by Tina Martins

Created on: December 05, 2009   Last Updated: December 06, 2009

Can Christians ever manage to reclaim Christmas as a holy day?

What a magnificent story to tell; Christ, the son of God, born to the Virgin Mary and Joseph. Angels appeared with words from God and so on the story develops into a timeless reminder of love and faith to all of Christianity by celebrating the beginning of Jesus' life. Sadly this legendary story has a many inaccuracies; one so recognized as the actual date of Jesus Christ's birth. In this illustrious chronicle of Jesus, it has been recognized that details are vague surrounding much of what was written by man. The Christian faith has been under a great deal of scrutiny for much of its existence in revelation of these inconsistencies. For many it discredits the religion. For others of devote faith, it is with a blind eye that allows them to continue to support their beliefs.

For Christians to reclaim Christmas as a Holy Day implies that the originator of Christmas would be that of Christians. If truth be told, Christmas traditions practiced today are unquestionably the traditions used centuries prior to the birth of Jesus. The date itself is an adopted tradition used by the Roman Empire to celebrate Saturnalia- celebrations or festivities to honor Saturn as a harvest god. The Winter Solstice was a time of jovial customs in early centuries in which people enjoyed an abundance of food, drink, and gift-giving; much like how Christmas is celebrated today.

Once referred to as Feast of the Nativity, Christmas has endlessly been encircled with controversy. As a matter of fact, Christmas, meaning Christ and Mass, was not established until about 336 A.D. In the fourth century the church was in upheaval over the continued excessive celebrations of the Pagan and Romans, thus in vain, forbade any such festivities. The persistence of these celebrations led to the decision to incorporate the birth of Christ into the Winter Solstice celebrations, and so by choosing a date that conflicted with Pagan and Roman Holy Days to divert attention. It has been argued that the motive behind the date had to do with overwhelming indications of the church purposefully trying to monopolize Pagan and Roman customs and traditions. Still, it wasn't until the 9th century, that Christmas became a well known holiday, although not yet nearly as important as both Good Friday and Easter. The roots of Christmas are that of entangled bitterness, upset and to some, blasphemy.

Christians were not the only group to adopt traditions created

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