WAS CHRIST JESUS BORN ON DECEMBER 25TH?

Again, I have witnessed two seemingly Christians argue. This time it is over whether Jesus was born on December 25th and therefore the need to celebrate his birth on that date. One argued that it did not matter, so far the bible is not against it while the other argued that December 25th was specifically chosen by the Catholic Church because it was the date in which pagan Romans honored their gods. He concluded, that is why some Christians like Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate Christmas because it has pagan origin. How do we come off this impasse?

Well, let us reason together.

From the get go, it must be noted that Jehovah's Witnesses are not Christians (since they deny the divinity of Jesus Christ) and it therefore masters not whether they celebrate Christmas or not. It is simply beside the point.

Now to the main issue. St. Luke related the announcement of the birth of John the baptist to his elderly parents, Sts. Elizabeth and Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest of the class of Abijah (Luke 1:5), the 8th class of 24 priestly classes (Neh. 12:17). Each class served one week in the temple twice a year. Now the priestly class of Abijah would have been on duty during the second week of the Jewish month Tishri, the week of the Day of Atonement or in our calendar, between September 22nd and 30th.

While on duty, the angel informed Zechariah that he and Elizabeth would have a son (Luke 1:5-24). Then they conceived John, whom after 40 weeks in the womb would have been born at the end of June. For this reason, we celebrate the Nativity of St. John the Baptist on June 24th.

Now St. Luke also recorded how the angel told Mary that Elizabeth was already 6 months pregnant with John (Luke 1:36), which means the Annunciation occurred March 25th, as we do celebrate. 9 months from March 25th or 6 months from June 24th, renders the birth of Jesus at December 25th, Christmas day! This may be considered the Biblical case for December 25th.

Futhermore, there are records dating to the 2nd century showing that Christians were well aware of this fact, even if because of persecution, which only formally ended in 313 A.D., Christmas could not be celebrated. Therefore, those Christians who refuse to observe Christmas day because December 25th was the day pagan Romans observed their holiday in dedication to their god, are in fact, observing the pagan holiday!