![]() ![]() Some Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate it on 6 January together with Epiphany, the revelation of the infant Jesus to three wise men. ![]() Western Christians celebrate the Nativity on a fixed date, 25 December. The date of the feast varies within Christian denominations. He described Jesus as the “new light” an image of salvation, but timely in that the days began to lengthen from 25 December onwards. Leo thought it would distract his Roman congregation from sun worship by celebrating the feast of Christ’s birth on the same day. This was the day of the solar equinox, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, which officially marked the halfway point of winter. It was chosen by Pope Leo I, bishop of Rome (440-461), to coincide with the Festival of the Saturnalia, when Romans worshipped Saturn, the sun god. The western date for Jesus’ birth is quite arbitrary. ![]() El papa San León I Magno by Francisco Herrera the Younger (1622-1685)/Wikimedia Commons The western date for Jesus’ birth was chosen by Pope Leo I. ![]()
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