The real story of Christmas: from sun-worship to Sinterklaas

The Sun Carriage, a religious artifact of sun worship dating from the Bronze Age: Did the birthdate chosen for Jesus coincide with that of the sun god? (photo: Malene Thyssen, Wikimedia Commons)

History doesn’t record when the first Christmas was celebrated, but it was probably sometime in the fourth century CE, in the Roman Empire. What's sure is that the first historic record of the holiday is a calendar dating from 354 CE, belonging to a rich Roman Christian named Philocalus.

That calendar tells us that on the same date – 25 December – another holiday was celebrated, marking the birth of Sol Invictus, "the Unconquered Sun". That was a new pagan cult, worshipping a new sun deity. Both these holidays coincided with the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which had been celebrated from December 17 to December 24th. That was a festival celebrating the god Saturn, which – as we will see – contributed heavily to latter-day Christmas traditions.

Haaretz: The real story of Christmas: from sun-worship to Sinterklaas

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