Wasn't Christ born in June?

[graywarrior]

I asked a born again that question and she ran away from me.

[Vincardog]

1. yes

[ET Awful]

2. My understanding was that he was born in fall, around harvest time.

But I may be wrong.

[Union Thug]

3. Years and years ago I read something that mentioned june or july.

..but I cannot remember where it came from.

[dean_dem]

4. Remember in Back To The Future when...

Doc Brown shows Marty how to set the time machine if you want to witness the birth of Jesus? The readout says "December 25th, 0000."
That's proof enough for me.

[dr.strangelove]

8. Ah, "The Doc Brown says it so, must be so" Theory of Validity.

[MemphisTiger]

10. I think you need to check your flux capacitor

[dr.strangelove]

12. Time Circuits - On; Flux Capacitor - Fluxing; Engine - Running . . .

[deadparrot]

5. Yep, sometime in the spring or early summer.

They changed it to December to coincide with a Pagan festival.

[dr.strangelove]

6. I always heard birth was in September

Somehow this was based upon John the Baptist's birth and the timing of the shepards in the fields. Don't remember the details.

[trogdor]

19. Well, the Roman census was a pretty well-documented event.

You find out when that happened, and there ya go.

[dr.strangelove]

23. I understand that census took over two years

Thats why the dates of the census don't really help.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

7. Uh, no.

I'm born again, and I won't run away. It may not have exactly December 25, but it wasn't June. It you prove it (that it was June, let me know).

[Cerridwen]

9. I have found

January 6th,

April 17th,

and

September 11th

as dates of the Christ's birth with the years being somewhere between 1 B.C. and 4 B.C. inclusive.

[CO Liberal]

20. September 11th.... Hmmmmmmmmm.....

:-)

[Cerridwen]

21. Yeah. Here's a link.

http://www.september11news.com/Sept11History.htm

I haven't read the site; I just googled earlier for birthdates and this was one of the sites that came up.

:shrug:

[baba]

11. As another poster pointed out...

Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December because pre-Christian religious traditions celebrated the Winter Solstice and the coming of light back into the world. The early church wanted to assimilate pagan holidays. They could win more converts that way. Many Christmas traditions have root in Pagan traditions that predate Christianity.

[Mabeline]

13. Another born again here, and though we celebrate His birth

in December I have always known it wasn't the actual date. I, too, heard it was in September.... never heard an exact day.

[fairfaxvadem]

14. well, if there really were "lambs" in the stable,

that would put the birth in spring/early summer. the story seems to line up more with that time of year overall.

It's been pretty well documented that Dec 25 is courtesy of the non-Christian folk.

[Bill McBlueState]

15. 2000-some years ago

Consider this: Jesus didn't become well-known until he was 30 or so. If the authors of the gospels knew him at all, it was in the few years immediately preceding his death, certainly not at his birth. Given the state of recordkeeping and timekeeping in that era, Jesus himself probably couldn't have pinned his birthday down to a precise day in an exact year.

Why would we have any hope of doing the same, 2000 years later?

If Christians want to celebrate their savior's birth and reflect on its meaning at a particular time they've all agreed on, why not let them? Sure, laugh at the ones who think Jesus was really born on December 25, 0, but most of them aren't that dense.

[forgethell]

16. What's the point??

No one really knows. December 25 is traditional. So who cares if it was actually April 1, or whenever?

Will that comment change anyone's mind, make them think that WHOO! I shoulda voted for Bush. Will it make them feel more accepting of gays? Or will it just offend them?

Did you have a motive? Hey, no one says you have to celebrate Christmas now. Do it is June. or not at all. I get all the week following Christmas this year OFF, with pay, because company policy says that several holidays, including 4 of July, will be taken that week instead of the regular time. I've already bought firecrackers.

MERRY CHRISTMAS



:smoke:

[Bridget Burke]

17. No, probably July....

Who says Christ was a Capricorn?
Maybe He perhaps was born
On the hottest Sunday of the year
His birthday might have been the time to be
On the beach at Galilee
Watching him change water into beer

They'd have a Christmas, a summer Christmas
You'd see the Lord could surf
Without a surfboard Christmas
Could it be possible? Check out the gospel
This year let's have Christmas in July

www.brave.com/bo/lyrics/



From Brave Combo, the pride of Denton, Texas. They included the song on It's Christmas, Man--originally recorded for Japanese fans, but released here anyway. A fine collection including standards ("O Christmas Tree" in samba time), originals ("Santa's Polka") & a hora for Hanukkah.

[Xithras]

18. The simple answer: Early spring or late fall

The Bible says that Jesus was born in a manger because Mary was travelling home to participate in the census. In Roman times, because censuses typically required a lot of travelling they were always performed before the first planting or after the final harvest so as not to interfere with food and grain production. A census would have never been performed midwinter because the cold weather and snow would have made travel dangerous, and in the summer everyone was too busy herding or farming to participate.

Christmas, literally "Christ's Mass", began as as nothing more than a special mass to honor the fact (not the day) of his birth. Even today Catholics celebrate all kinds of masses for this or that saint, or in honor of some big event. Christ's Mass was simply the most important of those.

They held it on Saturnalia because they didn't want to attract any attention. Since everyone was travelling and partying for Saturnalia anyway, nobody took notice of a bunch of gift-bearing Christians making their way into the catacombs under the Roman cities.

[graywarrior]

22. I'd be upset if my birthday was celebrated in June when I was

born in November. Not that anyone would celebrate my birthday but me. AND, not that my original post was in any way negative toward born-agains. I just wondered why my born again acquaintance ran away when I asked her.