Muslims are taking to Christmas markets and social media with the claim that Christmas is a pagan holiday. This was a claim that has been made by some evangelicals in the hopes that Christianity would take a form that they imagine is closer to what was observed by early Christianity. However, Muslims have a different motive, and that’s that they’ll get more people breaking the second commandment by bowing to an idol five times a day.

But they messed up. Hard. And I’ll explain why.

To get right to it, it’s because I actually believed that. For years. You’d have to mess up pretty hard when the argument you make results in dissuading someone who initially believed the claim. All they really had to do was keep their mouths shut, but instead they rolled the dice, and got a critical miss.

While I could get into why I believed that Christmas is a religion with pagan origins, what it basically came down to was accepting a claim that was made without researching the matter as well as I might have guessed. I was wrong. But on the bright side, my desire for understanding the truth of the matter would eventually lead to me finding it.

I’m guessing that, for many people, part of the appeal to believing such a thing would be similar to what gave gnosticism it’s appeal. Basically, it’s the belief a person would have that they’re special for accepting certain special knowledge that most people don’t seem aware of, and that being closer to a perceived truth makes one better off than other people. Also, there’s the edge that comes with the idea that an established church is hiding a tremendous scandalous secret, coupled with how special one feels when they learn something by using the internet.

But for me, I was mainly motivated by a desire to know the truth. And I can admit that I was wrong because I don’t take myself too seriously.

The main claim made by those saying that Christmas is a pagan holiday is that Christmas falls on the same day as at least one pagan holiday, such as Saturnalia and Sol Invictus. Some also try to point to similarities between how Christmas is observed and how those pagan holidays were observed.

(Note: The correct name of one of these pagan holidays is “Day of Sol Invictus”, and is often incorrectly shortened to “Sol Invictus”, the name and title of the deity of the cult of Sol. If this article uses the term “Sol Invictus” to refer to an observance, it’s for convenience, and because that’s a popular use of the term, not because I think it’s correct.)

The problem is that the people who say these things are big on claims, but short on verifiable and extant historical sources. A lot of what they have to say sounds like it would make a great comic book, though.

For example, if you were to ask 20 different such people for an account about Nimrod, you’d get 30 different accounts. As much as I want to believe that Shem tore Nimrod to pieces and sent a different chunk of him to a different city in the ancient world, the truth of the matter is probably nowhere close to as metal.

For historical claims, it’s generally better to look for impartial historical sources. People tend to trust church websites, particularly members of the church that made a website, because they tend to be less critical of claims made by their own church. Many such websites have already decided on a conclusion, and what they present tends to be post-hoc justification.

Before going further, it helps to accept that there’s such a thing as a coincidence. Pagans had numerous holidays throughout the year. For one of them to be observed on the same day as Christians observe something is not definitive proof of appropriation of a pagan holiday in some effort to make Christianity more appealing to pagan Europe. Considering that most people perceive coincidences which they understand to be meaningless all the time, we should be able to comprehend this.

First, let’s talk about how the date of December 25th was decided upon as the likely date of Christ’s birth. It was due to a belief shared among early Christians that prophets died on the same month and day as they were conceived. They also believed that Christ was crucified on March 25th. Nine months after that would be December 25th.

At worst, that would just be an incorrect guess. I’ve actually heard the case made for Christ being born early in the Autumn.

By the way, the idea that prophets died on the same month and day as they were born originated with Rabbinic Judaism. So if you like celebrating Christmas on December 25th, thank a Jew.

Now for the idea that Saturnalia was on December 25th. It’s wrong. Simply wrong.

Every historical writing going back to around the time of the 1st century which gave a date for Saturnalia gave the date as December 17th. Not the 25th, the 17th. Saturnalia was often celebrated as one day, but was sometimes extended to multiple days. At its longest, Saturnalia was observed for 7 days. In which case, the latest that Saturnalia ended was the 23rd.

Saturnalia was never observed on December 25th. And considering that this is the main claim made by those insisting that Christmas is a pagan holiday, they’re off to a bad start.

Next is the claim that Christmas was observed on the same day as “Sol Invictus”. While it’s true that it was, the oldest record indicating an observance of Christmas by Christians predated any observance of Sol Invictus. The cult of Sol Invictus arrived on the scene after Christianity did, as evidenced by the fact that Christianity has far older writings. If any of the two parties had plagiarized the other, then it was the cult of Sol Invictus which stole ideas from Christianity. It would seem as though much of the cult was a blatant knock-off of Christianity.

The claim is also sometimes made that Christmas has similarities to Saturnalia. Many such claims seems to come from the imaginations of the people making them, or are just regurgitated from those whom they mistakenly trusted.

Saturnalia was observed by turning social norms on their head, such as by placing slaves in the seat of the head of household, and were waited on by the master of the house, and people typically reveled while drunk. Sound like Christmas? No? That’s because it wasn’t Christmas.

Oftentimes, the trappings associated with Christmas are said to be of pagan origin. Many such claims have no historical backing. But in many cases, the trappings originated in European folk customs which which probably never had anything to do with honoring any pagan deity.

The biggest potential issue as I see it would seem to be Santa Claus. But mainly because I see him as a figure of Catholic origin, and I’m not Catholic. Much of how he’s used today is pretty ridiculous, what with the sleigh pulled by reindeer, and the workshop staffed by elves. But it’s not pagan.

If someone wants to try to make Christmas out to be a holiday with pagan origins, they tend to be heavy on claims and light on historical connections. In the case of the odd Muslim who insists that Christmas is a pagan holiday, it could be that they actually believe that, even if wrongly. But there’s a likelihood that what they’re doing is engaging in a cynical attempt to destroy a religion that’s different from their own, and bring other people into their performative ritualistic misery.

Now, if you want to know what really is pagan, look into the Islamic observances of the Hajj and Ramadan, which actually are observances that are pagan in origin. Pagans observed both these observances before Islam was an idea in Muhammad’s head. Just be warned that, if you look into it, you might have a really, really difficult time finding impartial sources. Islam by it’s nature inspires strong reaction, whether for or against. What’s more, in the current academic environment, researchers are strongly hesitant to publish anything that has any potential to get them thousands of death threats from irate Muslims.

Of course, when it comes to criticism of Muhammad and Islam, people are going to be far more interested in topics like his mass homicide of Jews, his encounter with the men of Al-Zutt, and the many, many passages throughout the official Islamic materials, such as the Quran, which advocate for things like violence, racism, slavery, and many other topics. Then there’s how suspicious it is that a man claimed to be a prophet who didn’t perform miracles.

But as for Muslims’ claim that Christmas is a pagan holiday, after trying to convince people that it’s the case, someone who believed that changed his mind, realizing that it’s not true. That’s a special kind of incompetence.