They most certainly did: What do you think Easter is? Why do you think Christmas is in December when Jesus was not born during the winter? Many native pagan holidays were basically transformed into the modern Christian holidays you know today. They did this to help convert pagans. In Catholicism, the saints were originally used as a sort of proxy for the old pantheons too.
Easter in Greek and Latin (the language of the first Christians) is Pascha. It’s around the same time as the Passover. That’s why it changes every year due to the lunisolar calendar. It’s just using the old Jewish calendar. The earliest record of Easter being celebrated is from the time when pagans were the ones persecuting Christians.
We don’t know for certain that Jesus wasn’t born in December.
The reason lies within Jewish superstition - that a prophet/holy man died on the anniversary of their conception. Someone, likely a century later, reckoned that Jesus died on the 25th of March (we reckon now that it was actually the 3rd of April) so this became the Feast of the Annunciation (conception). So a cycle was created where the day of the death happened on the same as the conception. Another factor is this was also traditionally believed to be the date of the world’s creation.
In fact, in the UK it was this date that was used to demarcate new years. So traditionally many people still commence and terminate land contracts on “Lady day” (the 25th of March) and the tax year begins on the 6th of April (today) which is the 25th of March on the Julian Calendar.
So simply add 9 months - you have the 25th of December.
As for the saints - most saints commenorated in Christianity are generally Biblical figures or early Christians such as St Patrick or St Nicholas
What stuff? There’s no evidence of Sol Invictus existing before Christianity. The earliest record of the Ostara cult (which was only really an English thing) was 600 years after Christians were recorded celebrating Pascha(Easter) in Greece.
So Sunday is going to be the holy day, and December 25th is going to be a festival, are you sure that there wasn’t any plagiarism going on? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus
I think plagiarism was happening. Because the earliest record of the belief of Jesus’ conception being on the 25th of March from Sextus Julius Africanus predates the Chronography of 354 which is the earliest date of Sol Invictus being on the 25th of December, which interestingly enough also records this being Jesus’ date of birth. If I had to accuse anyone of plagiarism, it would have to be the Pagans.
In addition, Sunday being celebrated as a Christian Holy Day is recorded in the writings of St Luke which also predates Sol Invictus by a few centuries.
They most certainly did: What do you think Easter is? Why do you think Christmas is in December when Jesus was not born during the winter? Many native pagan holidays were basically transformed into the modern Christian holidays you know today. They did this to help convert pagans. In Catholicism, the saints were originally used as a sort of proxy for the old pantheons too.
Easter in Greek and Latin (the language of the first Christians) is Pascha. It’s around the same time as the Passover. That’s why it changes every year due to the lunisolar calendar. It’s just using the old Jewish calendar. The earliest record of Easter being celebrated is from the time when pagans were the ones persecuting Christians.
We don’t know for certain that Jesus wasn’t born in December.
The reason lies within Jewish superstition - that a prophet/holy man died on the anniversary of their conception. Someone, likely a century later, reckoned that Jesus died on the 25th of March (we reckon now that it was actually the 3rd of April) so this became the Feast of the Annunciation (conception). So a cycle was created where the day of the death happened on the same as the conception. Another factor is this was also traditionally believed to be the date of the world’s creation.
In fact, in the UK it was this date that was used to demarcate new years. So traditionally many people still commence and terminate land contracts on “Lady day” (the 25th of March) and the tax year begins on the 6th of April (today) which is the 25th of March on the Julian Calendar.
So simply add 9 months - you have the 25th of December.
As for the saints - most saints commenorated in Christianity are generally Biblical figures or early Christians such as St Patrick or St Nicholas
You can try to retcon it all you want. All this stuff existed way before the Christians came along and appropriated it.
What stuff? There’s no evidence of Sol Invictus existing before Christianity. The earliest record of the Ostara cult (which was only really an English thing) was 600 years after Christians were recorded celebrating Pascha(Easter) in Greece.
So Sunday is going to be the holy day, and December 25th is going to be a festival, are you sure that there wasn’t any plagiarism going on? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sol_Invictus
I think plagiarism was happening. Because the earliest record of the belief of Jesus’ conception being on the 25th of March from Sextus Julius Africanus predates the Chronography of 354 which is the earliest date of Sol Invictus being on the 25th of December, which interestingly enough also records this being Jesus’ date of birth. If I had to accuse anyone of plagiarism, it would have to be the Pagans.
In addition, Sunday being celebrated as a Christian Holy Day is recorded in the writings of St Luke which also predates Sol Invictus by a few centuries.