around 243 CE, placed Jesus birth on March 28. 

Clement, a bishop of Alexandria (d. ca. 215 CE), thought Jesus was born on November 18.  Based on historical records, Fitzmyer guesses that Jesus birth occurred on September 11, 3 BCE.

The Origins of Christmas Customs

Christmas Trees

Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning "Christmas Trees”. 

Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.

Christmas Presents

In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). 

Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace.  The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas.

Santa Claus (Father Christmas)

Nicholas the Bishop of Myra is believed to have been born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and later became Bishop of Myra.  He died in 345 CE on December 6.  He was only named a saint in the 19th century.

Nicholas was among the most senior bishops who convened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created the New Testament.  The text they produced portrayed Jews as "the children of the devil” who sentenced Jesus to death.

In 1087, a group of sailors who idolised Nicholas moved his bones from Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy, after displacing a leader of a certain cult called The Grandmother who used to fill children’s stockings with her gifts.

The Grandmother was ousted from her shrine at Bari, which became the center of the Nicholas cult. Members of this group gave each other gifts during a pageant they conducted annually on the anniversary of Nicholas’ death, December 6.

The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped a pantheon led by Woden –their chief god and the father of Thor, Balder, and Tiw. 

Woden had a long, white beard and rode a horse through the heavens one evening each Autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden, he shed his Mediterranean appearance, grew a beard, mounted a flying horse, rescheduled his flight for December, and donned heavy winter clothing.   

In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving (most famous his The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle) wrote a satire of Dutch culture entitled Knickerbocker History. 

The satire refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.
That’s how Santa Claus came to be adopted as a Christian Custom up to date.

If one takes a deeper insight into the myths behind Christmas and its origin, it makes it hard to contemplate whether to celebrate it or not.

Nevertheless people have gone ahead to celebrate it and most importantly it has been a day characterised by giving and receiving love, family bliss and reunions.

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