the word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse , the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038. One of he original celebrations of the church was the epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles, celebrated on Jan 6th, traditionally the visit of the three wise men. A 12 day period of reflections and feasts preceded the Epiphany so that people would be spiritually prepared for the manifestation of Christ. If you subtract 12 days from Jan 6th, the Epiphany, you get Dec 25. which is the start of preparations for the Epiphany. So Dec 25 then was designated as a feast day and 650 years later, when Christs Mass was instituted, it was celebrated on that day. Then in 1223 St. Francis created a nativity scene for people who could not afford to make a pilgrimage to the Holy land and people associated the nativity scenes of St. Francis with the feast day of Christs Mass and began to say Christ was born on Dec 25th. BUT, The Catholic Encyclopedia says that Christs birth was probably in September. AND It wasn't until 1870 that Christmas became a federal holiday. SO, The date of the Dec 25 as a Holy day precedes Christmas by 650 years. And the Catholic Holy day of Christ Mass precedes the secular holiday by 800 years. it has nothing to do with the solstice and actually nothing to do with Christs actual birth date of sometime in September.

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Edited: 12/23/2019 at 06:58 AM by somebodyelse