HERETOETGERNITY'S AND PHONEMMAN'S HOSTILITY TO OUR JEWISH ROOTS BY
UNKNOWINGLY CALLING THE CELEBRATION OF CHRIST'S BIRTH AS "PAGAN"
I generally don't hold profound ignorance against a person, but enough is enough. This issue needs to be addressed.
[SIZE=10pt]Nobody knows for sure the exact day of Jesus' birth, however...[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Zechariah was acting as high priest when the birth of St. John the baptizer was announced to him in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. That would have been on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement which falls in late September. St. John was conceived shortly thereafter during Sukkot, the Festival of Booths. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]At the Annunciation, the BVM was told that Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant. That would have been in late March. (BTW the feast of the Annunciation is celebrated on March 25th in the Roman Calendar. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Nine months later Jesus was born sometime in late December.
Now there is an interesting coincidence with all this. St. John would have been born near the Summer Solstice (the longest day of the year) everyday after that would get shorter until the Winter Solstice six months later, which is the shortest day of the year. Every day after that would get longer. In the First Century the Winter Solstice fell on December 25th.
It would be fitting that Jesus would have been born on the shortest day of the year because he is the "Light of the World":
Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12)
Everyday after his birth there was more light.
Also St. John the Baptizer said of himself:
He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30)
Which is exactly what happened to the daylight after their respective births. (This was the point St. Augustine made in his championing the celebration of Jesus' birth on the Winter Solstice).
So despite the objections of some pundits,
December 25th is a very reasonable date to celebrate Jesus' birth and not a concession to paganism.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]The Winter Solstice was NOT a Roman Civil holiday until 273 AD. The Emperor Aurelian made December 25th a civil holiday because
the Christians were already using it to celebrate the Birth of Jesus and he was trying to detract from the Christian celebration![/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]
None of the Sun Cults used December 25th before then. It appears that the Winter Solstice was originally a CHRISTIAN feast that the pagans tried to paganize,
not the other way around.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Contrary to the psychotic ramblings of Bible cults, Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth. Period. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]Celebrations began with the 1st century Church, a church heretoeternity and phoneman have nothing to do with. [/SIZE]