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摘要
- Christmas is on 25 December because the early church chose that day for the feast of Jesus’ birth; the Bible gives no date.
- The oldest record is a Roman book of calendars from AD 354 whose list of church feasts begins “Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judea” on 25 December, so Rome kept the feast probably by 336 and certainly by 354.
- One explanation is a reckoning: Christians believed Christ was conceived and crucified on 25 March, and nine months later is 25 December.
- The other is the Roman feast of the Unconquered Sun on 25 December, though scholars still debate whether that feast is older than Christmas; Saturnalia began on 17 December and did not fall on the 25th.
- The East kept 6 January first and took up 25 December between about 379 and 433, which is how the twelve days of Christmas came to run to Epiphany.
- Churches that keep the Julian calendar celebrate their 25 December on 7 January, and the Armenian Church keeps Christ’s birth on 6 January.
参考书目（点击显示）
- The Holy Bible, King James Version (public domain), via BibleGateway: Malachi 4:2; Luke 1:76–79.
- The Chronography of 354: Part 6, the calendar of Philocalus; Part 11, Depositio Episcoporum; Part 12, Depositio Martyrum; Part 16, Chronicle of the City of Rome (Latin, ed. Theodor Mommsen; online edition by Roger Pearse), tertullian.org: 历法, 主教, martyrs, 《编年史》（Chronicle）
- Andrew McGowan, “How December 25 Became Christmas”, 圣经评论 (December 2002), Biblical Archaeology Society: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/how-december-25-became-christmas/
- Cyril Charlie Martindale, “Christmas”, 《天主教百科全书》 vol. 3 (1908), New Advent: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03724b.htm (for the sermon On Solstices and Equinoxes, the treatise of 243, and the dates in Constantinople, Antioch, Egypt and Jerusalem)
- 特土良， 《驳犹太人》（An Answer to the Jews） 8, translated by S. Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 3 (1885), New Advent: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0308.htm
- 奥古斯丁， 《论三位一体》 4.5.9, translated by Arthur West Haddan, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, vol. 3 (1887), New Advent: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/130104.htm
- 亚历山大的革利免， 《杂记》 1.21, translated by William Wilson, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 2 (1885), New Advent: https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02101.htm
- William Ramsay, “Saturnalia”, in William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (London, 1875), LacusCurtius: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Saturnalia.html
- Roger Pearse, “Was there no festival of Sol on 25 December before 324 AD?” (blog, 24 Dec 2019, updated 5 Aug 2023), quoting Steven Hijmans; Hijmans’s article is “Sol Invictus, the Winter Solstice, and the Origins of Christmas”, Mouseion 47 (2003), pp. 377–398, doi:10.1353/MOU.2003.0038: https://roger-pearse.com/weblog/2019/12/24/was-there-no-festival-of-sol-on-25-december-before-320-ad
- C. Philipp E. Nothaft, “Early Christian Chronology and the Origins of the Christmas Date: In Defense of the ‘Calculation Theory’”: https://www.academia.edu/3265107
- Lawrence Farley, “A Papal Calendar?”, Orthodox Church in America (2017): https://www.oca.org/reflections/fr.-lawrence-farley/a-papal-calendar
- Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), “Answering the ‘Why’ of Christmas”: https://armenianchurch.us/answering-the-why-of-christmas-5/
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