Many sincere Christians have been told they shouldn't celebrate Christmas or Easter because of "pagan origins." The historical record undercuts that fear at almost every point.
Christmas — the popular claim
That December 25 was the pagan festival of Sol Invictus (or Saturnalia), and Christians "stole" it to compete or to ease pagan converts.
What the evidence actually shows
- Hippolytus of Rome (early 3rd century) gives December 25 as the date of Christ's birth in one passage of his Commentary on Daniel, but the passage is disputed: the Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) judges those words a later interpolation. Aurelian built a temple to the Sun in Rome in 274, but whether a Sun festival on December 25 goes back to him is itself debated.
- The Chronograph of 354 is the earliest surviving evidence for a Christmas feast on December 25, in a list that probably goes back to 336. The same almanac also marks December 25 as the birthday of the Unconquered Sun (Natalis Invicti), which is why both theories appeal to it.
- The Eastern Church originally celebrated January 6 (Theophany / Epiphany); the dates eventually combined or coexisted across traditions. The Old Calendar churches still keep January 7 for Christmas.
One theory: Christian calculation
Some early Christians, especially in the West (Tertullian, and later St. Augustine), held that Christ died on March 25, their equivalent of Nisan 14; Christians in parts of the East used April 6 instead. There was a Jewish-rooted pious tradition that a perfect man would be conceived and die on the same date. Therefore:
- Conception (Annunciation) = March 25.
- Birth nine months later = December 25.
The feast of the Annunciation (March 25) tied directly to the Nativity (December 25). On this view, the date came from Christian reckoning, not from a pagan calendar. See William Tighe's Calculating Christmas (Touchstone, 2003) and Susan Roll's Toward the Origins of Christmas (1995).
Some who hold this view, such as Tighe, go further and suggest that the Sun festival on December 25 was a pagan response to a date already significant to Christians, not the other way around. Andrew McGowan, who favours the calculation theory, still concludes: "We cannot be entirely sure."
The other theory: a feast set against the Unconquered Sun
Many historians think the Church chose December 25 to set the birth of Christ against the Roman feast of the Unconquered Sun. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) says the solar feast "has a strong claim" on the date, and the Orthodox Church in America's catechism (Fr. Thomas Hopko, The Orthodox Faith) says the Nativity was set on December 25 "in order to offset the pagan festival of the Invincible Sun." Some scholars think both factors played a part. Either way, a Christian feast set against a pagan one proclaims Christ; it is not worship of the sun.
Easter — the popular claim
That "Easter" is from the goddess Ishtar (or Eostre), and the holiday is a baptized pagan rite.
What the evidence actually shows
- Easter is calculated from the Jewish Passover. The Council of Nicaea (325) sought one common date for all the churches; the rule that later prevailed sets it on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the spring equinox (most Orthodox churches reckon this on the older Julian calendar, which is why their date often differs).
- The name "Easter" (German: Ostern) is found only in English and German. Most other languages call the feast Pascha (or a variant — Pâques, Pasqua, Pascua), directly from the Hebrew Pesach (Passover).
- "Easter is from Ishtar" is completely false. Ishtar was a Mesopotamian deity with no historical, linguistic, or geographical connection to early English Christianity. The claim was popularized by Alexander Hislop's The Two Babylons (1853) — a Protestant polemic against Catholicism that has been thoroughly debunked.
- Ēostre is mentioned only once in any ancient source — by Bede (De Temporum Ratione, 8th century), as an Anglo-Saxon spring month name. Bede tentatively suggests the month gave the festival its English name. That's the entire pagan connection. Elsewhere in Christendom, the name is usually Pascha — Passover — or a Christian phrase such as the Slavic "Great Day" or "Great Night." No goddess.
What about Easter eggs and bunnies?
Cultural folk additions, downstream of Christian observance — not pagan substrate:
- Eggs: in Orthodox tradition, dyed red to symbolize Christ's blood and the new life of the Resurrection. A pious legend traces this to St. Mary Magdalene presenting a red egg to Emperor Tiberius with the words "Christ is risen."
- The Easter bunny: 17th-century German folk symbolism (Osterhase). Not theological; not pagan; just German.
The Christmas tree
Medieval German custom, possibly linked to "paradise trees" used in mystery plays representing the tree in Eden. Not from Saturnalia. The Lutheran tradition (Luther himself, perhaps) gave us the indoor decorated tree.
The broader principle
Christians have always baptized cultural forms. Singing existed before Christian hymns; bread existed before the Eucharist; oil existed before chrismation; water existed before baptism. The use of natural and cultural forms doesn't make Christian observance "pagan." It makes Christian observance human.
St. Paul on the principle: "An idol is nothing in the world" (1 Cor. 8:4). Christ has authority over every date, every form, every tradition. The Church is not afraid of using a winter evening, a song, or a tree to glorify the One who became flesh and rose from the dead.
Where did the "pagan origins" panic come from?
- Puritan England — in 1647 Parliament abolished Christmas, Easter and Whitsun as holy days, calling their observance superstitious; the ban, unevenly enforced, lasted until the Restoration in 1660.
- Alexander Hislop, The Two Babylons (1853) — Protestant polemic against the Catholic Church, full of fabricated genealogies. Still widely cited online; rejected by every serious historian of religion.
- Jehovah's Witnesses, Armstrongite groups (the former Worldwide Church of God and its offshoots), Hebrew Roots movements, and some independent Baptists continued the tradition into the 20th century.
None of it survives contact with the primary sources.
The Orthodox lens
The Church transfigures cultural forms rather than fleeing them. December 25 and the Pascha date are filled with the meaning Christ gives them. The seasons themselves — winter darkness yielding to Christmas light, winter death yielding to Easter spring — are part of God's good creation pointing to Christ. The Incarnation sanctifies time itself.
A pastoral word
Enjoy Christmas. Celebrate Pascha. Light the tree. Dye the eggs. The God who became a child in Bethlehem and walked out of his own tomb has filled these days with his own glory. You are not worshiping pagan gods by celebrating what Christ has consecrated. You are joining the Church in its oldest, gladdest joy.