Establishment of December 25 as Christmas day

There are various theories about the origin of December 25 as Christmas Day. According to William J. Thige, already in the third century the birth of Christ was celebrated on December 25, even before the Romans celebrated the feast of the invincible Sun (Sol Invictus) .17 According to other authors, the celebration of this feast on December 25 is due to the ancient celebration of the annual birth of the Sun-god at the winter solstice (natalis invicti Solis), 18 adapted by the Catholic Church in the third century AD. C. to allow the conversion of pagan peoples.19 In Antioch, probably in 386, John Chrysostom urged the community to unite the celebration of the birth of Christ with that of December 25, 20 although part of the community already had that day at least ten years earlier. In the Roman Empire, the celebrations of Saturn during the week of the solstice, which was the main social event, reached their apogee on December 25.21 To make it easier for the Romans to convert to Christianity without abandoning their festivals, the Pope Julius I asked in 350 that the birth of Christ be celebrated on that same date21 and finally Pope Liberius decrees this day as the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in 354 [citation needed]. The first mention of a Christmas banquet on such a date in Constantinople dates from 379, under Gregory of Nazianzus. The feast was introduced in Antioch about 380. In Jerusalem, Egeria, in the fourth century, witnessed the feast of the presentation, forty days after January 6, February 15, which must have been the date of celebration of the birth. The December banquet reached Egypt in the V century.22 However, the first disciples of Christ (later called Christians in Acts 11:26) did not celebrate Christmas, 21 23 divergences regarding the date of birth have made December 25 adopted as the official date of his birth and on January 6 as the Epiphany (This is still celebrated in Argentina, Armenia, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Uruguay and Venezuela).