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Hans Förster, a Viennese church historian, for example, doesn’t give a damn about the thesis that the pagan celebrations of the Sol Invictus solstice were simply reinterpreted as the Christian figure of light. The summer solstice celebrations in winter wouldn’t have mattered, he argues. Even more: in the early 5th century, the church fathers endorsed December 25 as Christmas Day, because there was no pagan holiday on this day.
Old tourist magnet?
Förster seems much more plausible that they wanted to offer something to the pilgrims who flocked to the Holy Land back then; today would be: Christmas as a tourist magnet. You knew that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, there was a Church of the Nativity there, so you needed a birthday party. December 25 fitted well into the church holiday calendar. In addition, the days were lengthening little by little, which embodies the hope that was nurtured by the birth of Jesus, argues the canonist.
For the medieval researcher Preiser-Kapeller it is clear: “In the first centuries of Christianity one cannot start from a single tradition. December 25 appears in Rome in the fourth century, but we see that it took 200 years for Christmas to be recognized in the East, in Constantinople. “
