Question 99 · Christians and the world around them

Are Christmas, Easter and other customs pagan in origin? When was Easter fixed?

What the sources show

Polycrates of Ephesus (quoted by Eusebius) c. 190 · Irenaeus of Lyons c. 190 · Council of Nicaea (synodal letter, in Socrates) c. 325Easter's date

Easter grew from Passover, not a pagan goddess. In the second century Asia kept it on 14 Nisan with the Jews, Rome on the following Sunday; Irenaeus kept the peace, and Nicaea (325) made the Sunday rule general. ¹²⁴

Tertullian c. 197Christian roots

Pagans suspected sun worship in Christian customs even by 197; Tertullian replied that Sunday and facing east had Christian reasons. Christmas on 25 December is first attested in Rome in 336; whether it was set against a pagan feast or reckoned from the date of Christ's death is still debated. ³

The answers given:

ApostolicBefore NicaeaNicaea and afterMiddle AgesReformation to today

Scroll through the centuries, or tap a dot. J K move between witnesses.

Before Nicaea

150–325

190c. AD

Easter's dateKnown through a later writer

Polycrates of Ephesus (quoted by Eusebius) fl. c. 190 ADLetter to Victor of Rome, in Eusebius, Church History 5.24.2–3

We keep the day exactly, neither adding nor taking away. For in Asia great lights have fallen asleep, who will rise on the day of the Lord's coming ... Philip of the twelve apostles, who sleeps at Hierapolis ... and John, who leaned on the Lord's breast ...

The churches of Asia kept Easter on 14 Nisan, the Jewish Passover date, whatever the weekday, claiming John's authority. Rome kept the following Sunday. Victor tried to excommunicate Asia.

Full English of this work is being translated

190c. AD

Easter's date

Irenaeus of Lyons c. 130–c. 202 ADLetter to Victor of Rome, in Eusebius, Church History 5.24 5.24.12–13

The dispute is not only about the day, but also about the form of the fast itself. Some think they should fast one day, others two, others more; some measure their day as forty hours, day and night. Such variety among those who keep it did not arise in our time but long before us ... and all these nonetheless lived in peace, and we live in peace with one another; and the disagreement about the fast confirms the agreement in faith.

Irenaeus urged Victor not to cut off whole churches for keeping an ancient custom. Nicaea (325) later settled on the Sunday reckoning.

Read in context →

197c. AD

Christian roots

Tertullian c. 155–c. 220 ADApology 16.9–11

Others, more humanely, think the Sun is our god ... Hence the suspicion, because it has become known that we pray toward the east. ... If we give the day of the Sun to joy, it is for a reason far from sun worship.

Pagans already suspected Christian customs of sun worship. Tertullian says the reasons were Christian: the resurrection on the first day, and Christ as the rising light.

Full English of this work is being translated · Source text

Nicaea to Chalcedon

325–451

325c. AD

Easter's date

Council of Nicaea (synodal letter, in Socrates)Letter to the Church of Alexandria, in Socrates, Church History 1.9

We also bring you the good news about agreement on the most holy Pascha: all the brothers in the East who used to keep it with the Jews will from now on keep it in agreement with the Romans, with us, and with all who have kept the Pascha with us from of old.

East and West today still differ, because they use different calendars (Julian and Gregorian).

Full English of this work is being translated

Witnesses not in the library yet

These writers also matter for this question. Their texts will join the timeline above once they are translated.

336
Chronograph of 354, Depositio martyrum
The first record of 25 December as Christ's birth, at Rome.
243
Pseudo-Cyprian, On the Computation of Easter (De pascha computus)
Dates Christ's birth to 28 March from a calendar of creation: an early date-reckoning without any pagan feast.
601
Gregory I, Letter to Mellitus (in Bede 1.30)
Pagan temples and feasts in England to be turned to Christian use.

How this page was made

Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.