Christmas is a wonderful time of joy and celebration. It’s a time of snow, snowmen, cold, and the warmth of one’s beloved family and friends. What started as a small festival has become the best holiday on Earth.
As you enter the season of festivities, your curious mind must have some questions lingering in the corner. Questions like: When did Christmas start? What are the secrets of the celebrations, and why has Christmas become the most celebrated holiday on the planet? Well, it’s excellent you found us today, as we’ll dive into the nitty-gritty details of the world’s most beloved festival. So, get your jingles ready as we explore 25 Christmas fun facts.
The True Origin of Christmas
1. Christmas is widely known as the birthday of Jesus Christ, the lead figure of the Christian faith, to billions of people worldwide. It’s already a fact set in stone, and every year, many denominations of Christianity gather to celebrate the birth of the lord and Savior.
2. However, Christmas has an origin that’s not so pleasant. Historically, the holiday is an invention of the Roman Empire. After the death of Jesus Christ, many of his disciples scattered throughout the world to spread the news of the gospel.
3. As the Church grew, it began influencing the Roman people and was further criminalized. That’s right, practicing Christianity was a crime, and many of Jesus’s disciples died for their faith. However, a new light shone when Emperor Flavius Valerius Constantinus, also known as Constantine the Great, converted to Christianity.
4. The leading reason for his conversion was a dream where he saw a monogram of Jesus on the cross. After Constantine’s conversion, Rome decriminalized Christianity, and the Emperor instilled a new holiday marking the birth of Jesus Christ.
5. At the time, many leaders of the Church hated the idea of celebrating Jesus’s birth. They reasoned that as a martyr, the Messiah’s birthday was when he died, the same for the early disciples of the faith. However, they could do little to stop Constantine’s declarations, and Christmas was born.
Ties To Paganism
6. Though Christmas has become the best holiday on the planet, it didn’t start from thin air. That’s right, the festival has ties to paganism.
7. Before Christianity became the norm in Rome, the people observed Saturnalia.
8. When the harvest was abundant and winters were calm, Romans came together to have a large feast in honor of Saturn, the god of Agriculture.
9. The festival lasted an entire month, and during this time, people went bonkers. Saturnalia was wild for the Romans, as they celebrated for a whole month. Slaves received temporary freedom, and schools shut down. Everyone ate, drank, and rejoiced.
10. Also, during this time, two other crucial celebrations occurred. There was Juvenalia, a feast honoring children, and the celebration of the birth of Mithra, The Unconquered Sun God.
11. When Christianity finally became the norm in Rome, the Church leaders picked December 25th as the day of celebration to reduce the influence of the Pagan Festivities. Their plan worked, and Christmas blew up.
Some Places Celebrate Christmas On January 6th
12. Even though billions of people know December 25th as Christmas, others celebrate the holiday on January 6th, and the thing is, they are celebrating it the right way.
13. Unlike Catholics and other denominations, the Armenians celebrate Christmas on January 6th. They do so because this was the original date celebrated in ancient Christian tradition.
14. Before Constantine, Christians had a festival, but it wasn’t quite the celebration of Jesus’s birth. The Epiphany of Christ was the earliest festival held in the faith. It marked the day Jesus was revealed to the world as the true Son of God after his baptism.
15. For many centuries, Christians fasted and feasted during this time to remember the Messiah. However, Constantine’s inculcation of the holiday changed everything, as the Church’s leaders in Rome moved the new holiday to December 25th to reduce Saturnalia’s influence.
16. As Armenia wasn’t directly influenced by Rome, January 6th remained the day for celebrating the Epiphany of Jesus Christ. The date remains, and the Armenians still celebrate in January. They have distinct rituals, like the Blessing of Water, commemorating Christ’s baptism.
The Time Christmas Was Banned
17. Even though Christmas has grown to the status of too big to fail, there were times when it retracted from public view. One of these times led to a massive rebellion that resulted in a civil war.
18. In 1647, the parliament of England won the Civil War and arrested King Charles I. With their newly found victory, the parliament changed many systems, and among them was the Church of England, replaced by a Presbyterian system.
19. The changes in the Church led to the abolishment of Christmas. However, many people hated staying open during a time they once celebrated as a holiday, and many riots sparked across the kingdom. The riots led to a second civil war that ended with Charles’s execution.
20. Another time when Christmas was banned was in 1659 when the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony declared that anyone who feasted on Christmas was to pay a fine of five shillings (about $48 today). The new law effectively rendered Christmas void, and the ban lasted 20 years.
Yikes, good thing we aren’t in 17th-century Massachusetts.
The Origin of Santa Claus
21. In today’s age, celebrating Christmas without Santa Claus is incomplete, as he’s the holiday’s patron.
22. Many children are told they’ll only receive gifts if they make Santa’s list, which comprises those children who have done well throughout the year.
23. However, the idea of Santa is relatively new. The first depiction of the patron of Christmas came from the cartoonist Thomas Nast, who drew a fatherly figure after the image of Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century saint of the Christian faith.
24. The word Santa Claus came from the Dutch derivative of Nicholas’s name, Sinterklaas.
25. After Thomas’s drawing, the idea of the patron exploded and became a central part of Christmas.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed learning our 25 interesting Christmas facts. If you loved this article, check out our article on Mars or search our Facts Database. Also, Don’t forget to leave us a comment and share.
