Christmas Stars and Conjunctions — What Was the Original Star of Bethlehem?

Photo by Martin Jernberg on Unsplash

One of the things we associate with Christmas is stars. To Christians, the Star of Bethlehem is an important signal; it guided the Wise Men or Wise Kings to the place of Christ’s birth in time to give certain valuable and symbolic gifts.

So it’s not really surprising that many have equated the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that occurred yesterday (sadly I missed it due to That One Annoying Cloud) with the Star of Bethlehem.

So, was the Star of Bethlehem, or whatever started the story historically, a Great Conjunction? Let’s poke around and see what we know.

Jesus Wasn’t Born on December 25

Sorry, people. Like the Queen of England, Jesus has a real birthday and an official one.

December 25 was originally the supposed birth date of Mithras, who’s cult was extremely popular with the Roman military. In order to placate the soldiers when Rome officially adopted Christianity, they gave Jesus Mithras’ birth date.

Tracking the history of Roman censuses tells us that the historical Jesus was born some time in the spring. Obviously, this is important when we try to trace what historical astronomical phenomenon the “Star of Bethlehem” might have been.