Christmas is the day on which Christians celebrate the birth day of Jesus Christ. The word Christmas means Christ’s mass. The Armenian Church traditionally celebrates the birth of Jesus on January 6, whereas all other major churches, including the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant branches of Christianity, celebrate it on December 25. Was Jesus born on January 6 or December 25? No one knows with certainty the answer to this question, for there is nothing mentioned in the Bible or in any outside literature concerning the birthday of Jesus. During the first three centuries of the Christian Era there was considerable opposition in the Church to the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays, although there is evidence that a purely religious commemoration of the birth of Christ was included in the Feast of Epiphany.
Epiphany means “manifestation” It is a Christian feast in celebration of Jesus’ making God known to humans through his baptism, which was the beginning of his ministry and the time when the Holy Spirit announced his divinity in public. Historically, Epiphany is an older holy day than Christmas. Originally, Christians celebrated both the birth and baptism of Christ on January 6, as well as the visit of the Wise Men. It appears that they gradually began to celebrate the birth of Christ, the Nativity, and his manifestation, the Epiphany, at the same time.
This practice continued until the first quarter of the fourth century when the Roman Church was first to separate these two events. It changed the birth to December 25, but retained January 6 as His baptismal date. The reasons for the change were two fold: a) It was difficult to perform the Nativity ceremonies in Bethlehem (where Jesus was born) and Epiphany ceremonies at the bank of the River Jordan (where Jesus was baptized) on the same day. b) To suppress a very popular pagan festival — the Mithraic Sol Invictus, the birthday of the Sun-god, which was celebrated on December 25. In Rome, the latter part of December was a time for many pagan festivities such as Saturnalia (the festival of Saturn) which were linked to the winter solstice or the birth of the sun. All these festivities celebrated the victory of light over darkness.
After the triumph of Constantine the Great (c. 280-337) and his adoption of Christianity as a favorite religion in the Roman Empire in 313 A.D., the Christian Church suppressed pagan festivals and established Christian festivals to replace them. The Roman Church changed the Nativity to December 25 so as to diminish and eventually to transform it from a pagan celebration to a Christian one. Thus a parallel was drawn between the birthday Sol-Invictus and the Son of God. After all, Christ as the Light of the world, won a victory over darkness.
In 354 A. D Bishop Liberius of Rome ordered the Roman Church to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25. Soon the Greek Church followed the Romans and switched to December 25. Attempts were made to persuade the Armenian Church to join the major branches of Christendom. But the Armenian Church retained the traditional date of January 6, primarily because it wanted to hold fast to the ancient tradition, but also on the grounds of preserving its ecclesiastical independence and identity.
Nobody has determined the exact date of the birth of Christ, either from the evidence of the Gospels, or from any sound tradition. But what difference would it make whether Jesus was born on January 6 or December 25, or any other day? The most important thing is His coming into the world in order to save it from its sinfulness. Consequently, the most important consideration is not the date of his birth, but whether he has been a difference-making Reality in our lives.
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