3. TIL That Ancient Christians made Jesus's birth date the same day as the roman ho...

TIL That Ancient Christians made Jesus's birth date the same day as the roman holiday Saturnalia in an attempt to convert Pagans to Christianity. Nowhere in the Bible did it actually state that this was when Jesus was born.

Speaking as someone who was raised Catholic, I feel like maybe this fact in the OP is meant to be more "world shattering" to certain Protestants maybe?

Like, I went through about 12 years of Catholic school and going to mass weekly and I would say most people I met knew and acknowledged this or I can't really think of anyone who would somehow be offended by this.

In the Catholic liturgical year, Christmas is more or less a day that celebrates the birth of Jesus (obviously), the end of Advent, and the beginning of the Christmas season which ends in February or something with the celebration of Jesus' baptism. All of this influences which readings are read at the mass, what vestments the priest wheres etc. but it seems like it's understood to be pretty arbitrary.

Christmas trees and stuff like that are regarded as mostly cultural traditions that are pretty universally accepted--regardless of their origin, so I can't imagine too many Catholics freak out about it.

But then, where I went believing in Young Earth Creationism would get you laughed out of most classrooms so maybe my Catholic schools were just very libertine.

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