[RonF]

The particular adoption of December 25th may or may not have been influenced by a particular pagan practice, but there have long been festivals to mark the shortest day of the year (currently December 21st) and the beginning of spring (close enough to Easter). The concept that the early Christians used these dates for their own purposes is still a reasonable presumption. These dates have been marked by men for tens of thousands of years, at least.

[FormerLib]

The Christian celebration of the Resurrection during the springtime is due to the association with Passover and not because of an association with prior celebrations.

Of course, the use of the term "Easter" in the West does have its roots with traditional celebrations of spring.

[siunevada]

Happy Solstice!

Who's hosting the festival this year?

Better not let Associate Professor Tighe hear you stating presumptions based on thin evidence. He might come over and confiscate your Scholarship merit badge!

Here's a different presumption based on the same evidence. The 25th is not the 21st. We have known the dates of the solstices and equinoxes, with precision (!), for thousands of years. The fact that we celebrate on the 25th is not shoddy astronomy. It was a deliberate choice and the fact that it comes days after the solstice is only a coincidence.

[siunevada]

Oops, I may have to surrender my Scholarship merit badge.

After having read the whole article I see that the professor tells us that the solstice in the Julian calendar was on the 25th.

However, he also says it had no particular significance in the festal calendar before Aurelian.

I still stand by my assertion that Christmas on the Julian solstice is a coincidence.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

Easter was always a Christian thing. It doesn't have to do with any pagan rite. It has to do with the Passover, and Christ's death at Passover time.

In most European languages, the word is something like Pasch, for passover.

Not to say some of the symbols come from local folk traditions which might have their roots in regional pagan belief. But at the heart of Easter, from the beginning, was a commemoration of the anniversary of Jesus' death and ressurection.