Christmas
Christmas is the most highly anticipated and marketed religious holiday in the Western world. Meaning 'Christ's Mass', Christmas is an important Christian holiday celebrating birth of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that Christ was the savior prophesized by the Hebrew Old Testament, and that he is the Son of God.
The holiday of Christmas itself is celebrated in many different ways around the world. The most famous traditions popularized by American and British culture involve gift giving by the jovial, chimney diving character Santa Claus, based loosely on historical records of Saint Nicholas who was said to be a round bellied, red cheeked and generous man.
Christmas is best known for its tradition of gift giving between friends and family, and therefore has an enormous economic impact on every country that celebrates it on a large scale. While celebrated in masse by any country with a significant Christian population, Christmas is also celebrated by many countries as a secular holiday, observing the tradition of gift giving without the emphasis on the more religious aspects of the event.
Although there is widespread debate that continues to this day about the exact date of the birth of Christ, Christmas is celebrated every year on the 25th of December. Exact records of when the holiday became an important part of the Christian tradition are not available, but all indications of its roots point back to the Roman Empire of the 4th century AD. Sometime in the latter half of the 4th century, and shortly before its split into Western and Eastern halves, the Roman Empire adopted Christianity as its official state religion.
Historians today generally agree that Christmas was chosen to be celebrated on the 25th of December as a way to help unite the preexisting Pagan religions of the time with the newly adopted religion of Christianity. For centuries prior, the Romans had worshiped the god Saturn, with a holiday they referred to as Saturnalia, a seven day event beginning on the 17th of December and ending with the winter solstice, which at the time was celebrated on the 25th of December. The event was characterized by the same kinds of gift giving traditions popular with Christmas today.
Romans just prior to their conversion to Christianity also worshiped a god called 'Sol Invictus', or the 'invincible sun god', a deity of Persian foundations, who was believed to have been born on the winter solstice, on the 25th of December. From these already rooted beliefs and traditions, it was easier for Romans of the time period to convert to Christianity.
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