There’s no mention of X-mas in the Bible, why celebrate it?

Naturally, human beings have a tendency of following crowds, like a trending fashion design. A sheep instinct or not, term it whatever you want. The truth of the matter stands that not everyone takes a second thought to reflect on why they believe and follow whatever customs they observe, and or even question how those customs found their ways into society.

Immediately a child becomes mentally active, they are introduced to a society driven by regulations. The dos and don’ts, right or wrong-they grow up accepting them. That’s what society demands, perhaps.

For any progress to be made, people ought to develop a self-interrogation scheme. Through this, they would understand and accept such customs willingly. Noting that society is relatively demarcated, let’s talk about Christianity as one. Just like any other society, Christians as the custodians and proponents of its customs have the tendency of not questioning anything involving their beliefs. They are a religious flock, too humble to check up on where they are going.

For the 24 years of my conscious existence in Christianity, I have seen people celebrate Christmas, both believers and non-believers. Each Christmas eve, we flock churches and worship throughout. But in all my attendance, no priest or pastor has ever given us history on why we observe this day, leave alone a verse to support it. All they talk about is “as we celebrate the birth of Jesus”.

After a long reflection, I thought it wise to try and get these answers from fellow Christians across the world. For as the followers of His teachings, we are baptised in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit just as Jesus was. (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-23).

I would like to ask, is there any post-modern Christian who understands why we observe the 25th day of December as the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ? Is there any biblical reference or are we just fools on a ship that is at the verge of capsizing, oblivious of the danger we are in just because the captain recites the phrase “all is well” for every time a wave hits?

As I question the authenticity of Christmas, I would like to remind all the Christians out there that questioning your religious practices doesn’t make you a rebel; it strengthens your faith and helps you grow, focused and steadfast. I am one of you. My intention is to understand my faith, not riding on the mercy of God for being aromatically obedient to my religious leaders; they are not my ticket to heaven.

Before you celebrate this year’s Christmas as the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ, I wish you comprehensively capture something about this day; that Jesus Christ was not born on the 25th day of December.

Luke Chapter 2 that narrates the birth of Jesus, records in verse 8 that during that time (of His birth), there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock at night. According to Ezra 10:9, 13 winter was a rainy season that would not have permitted shepherds to stay out with their flocks. So,how did we come up with Christmas?

The truth about this can be traced within these references: The Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911 edition, under the heading Christmas, confirms the feast was not among the earliest celebrations of the Church; that it has an origin from the pagan customs of Egypt, navigating its way to the Church.

This is acknowledged by the early father Origen in the same encyclopedia under the heading Natal Day. The encyclopedia of Americana, 1944 edition and the encyclopedia of Britannica, 1946 edition both point out that Christmas (Christ mass/mass of the Christ) was never instituted by either Christ or his disciples as a celebration.

In a nutshell, this celebration has a pagan origin, which resulted to a protest between Christians of Mesopotamia who accused their western brethren of Idolatry and sun worshiping when the western Christians adopted Christmas (The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge). Among other yet to be explained practices, Christmas has more of Roman Authority other than any church/Christian doctrines.

As I write off, ask yourself these: If there is no chapter or verse in the Bible that explains about Christmas, why then do we observe it? Why did Jesus not observe it?

Why not His disciples or the apostles? From my conviction, this feast originated from pagans. Where did they get it from, find out from your pastors why we send gifts, go to church and do all other things on this day.

Was God aware that some Christians would disgrace the birth of [His] son with fornication, drinking, adultery and all kind of sin, and that’s why He decided not to disclose the exact date? Does it make sense to you that Christians misbehave alongside non-believers on the very day their salvation was born?

To Christians, when you will go to church you find yourself chorusing the lines “what a friend we have in Jesus”, ask yourself if you’d really want to disgrace Him on His birthday. Take it or not, it is time we stopped following customs unquestioningly in the name of religion. Let’s not make ourselves a caravan of fools who persistently sail in the voyages of our own ignorance.