American Warmonger

Reflections of Christmas. Historically, Not Personally.

Most of you know that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ our lord and savior. Many of you believe that Jesus was actually born on this date. Well, that may not be entirely true. I'm sorry to smash things up, but it matters to say such things. You see, Christmas wasn't always celebrated. Let me explain.

The most popular theory as to how Christmas came to be deals with Rome and the appeasement of the pagan people that lived there. You see, the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, was considered to be on the 23rd of December. This was to signify the death of the sun god. Two days later, December 25th, was supposed to be the rebirth of the sun god because the days started to become longer again. This year the Winter Solstice was on the 21st, making Friday the 23rd the date of pagan celebration.

Another thing to point out is the symbols of Christmas. Take the Christmas tree, for starters. What religious significance does it have? It's religious significance lies in the bible telling us not to cast praise to the bright sparkly tree, for it's sort of like a false god. The best part comes when you look into the pagan religions that show the Christmas tree to be a symbol of fertility and a phallic structure. There are several other symbols of Christmas, such as holly being a symbol of fertility through a woman's menstrual cycle, but I digress. (Man, what's with the pagans and fertility?) We don't need to delve further into it. You should get the idea by now.

What I would like to direct your attention to now is the timeframe it is said that Mary and Joseph were looking for a place to sleep. Through the dates given that relate to the death of King Harod, Jesus may have been born at the Christmas timeframe. He could also have been born a few months before or after. This was because Jesus was supposed to have been born before the time of Harod's death in or around May to March. You see, dating isn't really the most accurate.

To further murk things up, we take a direct look at the phrase' "while sheppards kept watch of their flocks on the field". Now, unless they were taking a few extra hits off the frankincense the sheep should have been in the stables instead of the fields during the winter months. In fact, it's customary to have the sheep sleep in the barn after September. From this many people surmise that Jesus was born in September sometime.

Now, to confuse you a bit let me throw a monkey wrench into the September theory. The sheep of Bethlehem were being raised as a sacrifice for the birth of Jesus. In addition to that, Bethlehem sheep are traditionally kept outside year round. It is one of the very few places where this occurs.

The truth is that no one knows for sure the date of Jesus Christ's birthday. What we do know is that he sacrificed his live to save all of our souls. That God gave his only son for us. That is what we are celebrating. As the bible says, the date is immaterial.

Merry Christmas everyone. Whatever that date may be.