Around the year 200, Clement of Alexandria wrote that Christian teachers had proposed various dates for the Nativity, but December 25 was not among them. Most of the dates they proposed fell in the spring. His testimony shows that the early Church did not observe December 25 as Christ's birthday at that time. Together with Origen of Alexandria, who lived into the latter half of the third century and mocked Roman birth anniversary celebrations as pagan practices, Clement shows that Christian leaders well into the late third century did not celebrate Christ's birth. December 25 in the Roman West and January 6 in Egypt and the East became widely recognized as competing dates only by the fourth century.