![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Why the 25th Anyway?
Dec. 8th, 2005 09:32 pmThe date of Christmas was selected in 360 AD by Pope Julius I, at which time we were still using the julian calendar (no relation) and there was considerable confusion about that as well. You may or may not be aware of the gradual progression of the julian calendar, that is why in October 1582 ten days were removed from the calendar (in catholic countries), a system eventually adopted by the rest of the world. Working backward that means on the face of it that in 360 AD the winter solstice fell on the correct date.
EXCEPT I happen to know at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 the Church of Rome used the 25th of March as the date of the vernal equinox. That's four days from forward from where it is now on the 21st of March. So that means that in the 4th century when the date of Christmas was fixed the winter solstice probably fell on the (drum roll) 25th of December. Now you see where the whole pagan Satunelia thing comes into the story of Christmas and why it is not the same day as the equinox today.
By the 10th century all the various churches were finally on the same page of using the 21st of March as the date of the vernal equinox, but by this time the calendar was off by as much as 5 days forward what it was just 7 centuries before. So the solstice and equinox would happen 16th of December and 16th of March more or less. This was all screwed up and they knew it, but it took another five centuries for them to study the problem, solutions, and finally come up with one that was instituted by Pope Gregory I in 1582. Why did it work out that they put it back more or less where the date of the venal equinox fell in the 4th century? Well because that's when the aforementioned Council of Nicaea hammered out when to celebrate Easter and they wanted to get back to having it work out exactly as the church forefathers had twelve centuries earlier.
And incidentally it was because of mistakes made at the Council of Nicaea that Easter does not always fall on Passover.
EXCEPT I happen to know at the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 the Church of Rome used the 25th of March as the date of the vernal equinox. That's four days from forward from where it is now on the 21st of March. So that means that in the 4th century when the date of Christmas was fixed the winter solstice probably fell on the (drum roll) 25th of December. Now you see where the whole pagan Satunelia thing comes into the story of Christmas and why it is not the same day as the equinox today.
By the 10th century all the various churches were finally on the same page of using the 21st of March as the date of the vernal equinox, but by this time the calendar was off by as much as 5 days forward what it was just 7 centuries before. So the solstice and equinox would happen 16th of December and 16th of March more or less. This was all screwed up and they knew it, but it took another five centuries for them to study the problem, solutions, and finally come up with one that was instituted by Pope Gregory I in 1582. Why did it work out that they put it back more or less where the date of the venal equinox fell in the 4th century? Well because that's when the aforementioned Council of Nicaea hammered out when to celebrate Easter and they wanted to get back to having it work out exactly as the church forefathers had twelve centuries earlier.
And incidentally it was because of mistakes made at the Council of Nicaea that Easter does not always fall on Passover.