Did the December 25th Date for Christmas Come From Pagans?

Around this time of year, lots of historical facts about Christmas start circulating the internet. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of misinformation. Some sources claim that the traditional date of December 25th for Christmas comes from pre-Christian, pagan religions. Supposedly, certain pagan gods were traditionally born on that date. Yet, other people say that this is completely untrue. What do the facts show?

Was Jesus really born on December 25th?

The main reason why this claim exists in the first place is because the traditional date of Jesus’ birth is clearly contradicted by Biblical accounts. For example, the gospels present the shepherds who heard of Jesus’ birth as ‘living’ outside with their sheep at night. This would not happen in December, which falls during the rainy season and is very cold even in Jerusalem.

Furthermore, the nativity account famously involves a Roman registration, or census. This census required people throughout the region to travel back to their place of origin. It was unpopular at the best of times, and the Romans surely would not have needlessly aggravated a difficult subject population by requiring the Jews to have made such a journey in the winter.

Finally, the evidence from John the Baptist’s conception (which was six months before that of Jesus) definitively precludes a December date for Jesus’ birth. With this in mind, the issue of why December 25th was eventually chosen as the date of Christmas is a question that demands an answer.

Were there any pagan gods born on December 25th?

One popular theory is that the date of December 25th comes from the birthday of a pre-Christian deity. Often, this claim appears in conjunction with the idea that Jesus himself is just a recycled pagan deity. The overwhelming academic consensus does not support this theory. The historical evidence definitely shows that Jesus was a real person.

Nonetheless, this does not mean that the date of Christmas could not have been adopted from a pagan deity. It must have originated from somewhere, after all. One deity that some researchers point to is Horus. He was a solar deity of Egypt who took on different forms, and one of them was Harpocrates. This is specifically the manifestation of Horus as a child.

The Greek writer Plutarch provides us with the following significant statement:

“For this reason also it is said that Isis, when she perceived that she was pregnant, put upon herself an amulet on the sixth day of the month Phaophi; and about the time of the winter solstice she gave birth to Harpocrates, imperfect and premature, amid the early flowers and shoots.”

According to this statement, the Egyptians (and Greeks) believed that Horus, in his form as Harpocrates (Horus the Child) was born about the time of the winter solstice. Since Horus was a solar god, this timing is very logical.

Did the date of Christmas come from the pagan god Horus?

In the ancient Roman Empire, the winter solstice fell on December 25th. In other words, Plutarch’s statement shows that Horus was allegedly born on the date that we now consider to be Christmas. Does this mean that the date of Christmas comes from the pagan god Horus?

Well, it might. Plutarch wrote in the first century CE. In contrast, the earliest reference to Jesus being born on December 25th dates from the third century. By that time, Christianity had become filled with ideas and influences from Greek philosophy and even mythology. Therefore, it is entirely possible that the date of December 25th came from Horus.

After all, the Bible itself compares Jesus to the sun a number of times. Therefore, since Horus was a solar god, this might have seemed like a logical connection to those early Christians.

Other possibilities for the Christmas date

On the other hand, the date of Horus’ birth might not be so directly related to the date of Christmas. Anyone would have been able to see that the sun appears to be ‘born’ just after the winter solstice. The calendar of Antiochus of Athens, likely written in or before the second century CE, calls December 25th the birthday of the sun.

Therefore, it may simply be that December 25th was chosen so as to coincide with the celebration of the new sun, without any connection to Horus specifically. This was undoubtedly a time of year that was special to many cultures in addition to the Egyptians and Greeks.

Certainly, there is good reason to believe that the Christians of the third century chose December 25th as the date of Christmas because of its symbolic significance among pagans. Like many modern authorities of the subject explain, this was likely done to give new converts a reason to continue their celebration of the birth of the sun. It would also have served as an excuse to continue celebrating Saturnalia, the Roman festival of mid-December.