From historical sources we know that December 25 as the date of birth of Jesus began to spread around the fourth century, when Christianity passed from the condition of a religion opposed within the Roman Empire to that of a tolerated and increasingly widespread religion. In 380 the Roman emperor Theodosius I then issued an edict making Christianity the only religion allowed in the Empire. Christians then began to replace the many pagan holidays with as many Christian ones. In all likelihood, the celebration of the birth of Christ replaced an important Roman festival held at the end of December, probably on the 25th: the one for the birth of the Invincible Sun, imposed on the whole Empire by the emperor Aurelian in 273. From that moment on December 25th became a fundamental date of the year , even if in the course of history for some characters it was for reasons that had little to do with the Nativity.
Emperors near and far
One of the most important days in Western history is December 25 of the year 800. On that date, during Christmas mass, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor . It was the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire destined to have a profound effect on the history of Europe throughout the Middle Ages and to last more than a thousand years. The last "Holy Roman Emperor" was, in fact, Francis II of Habsburg who renounced the title on August 2, 1806. Going east, on December 25, 1926 Hirohito became the one hundred and twenty-fourth emperor of Japan. He was the last ruler considered to be of divine origin and led the Empire of the Rising Sun during World War II. He remained on the throne until his death in 1989.
Coronation day
Christmas has often been chosen as an auspicious date for royal coronations. In the year 1000 Stephen I was crowned king of Hungary , later to become Saint Stephen as he was the ruler who led his people to convert to Christianity. In 1066, the Norman duke William the Conqueror , victorious a few months before the battle of Hastings, was crowned king of England in Westminster Abbey in London (consecrated, among other things, on 25 December of the previous year). For historians it was the event that marked the birth of modern England. Also on 25 December, but from 1130, another Norman, Roger II of Altavilla , received the crown of king of Sicily in Palermo . Roger made southern Italy one of the richest and most powerful kingdoms of the time. On the occasion of Christmas 1194, Emperor Henry VI always received the crown of King of Sicily. He was the son of Federico Barbarossa and had married Constance of Altavilla, the last heir of Roger II. Henry reigned little because he died in 1197 but bequeathed Sicily to his son Federico II, the Stupor Mundi.
An emperor on his knees
Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over the entire Roman Empire. He was a great general and a ruthless man but on 25 December 390 he had to kneel in front of the bishop of Milan Ambrogio , today the patron saint of the Lombard metropolis. The ruler had thousands of people massacred in Thessalonica in Greece to avenge the killing of one of his officials. Ambrose harshly criticized the imperial conduct and invoked the sovereign's public penance , otherwise he would no longer have allowed him to participate in religious rites. Partly because he was a fervent Christian and partly because he was aware that without the support of the Church he would not have been able to govern, Theodosius bowed his head. He then begged for mercy in front of Ambrogio and the Milanese people and only then was he forgiven.
A bad day for the Communists
1989 was the year of the fall of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the Berlin Wall . It was the result of bloodless revolutions except in the case of Romania where dictator Nicolae Ceausescu tried to forcibly repress attempts to overthrow his regime. However, some of his collaborators understood that the Ceausescu era was over. They had him arrested together with his wife Elena and the two were sentenced to death in a summary trial that lasted less than an hour. On December 25, 1989, they were both killed with Kalashnikovs . Two years later, still on Christmas day, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the USSR . It was the event that marked the end of the Soviet Union, the state born in place of Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
Christmas at sea
Christopher Columbus wanted at all costs to celebrate Christmas on land during the voyage that led him to discover America. He approached the coasts of the island he called Hispaniola (now Haiti) but one of the caravels ran aground on the coral reef. It was December 25, 1492 and Columbus, once the shipwrecked people were rescued, landed them on the mainland. Here, a small fort was built with the remains of the caravel, the first European settlement in the New World. Columbus called it Navidad, meaning "Christmas". On December 25, 1643 , however, the captain of a ship of the English East India Company sighted a small island in the Indian Ocean , off the coast of Indonesia. Once called Christmas Island, today it belongs to Australia and is considered one of the most pristine places on Earth. Finally, on December 25, 1938, some South African fishermen found an unknown fish in their nets. It was a coelacanth, a species believed extinct for millions of years, a real living fossil!
Finally, a date to be good
December 25 is in the mood for good deeds. On Christmas Day 1868 , US President Andrew Johnson decided to pardon all those who had fought for the Confederacy of the Southern states during the American Civil War . It was the first real attempt to reconcile Northerners and Southerners. Instead, the first visit by a president of Israel to an Arab country took place on December 25, 1977 . Israeli leader Begin traveled to Cairo to meet Egyptian President Sadat, who was also born on December 25, 1918.