The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Every year people around the world celebrate Christmas on December 25th.

In many countries it's the biggest single holiday of the year. Why is it... on December 25th. 25th.

Why is it celebrated on December 25th?

Is there any historical basis for the state?

And if not, then why do we celebrate it on the state?

Learn more about why we celebrate Christmas when we do on this episode of Everything Everywhere

Daily. The first thing that's necessary to establish is that there is nothing documented in any

writing from the Bible or other ancient sources which gives a date for the birth of Jesus.

Nothing. It isn't even implied or hinted at. So for all

practical purposes we really have no idea what day or even what month Jesus was

born. Then why do we celebrate it on December 25th? To a certain

extent any day that was chosen would be just as good as the next if you don't know

what the real date is. It would be an arbitrary choice. But December 25th isn't arbitrary. There's a good reason why it was picked.

Initially in the very early Christian Church, during the first two centuries of its existence,

there is no mention or indication that the birth of

Jesus was celebrated. The first known date we have of a December 25th

celebration of the birth of Jesus is in the year 336 during the reign of

Emperor Constantine.

Constantine, as I've mentioned in previous episodes, brought Christianity out from being an underground religion.

Many of the traditions of early Christians were able to be openly celebrated and many of them were finally documented.

Most people, when given an explanation about why December 25 was chosen, get the story half

...