Overview
- The Catholic calendar marks the Nativity on December 25 today in the official santoral.
- The canonical Gospels do not specify a date for Jesus’s birth, and historians say the tradition lacks direct historical evidence.
- Details in Luke about shepherds outdoors at night and a census requiring travel point away from winter conditions in Judea.
- Scholars trace the date’s adoption to late antiquity, with fifth‑century commemorations and wider imperial observance by 529 to coincide with Sol Invictus and Saturnalia.
- Alternative proposals place the birth in spring or autumn, with some calculations suggesting summer based on priestly service cycles.