Our BetterMost Community > The Holiday Forum
The first day of 2009, and it's the last 6 days before 'Little Christmas'--
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on December 06, 2009, 07:38:29 pm ---So, WHY is Christmas on December 25, can someone enlighten me?
--- End quote ---
Christmas is celebrated on December 25 because Julius Caesar's astronomers goofed when they calculated the date of the Winter Solstice. They calculated it as December 25 when, as we all know, it's usually more like December 21. The Romans celebrated the Saturnalia on December 25, and later in the Empire period December 25 was made the celebration Natalis Solis Invictus (not sure I've got the spelling right on that Latin!)--the Birth of the Unconquered Sun. Christianity preempted--or usurped--the date for the Birth of the Son of God to compete with the non-Christian festival, and to keep all those new Christians from backsliding because all those non-Christians were having a good time on December 25. It gave the Christians something to celebrate.
That's all from memory and just off the top of my head. I'm sure Del can correct any errors I've made and give you a more historically sophisticated and accurate explanation of the non-Christian festivals.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on January 03, 2010, 05:36:28 pm ---And now another question: Will you be celebrating Epiphany? If so, how??
--- End quote ---
I won't be doing anything in particular myself on Wednesday, but Epiphany is an important day in my parish because in its present form the parish was created in 1898 by the union of two pre-existing churches, St. Luke's Church and the Church of the Epiphany!
Because January 6 is a Wednesday we more or less anticipated the feast today. Instead of a sermon, we had the children's Christmas pageant that was postponed from December 20 because of the blizzard we had that weekend. On the celebration of Epiphany we always sing the (in my opinion, goofy) carol "We Three Kings of Orient Are" because that's the point of the festival, the commemoration of the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. Indeed, in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, the festival was still called "The Epiphany, or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles," the Three Wise Men being Gentiles.
At Coffee Hour (that other Episcopalian sacrament), we always have a cake with three little tokens baked into it. If you get a token in your piece, you get to wear a crown. ;D
Front-Ranger:
Thanks for the information about Epiphany, Jeff, it helps a lot! I am planning to celebrate somehow. I will be going to a women's rock climbing class that nite.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on January 05, 2010, 01:09:56 am ---Thanks for the information about Epiphany, Jeff, it helps a lot!
--- End quote ---
'Welcome! :)
--- Quote --- I am planning to celebrate somehow. I will be going to a women's rock climbing class that nite.
--- End quote ---
:o Be careful you don't fall off!
Marge_Innavera:
Don't forget to read/re-read the "Brokeback Epiphany" sermon.
www.covenantnetwork.org/sermon&papers/jenkins.htm
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