It seems we go through this every year, usually twice a year really. 'Christmas' and 'Easter' are declared by some to be high religious holidays uniquely representative of only their beliefs. We'll just stick to 'Christmas' for this post.
Since before humans could write our ancestors wandered in fairly small groups. They lived off the land, possibly stopping for periods to live in caves or other natural shelters. Knowledge of the natural cycle of the seasons, the migrations of the herds was critical to their survival. They noticed and wondered at the movement of the "stars" (actually the planets) and the life-giving sun.
Our ancient ancestors survived to establish agriculture, and animal husbandry communities. They were still very dependent on the seasons. Various sun worshiping cults were also developed. It is from these ancient myths and rituals the Jewish and Christian doctrines eventually (over several hundred years) emerged.
Birthdays generally weren't even celebrated in breakaway branch of Judaism that became Christianity. When they did celebrate Christ's birth, they generally did so in April and May (the lambing season). Pope Julius I, in the fourth century commanded a committee of bishops to establish the date of the nativity of Jesus. December 25 (the day of Sol Invictus, the invincible sun) was decided upon. Not coincidentally, that is the day when the pagan world celebrated the birth of their Sun Gods -- Egyptian Osiris, Greek Apollo and Bacchus, Chaldean Adonis, Persian Mithra -- when the Zodiacal sign of Virgo (the sun is born of a virgin) rose on the horizon. Thus the ancient festival of the Winter Solstice, the pagan festival of the birth of the Sun, came to be adopted by the Christian Church as the nativity of Jesus, and was called Christmas. Dec 25 is the first day after the solstice you can actually notice the sun begin rising a bit "closer" and is probably the origin of all the 'god birthdays'.
This site goes into much more detail on the origins of this northern hemisphere belief set.
Since before humans could write our ancestors wandered in fairly small groups. They lived off the land, possibly stopping for periods to live in caves or other natural shelters. Knowledge of the natural cycle of the seasons, the migrations of the herds was critical to their survival. They noticed and wondered at the movement of the "stars" (actually the planets) and the life-giving sun.
Our ancient ancestors survived to establish agriculture, and animal husbandry communities. They were still very dependent on the seasons. Various sun worshiping cults were also developed. It is from these ancient myths and rituals the Jewish and Christian doctrines eventually (over several hundred years) emerged.
Birthdays generally weren't even celebrated in breakaway branch of Judaism that became Christianity. When they did celebrate Christ's birth, they generally did so in April and May (the lambing season). Pope Julius I, in the fourth century commanded a committee of bishops to establish the date of the nativity of Jesus. December 25 (the day of Sol Invictus, the invincible sun) was decided upon. Not coincidentally, that is the day when the pagan world celebrated the birth of their Sun Gods -- Egyptian Osiris, Greek Apollo and Bacchus, Chaldean Adonis, Persian Mithra -- when the Zodiacal sign of Virgo (the sun is born of a virgin) rose on the horizon. Thus the ancient festival of the Winter Solstice, the pagan festival of the birth of the Sun, came to be adopted by the Christian Church as the nativity of Jesus, and was called Christmas. Dec 25 is the first day after the solstice you can actually notice the sun begin rising a bit "closer" and is probably the origin of all the 'god birthdays'.
This site goes into much more detail on the origins of this northern hemisphere belief set.
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