on 11/30/2000 12:18 AM, Michael W. Wellman at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Oh sure, that's what they want us to believe... ;-)
>
> Representing another viewpoint:
> <http://www.thunderministries.com/pagan/easter/IsEaster.html>
> <http://www.thunderministries.com/pagan/easter/ishtar.html>
> (And they really, really don't like Christmas or Halloween).
Of course, the date of Christmas is really pragmatic since most scholars
believe the actual birth occurred sometime in August (picking the date for
some reason I'm not aware of). Christmas, according to my understanding, was
placed on December 25 because it was the Roman holiday of Saturn and the
Christians wanted to emphasize that Christ was above the Roman gods (I may
be simplifying here).
But to get back to date calculation, the date of Christmas lets us back-date
several other events on the Catholic calendar such as the Annunciation and
Conception of Jesus (March 25 - nine months earlier) and the birth of John
the Baptist (June 25 - three months later than that). And since we're on the
subject, December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception is the day
commemorating Mary's conception, not Jesus' (that would be one short
pregnancy), and so the Church calculates Mary's b-day as September 8.
Of course, we're veering way, way off-topic, but hey it's almost Christmas!
:)
Dom (who majored in theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville and
has most of a master's, too).
--
Domenico Bettinelli, Jr.<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]><http://www.bettnet.com/>
Catholic World News <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.cwnews.com/>
XNS Name: =Domenico Bettinelli, Jr.
Jenny, 12, probes the moral of the story of Samson and Delilah: "Bad
relationships can be murder on your hair."
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