December 25, 2005

• The Roman holiday of Saturnalia was always celebrated at the end of the
  year to Saturn, the god of farming.  This was one of the biggest
  festivals of the entire year, and many people from all over the empire
  celebrated it.  As part of the celebration, slaves and masters
  would temporarily swap roles, and they would give each other
  gifts.  When Christianity first started to develop, the Church
  wanted to have a celebration to counter the pagan holiday.  As a
  result, they started to celebrate the Christ mass exactly one week
  before the start of the new year, during Saturnalia.  Jesus was
  not born on this day; this is just the day they decided to celebrate
  his birth.  Some pagan traditions wove their way into it, which is
  why you have such things as giving gifts and decorating trees (which
  was a Germanic tradition, if I remember correctly) now.

  That is the real Christmas story.

  • 3:17 pm
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