The day of Christmas is celebrated worldwide in commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and this holy occasion is observed on December 25. While you are busy planning holidays, buying presents for your loved ones and taking out those twinkling Christmas lights for decoration, let us take a moment and look back at the history of this day of celebration and establish its origins. If you ever wondered what place it was where Christmas was celebrated for the very first time, here is your answer.
Pagan roots: It has been observed that the roots of all Christmas celebrations lie in the custom and religion of Rome. The holiday of Saturnalia was first introduced by Roman pagans. This holiday was observed as an entire week of lawlessness celebrated from December 17-25. Courts were closed during this period and no Roman could be punished for damaging property or for injuring other people in this week of celebrations. The beginning of the celebration was marked by any Roman authority choosing “a foe of the people of Rome” to be represented as the “Lord of Misrule”. Thus a victim was selected by each Roman community and that person was forced to indulge himself or herself in a week of physical pleasures and food. On the December 25th, the concluding day of the festival, these victims were brutally killed by the Roman authorities who believed that by killing these innocent people, they were killing the forces of darkness.
Establishment of the Christian era: During the 4th century CE, in order to attract the pagans to convert into Christian faith, the Christin leaders imported the Saturnalia festival and promised the pagans that even as Christians, they would be allowed to celebrate this festival. The problem that arose was that there was no element of Christianity to be found in the festival of Saturnalia. So in order to attach Christian significance to this festival, the Christian leaders decided to name the concluding day of the festival of Saturnalia, December 25th, as the birthday of Jesus Christ. Thus according to one scholar, the celebration of Christmas was a means to replace the pagan worshipping of the Sun with the Christian worshipping of the Son.
Beginnings: Technically Christmas itself began with a baby being born in Bethlehem. The baby being Jesus Christ and he was believed to be the Son of God by the Christians. Christmas was not celebrated by the early Christians. But with the onset of the Christian era, in the very initial years, a day was set for Christmas (the mass of Christ). Here lies the origin of the celebrations of Christmas, the day when Christ was born. 336AD was the first year when the celebration of Christmas in Rome was recorded and henceforth we can conclude that the first modern-day country from where the celebrations of Christmas originated is Italy. Although Christmas is believed to be founded in Palestine, Italy was where it was first celebrated.
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Thus I hope this helped you to know a little bit more about the Christmas holidays you look forward to every year. Although Italy was the country that witnessed the celebration of Christmas for the very first time, today it is celebrated in almost all parts of the world. The season of holidays is here and may you spend it in joy and happiness.
