Informative Essay On Christmas

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Each year approximately two billion people will gather together on the 25th of December to exchange gifts and pleasantries as part of a holiday called Christmas. Many honest-hearted individuals believe that Christmas is in celebration of Jesus’ birth. What many people do not know is that people have been celebrating years before Jesus was born. There are many aspects of Christmas deeply rooted in paganism including the Christmas tree, the Yule log, Christmas lights, Mistletoe, as well as the date chosen for the celebration.

In the Norse culture, they celebrated a festival called Yule around December 21 for winter solstice. “Fathers and sons drag evergreens indoors as reminders of life and set logs on fire as a promise of good fortune.” (Origins of Christmas Video) This is where the modern day Yule logs and the Christmas tree come from. “As late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.” (History.com Staff) Mistletoe also has pagan origins dating back to involvement with Norse mythology and druidic medicine. (Why Do We Kiss under the Mistletoe) …show more content…

Saturnalia is characterized by gift-giving, eating, and drinking in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. Soldiers and high ranking officials also worshipped the sun god Mithra. “To this small but powerful sect, the birthday of Mithra, December 25th, was the holiest day of the year.” (Origins of Christmas Video) The church is thought to have chosen to use this day as the birth of Jesus since pagans already held celebrations at this time in order to draw more people to join the

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