General Discussion

that 12/25 was not Jesus's birthday, and that in fact no one has the foggiest idea of when it was. 12/25 was selected to be the day to honor is, for tw pretty good reasons, one practical, and one pased on good logic with flawed premises.

The practical one was that every civilization all over the northern hemisphere has had celebrations at that time of the year, and we might as well have one too.

The other one was based on the idea that the year began at the spring equinox. At the time, the Julian calendar was still in force, and though it wasn't quite eleven days off yet, it was off some, and the spring equinox was around March 25. That was considered to be the date upon which the world was created, so it was only reasonable to assume that that was the date upon which the Annunciation happened. And December 25 is exactly 9 months after March 25.

Personally, I am a Christian - one who believes that if a person claims to follow Jesus, they should be acting in accordance with his instructions about how to act, and I endeavor to do so. As such, I do not care in the slightest about what date he may have been born. But I love that story because it's such a charming example iof what humans can some up with by applying hard logic to soft premises. I chuckle every time I think of it.