The first day of 2009, and it's the last 6 days before 'Little Christmas'--

[Jeff Wrangler]

So, WHY is Christmas on December 25, can someone enlighten me?

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]

And now another question: Will you be celebrating Epiphany? If so, how??

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. 

[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]

Thanks for the information about Epiphany, Jeff, it helps a lot!

'Welcome! 

I am planning to celebrate somehow. I will be going to a women's rock climbing class that nite.

   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

[Front-Ranger]

In church last Sunday I learned that the wise men were Zoroastrian priests who came from the Near East, perhaps Persia/Iran area, and arrived when Jesus was a little less than 2 years old. Interesting, because I've always thought that when he disappeared for a few years, he may have gone to the Near East and learned about those religions.

[Marge_Innavera]

In church last Sunday I learned that the wise men were Zoroastrian priests who came from the Near East, perhaps Persia/Iran area, and arrived when Jesus was a little less than 2 years old. Interesting, because I've always thought that when he disappeared for a few years, he may have gone to the Near East and learned about those religions.

There are many stories about what other groups Jesus may have had contact with.  It's doubtful we'll ever know but many of the theories have some substance in terms of background, and that's one of them -- Persa wasn't all that far away from Palestine, even in those days and there was a lot of commercial traffic.

Jesus also might have regularly visited the market town of Sepphoris (spelling?) which wasn't too far from Nazareth and was a market town, where Jesus would have encountered a number of people outside the Jewish community.  It's also an historic fact that he lived at a time of extraordinary mobility for that era;  i.e., if you lived within the Roman Empire and had money to pay (and the Gospels indicate that Jesus had some wealthy 'sponsors') you could get passage on a ship to any port in the Empire.  Most, if not all, of the medieval stories about various places where Jesus visited are probably bogus but you never know.  It's theoretically possible that Jesus did visit Glastonbury in southwest England when he was young -- etc.....

[Front-Ranger]

Interesting, Marcia. I think the reason Zoroastrianism was theorized is because the priests knew astronomy. In the book of Numbers apparently there are prophecies by a pagan priest about the coming of Jesus.

[Jeff Wrangler]

In church last Sunday I learned that the wise men were Zoroastrian priests who came from the Near East, perhaps Persia/Iran area, and arrived when Jesus was a little less than 2 years old.

If they existed, of course, which may be doubted. Incidentally, their gifts come from Isaiah 60:1--6.

A propos, on New Year's Day evening I was reorganizing a bookcase in my living room, and I came upon an old, yellowed newspaper clipping about some professor who said that the Star of Bethlehem was a conjunction of three planets--I forget exactly which three--that occurred in the year 7 B.C.

[Front-Ranger]

   Be careful you don't fall off! 

If I ever make it to the class! It's blizzarding in Denver right now!