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Christmas is the most popular winter festival which is celebrated all over the world. It is celebrated not only by Christian population but by people of other religions also. Christmas is also a one of the festivals that are celebrated at a very high and big level because of some reasons. The reasons being that in the winter season people are generally free and not much agricultural work is done during the winters. The important reason is that people also wait for a better weather that is they wait for the spring season that just follows after the winter season.
Customs that are followed now for celebrating Christmas mostly include merry making from Roman Saturnalia, gift giving, lighting, greenery, various foods from the German feasts, and charity from the Yule Logs and Roman New Year. Yule, a winter festival was earlier celebrated in Pagan Scandinavia during late December. This festival Yule went on till early January. The pagan traditions prevalent in the northern side of Europe had a very large influence and impact on the customs of Christmas. This was because north Europe was the last part in the world that was yet to be christinized at that time. In English language and literature the word Yule has the same meaning as the word Christmas. Both are synonymous to each other.
Christmas Jul is what scandinavians still call Christmas. The exact date for the birth of Jesus is not confirmed and is not given by the the New Testament. Clement of Alexandria around AD 200 wrote that a group of people celebrated nativity in Egypt on Pachon 25. The day that corresponds to this is 20th of May. In the Church of Roman Africa, Tertullian says that Christmas is not a major festival and that Christmas is not a major feast there. In a refernce work published in 221 called Chronographai, it was said that Jesus was born on the spring equinox. This piece of information was suggested by Sextus Julius Africanus. On the roman calender it was stated that the equinox was 25th of March. So this information told or implied that there will be a birth in the month of December. 28th of March is considered as the date of the nativity. This piece of information is shared by a calendar produced in 243.
This calendar is a calendar of feats called as the De Pascha Computus. Arnobius, who is a Christian writer, put forward a ridiculous idea in 303 that birthdays of gods should not be celebrated. He said that there is no need for that and that according to him Christmas had no meaning for him. Christmas was not a time for him to celebrate or spread happiness. It was not a feast for him. A theologist named Origen of Alexandria, in 245 also said that people who believe that they have committed some kind of sin like Herod or Pharaoh celebrate their birthdays, others dont. In 354 there was a chronography which referred December 25th as the date of nativity.
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