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On this day in history

December 25
Christ is born?


Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. The oldest existing record of a Christmas celebration is found in a Roman almanac that tells of a Christ’s Nativity festival led by the church of Rome in 336 A.D. The precise reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains obscure, but most researchers believe that Christmas originated as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.

To early Christians (and to many Christians today), the most important holiday on the Christian calendar was Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, as Christianity began to take hold in the Roman world, in the early fourth century, church leaders had to contend with a popular Roman pagan holiday commemorating the “birthday of the unconquered sun” (natalis solis invicti)–the Roman name for the winter solstice.

Every winter, Romans honored the pagan god Saturn, the god of agriculture, with a festival that began on December 17 and usually ended on or around December 25 with a winter-solstice celebration in honor of the beginning of the new solar cycle. This festival was a time of merrymaking, and families and friends would exchange gifts. At the same time, Mithraism–worship of the ancient Persian god of light–was popular in the Roman army, and the cult held some of its most important rituals on the winter solstice.

After the Roman Emperor Constantine I converted to Christianity in 312 and sanctioned Christianity, church leaders made efforts to appropriate the winter-solstice holidays and thereby achieve a more seamless conversion to Christianity for the emperor’s subjects. In rationalizing the celebration of Jesus’ birthday in late December, church leaders may have argued that since the world was allegedly created on the spring equinox (late March), so too would Jesus have been conceived by God on that date. The Virgin Mary, pregnant with the son of God, would hence have given birth to Jesus nine months later on the winter solstice.

From Rome, the Christ’s Nativity celebration spread to other Christian churches to the west and east, and soon most Christians were celebrating Christ’s birth on December 25. To the Roman celebration was later added other winter-solstice rituals observed by various pagan groups, such as the lighting of the Yule log and decorations with evergreens by Germanic tribes. The word Christmas entered the English language originally as Christes maesse, meaning “Christ’s mass” or “festival of Christ” in Old English. A popular medieval feast was that of St. Nicholas of Myra, a saint said to visit children with gifts and admonitions just before Christmas. This story evolved into the modern practice of leaving gifts for children said to be brought by “Santa Claus,” a derivative of the Dutch name for St. Nicholas–Sinterklaas.

 
1950 Coronation Stone, taken from Scone in Scotland by Edward I in 1296, stolen from Westminster Abbey & smuggled back to Scotland
 
On this day in 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie. All of the 259 passengers and crew on board died when a bomb exploded. 11 townspeople died when burning wreckage from the fully fuel-laden plane crashed into the town.
 
On this day in 1967 Donald Campbell was killed attempting to break his own water speed record on Coniston Water in the Lake District. His jet powered hydroplane 'Bluebird' was recovered - but is now sadly the subject of a dispute between his widow and the restorers: whether to be a static display in a museum - or used actively on the lake?.......
 
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On this day in 1976 A British naval frigate, HMS Andromeda, was dented when it was involved in a collision with an Icelandic gunboat, Thor, in the Atlantic.
 
On this day in 2020 a great Romanian man, Aurel Ungur, passed away, he was responsible for The Transfagarasan road being built, so loved by many who drove it through the mountains of Northern Romania.
 
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On this day in 1965 Wartime Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill dies
 
On this day 25 years ago Eric Cantona tried to kick racism out of football , with a move that would have done Bruce Lee proud.
 
The Day the Music Died

On this day in 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" were killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

 
On this day in 1994 One of the world's best-known paintings, The Scream by Edvard Munch, is stolen from a museum in Norway.

The Scream.jpg
 
On this day 15 Feb 1971
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The British Government launched a new, decimal currency across the country. The familiar pound (£), shilling (s) and pence (d) coins that had been in existence for more than 1000 years were to be phased out in the space of 18 months in favour of a system with 100 pennies to the pound rather than 240.
 
On this day 15 Feb 1901
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Winston Churchill entered Parliament for the first time, as MP for Oldham. MPs of the period were unpaid and Churchill was forced to take a speaking tour in order to fund his tenure.

Shame there not paid nowdays.
 
On this day 15 Feb Matt Groenig 1954 - Cartoonist ("The Simpsons") was born.:character-marge::character-willie::character-bart::character-apu:
 
On this day in 1977: Take Hart, hosted by the wonderful Tony Hart and his stop-motion sidekick Morph, was first broadcast.
 
On this day in 1920 The world’s first air traffic control tower was commissioned by the UK Government 100 years ago today.
Built at Britain’s first international airport in Croydon, the control tower and the airport terminal building are listed at Grade II*.
The first airport I flew from in a Tiger Moth biplane.
croydon airport.jpg
 
On this day in 2020 a great Romanian man, Aurel Ungur, passed away, he was responsible for The Transfagarasan road being built, so loved by many who drove it through the mountains of Northern Romania.

Thanks Chas :thumbup:
 
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