“I am the light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness, but he will have light and life.”
These words of Jesus, contained in the Gospel of John (8, 12), played a crucial role when the authorities of the Roman Empire and the first hierarchs of the Church sought to clarify one of the enigmas of the Bible: When was the founder of the Christianity?
Although the evangelists do not mention the date of birth of the one whom today almost 2.3 billion believers considered as the son of God, the previous passage gave theological support to the decision by which Christmas has been celebrated every December 25 for almost 17 centuries.
The date was not chosen at random, but with every intention so that it coincided with one of the great moments of the Roman calendar: the festival of the Unconquered Sun.
A cult from the East
The Sol Invicto festival, whose official name was Nativitas Solis Invicti or “birth of the unconquered Sun”, was a celebration dedicated to a solar deity that was celebrated on December 25.
But who was this god? “We don’t know very well. It was not a very predominant one within the catalog of Roman divinities,” Spanish historian and biblical scholar Javier Alonso explained to BBC Mundo.
For his part, the professor of Ancient History at the University of León, Spain, Santiago Castellanos, added that this deity “was not one of the most present in Roman political praxis, at least it was not at the level of Jupiter and Mars, who “They had greater implementation in terms of temples and statues.”
As happened with Christianity, the cult of this god came to Rome from the East, particularly from what is now Syria; and he did it at the hands of the emperor Marcus Auelius Antoninus Augustus, better known today as Heliogabalus.
The sovereign, who barely reigned four years (218-222 AD), displaced Jupiter from the head of the Roman pantheon; and, in his place, he placed El-Gabal, a solar divinity that he worshiped and of which he was high priest in his native Emesa (the current Syrian city of Homs).
To facilitate religious change, the god was renamed with the Latin name of Deus Sol Invictus (Undefeated Sun God).
“Sol assumed the entire solar cult that in the Greek world had been associated with the figure of Helios and also its iconography,” Castellanos added.
Driven from power
Invictus was not the first solar deity that the Romans worshiped. Before there was Sol Indiges, who was introduced by King Tatius, at the origins of what would later be one of the largest empires that humanity has seen.
However, the cult of Invictus was the one that took root, but not only thanks to Elagabalus, but also to those who succeeded him.
“Thanks to Aureliano, Sol Invicto started playing in the Champions League“Castellanos stated. This, because the emperor imposed monotheism around the solar divinity, since his idea was “one god, one empire”.
However, it was Constantine who made a decision that has survived to this day. In the year 312 AD; That is, almost a decade after his conversion to Christianity, the monarch decreed the dies Solis (Sun Day)located on the seventh day of the week, or what we know today as Sunday.
The emperor ordered that this day be a day of rest for “the magistrates and the inhabitants of the cities, in which all workshops are closed.”
And although Castellanos admitted that imperial support was fundamental for the consolidation of this cult, he noted that this belief had already begun to become popular throughout the empire.
“Mystery cults were enormously successful because they promised personal salvation. They were not cults of the polis or the city, but personal”he explained.
The festival of the Unconquered Sun was part of the busy Roman holiday calendar at the end of the year, which included the brumals and saturnalia.
The first, which began to be celebrated in November, were the winter solstice festivals and were instituted by Romulus in honor of Bacchus. The second, meanwhile, were dedicated to Saturn, god of agriculture; and lasted for seven days, starting on December 17. The latter were very popular among the Romans.
“During these days there was a certain and relative inversion of the established order, for example, the slaves had more prominence than they normally had,” Castellanos explained.
“Copious banquets were organized. There was an exchange of gifts and the houses were decorated with garlands and candles.. These Saturnalia that occurred in December have liturgical and celebratory foundations that Christianity is going to incorporate into its own liturgy,” he added.
During the celebrations, excesses in drinking alcohol and having sexual relations were frequent, according to stories from the time, so it gives the impression that they were a mix between what we know today as Christmas and the carnivals.
For his part, Alonso explained that the Romans decided to set the festival of Unconquered Sun almost immediately after the Saturnalia for an astronomical reason: the winter solstice.
“The winter solstice is the day of the year when there is the least sunlight. However, from then on the days began to get longer and in the ancient world it was perceived that this It was the moment when the Sun regenerated and was reborn”, he claimed.
And why this holiday?
Once Emperor Theodosius declares that Christianity is the official religion of the Empire (392 AD), the urgency arises among civil and ecclesiastical authorities to clarify some unresolved doubts in the gospels, in order to facilitate the Romans’ embrace of the new faith. And among them is when their new god was born.
Births were a forbidden matter for the Jews and the first Christians.
“The law does not allow us to celebrate parties at the birth of our childrenand therefore give us the opportunity to drink excessively,” explains the 1st century Judeo-Roman historian, Flavius Josephus, in one of his writings.
On the other hand, for the Romans, birthdays were in some cases a duty. Thus, for example, since the year 45 BC they had to perform public sacrifices in honor of the birth of Julius Caesar.
“When Christianity begins to be a powerful religion, linked to emperors, it begins to have that need to establish with certainty, whether it is true or a lie, the birth of its founder is another matter. They need for liturgical reasons to anchor that date in the calendar”explained Castellanos, who in addition to being an expert on the Roman Empire is a historical novelist and has just published “King of the Goths.”
For his part, Alonso indicated that the festival of the Unconquered Sun was ideal to mark the birth of Jesus there, due to its meaning for the Romans.
“Pope Julius I decided that the birth of Jesus would be on the day of the festival of the Sun, during the winter solstice, due to the belief that the sun defeated the darkness“he explained.
“Celebrations in ancient societies were tied to the agrarian calendar and everything revolved around the time of sowing and harvesting.. In ancient times, the festivals were held during harvest time and as time went by, saints joined them, but originally everything was related to agriculture,” he added.
Seeking religious sustenance
The operation was supported by some passages from the gospels such as the one that says the Messiah will come “from above to visit us like the rising sun, illuminating those who live in darkness” (Luke 1, 78) or the one that indicates the passage of Jesus for the earth implied that “the people who lived in darkness have seen a very great light; “A light has shone for those who live in the shadows of death” (Matthew 4:16).
And, of course, there is the story of John, who in Jesus is presented as “the light of the world”.
But the pontiff’s decision, which almost a century later was endorsed by Emperor Justinian, not only fixed Christmas on the calendar, but helped do the same with other celebrations.
“As a consequence of this fact, finally, other important festivals of the liturgical calendar would have been set: the Annunciation (9 months before), the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist (six months before), the Circumcision of Jesus (eight days later) and the Presentation in the Temple (40 days later),” added the professor of New Testament at the San Dámaso University (Spain), Luis Sánchez Navarro.
For experts, this operation should not be surprising, because it had already happened before.
“When the Romans conquered other regions of the world they assumed cults and traditions from those regions.but of course they reinterpreted, changed or molded them,” said Castellanos.
Alonso, meanwhile, pointed out: “When one culture imposed itself on another, it appropriated its rites and sacred places. That is why when we excavate under a church in some places in Europe, for example, we will find a mosque, further down a Roman temple and further down a ceremonial center from another previous town.”
another theory
Although he admitted that the explanation that Christmas was placed on the pagan festival of the Unconquered Sun has historical basis, Sánchez Navarro also asserted that there is some evidence that indicates that December 25 could certainly have been the date of Jesus’ birth. .
“There is an ancient tradition, linked to the church of Jerusalem, that places the birth of Jesus around December 25. Already in the year 204 (many years before the festival of the Unconquered Sun was established) Hippolytus of Rome, in his commentary on the book of the prophet Daniel, clearly stated – the first – that Jesus was born that day; “Some scholars question the passage as a later interpolation, but others maintain its authenticity,” he explained.
But Sánchez Navarro did not stop there and recalled that the discovery in Qumran, present-day Israel, of a calendar from the Essene sect would reinforce the theory that December 25 was the day on which the historical and religious Jesus was born.
The calendar details the shifts of service in the Jewish temple of the various groups of Aaron’s sons, including the time in which he is believed to have been born. millions venerate him as the son of God.
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