Christmas :

Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December, ostensibly to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, Many historians believe that he was born about six month after Passover, a Jewish holiday, which would put his birth sometime in September.  But no one really knows with all certainty when Jesus Christ was born, since there is no historical record like a birth certificate.  But in all probability he wasn't born in December.  The bible tells that shepherds were looking after their ... Every year, people all over the world celebrate Christmas . They put up Christmas trees, decorate their houses with lights, and look forward to receiving gifts. Where did this holiday begin? Many people would be shocked by this, but Christmas actually dates to over 4000 years ago! This is long before Jesus was born. Many of the traditions associated with Christmas were celebrated back then, such as the twelve days of Christmas, the Yule log, the giving of gifts, carollers that sing while going to different houses, feasts, and church processions. The early Mesopotamians did all of these things. The Mesopotamians had these traditions to celebrate New Year's. They believed in many gods, but their chief god was Marduk. They thought that every year when winter came Marduk would have to battle the monsters of chaos. The Mesopotamians held a New Years festival to help Marduk. This festival was called Zagmuk and lasted for twelve days.

The Mesopotamians also thought that the king had to die at the end of the year to go help Marduk battle the monsters. The king would have to go to Marduk's temple and declare his faithfulness to the god. However, the people did not want their king to die, so they would use a fake king. They would use a criminal and dress him in royal clothes. The criminal was even treated like a king. At the end of the festival, the fake king would be killed.

The Babylonians and the Persians had a festival that was very similar. It was called Sacaea. During the celebration, they would exchange places in society. Slaves would act like the masters and the masters would act like the slaves.

The early Europeans also had a winter celebration. They believed in witches, evil spirits, trolls, and ghosts. When the long, cold winter began to come, they thought that the sun might not come back so they had many traditions and celebrations to welcome the sun.

During the winter in Scandinavia , the sun would go away for many days. After 35 days, they would send a scout to the top of the mountains to see if the sun was returning. When the sun returned, they would have a huge festival called the Yuletide. During this celebration, they would have a big feast served around a fire burning the Yule log. Big bonfires were also lit. Some people would tie apples to the branches of trees so they could remember that spring would return.

The Romans had a festival called Saturnalia, where they celebrated their god Saturn. It began in the middle of December and lasted until January 1st. Their celebrations included masquerades, big feasts, visiting with friends and exchanging gifts. The gifts they gave were for good luck and were called Strenae, which means lucky fruits. The Romans would also "deck their halls" with garland made of laurel and decorate trees with candles. Masters and slaves would trade places here too.

Christians knew of this Roman festival but thought that it was wrong to honor a pagan god. Christians during this time actually wanted Christ's birthday to be celebrated solemnly, no merrily. However, as Christianity began to spread, many people that became Christians were previously worshipping pagan gods. Many of these converts would still have the Saturnalia festival. The church tried to stop people from this kind of celebration, but could not. Eventually, they made the festival into a celebration of Christ.

The date Christmas is celebrated was probably chosen to compete with all the pagan celebrations during that time. The Romans and the Persians had festivals during that time. No one even knows Christ's exact day of birth. It has been celebrated at the same time though since 98 A.D.