The DOI matches its Crossref record; 23 of the 23 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Sol Invictus, the Winter Solstice, and the Origins of Christmas
Abstract
Ce n’est qu’au IV e siècle que s’est instaurée la tradition de célébrer l’anniversaire du Christ le 25 décembre, le jour exact de sa naissance étant de fait inconnu. Aujourd’hui, les spécialistes se rangent à la théorie de Hermann Usener (fin du XIX e siècle) selon laquelle l’église primitive aurait choisi cette date dans le but de supplanter une importante fête païenne en l’honneur de Sol Invictus. Mais l’importance de cette fête a été exagérée, et les témoignages indiquent que la raison de ce choix réside plutôt dans la valeur symbolique attribuée au solstice d’hiver (traditionnellement le 25 décembre).
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Citations
Cites
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae
Sarian, H. (2024) · Revista do Museu de Arqueologia e Etnologia · doi:10.11606/issn.2448-1750.revmae.1996.109282 · Cited by 459
Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor
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(2004) · Roman Coins and Their Values · doi:10.2307/j.ctvkwnr0p.11 · Cited by 358
Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic
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Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity.
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Encyclopedia of early Christianity
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Coins of the Roman Republic in the British Museum
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Le calendrier romain. Recherches chronologiques
Raepsaet-Charlier, M.-T., & Brind'Amour, P. (1985) · Phoenix · doi:10.2307/1088647 · Cited by 48
Sol invictus imperator. Ein Beitrag zur Apotheose
L'Orange, H. P. (1935) · Symbolae Osloenses · doi:10.1080/00397673508590290 · Cited by 29
Corinth, the First City of Greece: An Urban History of Late Antique Cult and Religion
Rothaus, R. M. (2000) · Cited by 23
Christus verus sol : Sonnenverehrung und Christentum in der Spätantike
Wallraff, M. (2001) · Cited by 19
Cullmann, O., & Higgins, A. J. B. (2012) · Cited by 19
Brilliant, R. (1999) · American Journal of Archaeology · doi:10.2307/507006 · Cited by 17
Le Calendrier de 354 : étude sur son texte et ses illustrations
Stern, H. (1953) · Cited by 13
Milne, J. G. (1939) · The Classical Review · doi:10.1017/s0009840x0008361x · Cited by 13
A new Greek Calendar and Festivals of the Sun
Weinstock, S. (1948) · The Journal of Roman Studies · doi:10.2307/298168 · Cited by 13
Deonna, W. (1946) · Revue de l histoire des religions · doi:10.3406/rhr.1946.5517 · Cited by 6
von Stockhausen, A. (2003) · Byzantinische Zeitschrift · doi:10.1515/byzs.2003.796 · Cited by 3
Language, Metaphor, and the Semiotics of Roman Art
Hijmans, S. E. (2000) · Babesch. Bulletin antieke beschaving · doi:10.2143/bab.75.0.563187 · Cited by 2
Self-citation
Cited by
New Light on the Relationship between the Montecitorio Obelisk and Ara Pacis of Augustus
Frischer, B. (2017) · Studies in Digital Heritage · doi:10.14434/sdh.v1i1.23331 · Cited by 48
Amanita muscaria: Ecology, Chemistry, Myths
Carboué, Q., & Lopez, M. (2021) · Encyclopedia · doi:10.3390/encyclopedia1030069 · Cited by 27
Temples and Priests of Sol in the City of Rome
Hijmans, S. E. (2010) · Mouseion Journal of the Classical Association of Canada · doi:10.1353/mou.2010.0073 · Cited by 25
Self-citationThe Origins of the Christmas Date: Some Recent Trends in Historical Research
Nothaft, C. P. E. (2012) · Church History · doi:10.1017/s0009640712001941 · Cited by 15
Locating the festival, positioning the feast: natural and calendar festivals in medieval Slovenia
Čaval, S. (2018) · World Archaeology · doi:10.1080/00438243.2018.1538814 · Cited by 5
Metadata
- Authors
- Hijmans, S.
- Corresponding author
- Hijmans, Steven
- Venue
- Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada
- Publisher
- Project MUSE
- Published
- 2003
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 377-398
- ISSN
- 1496-9343 (ISSN-L)
- 1913-5416
- OpenAlex
- W2567846207
- Semantic Scholar
- db8bb755cee7f916141ef3127f66c927c8331e25
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 23
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Mouseion Journal of the Classical Association of Canada (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Classics › Classical Antiquity Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Historical and Religious Studies of Rome
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Keywords
- Sol Invictus, winter solstice, Hermann Usener, pagan festivals, early Christian liturgy, Roman religion
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.