In article ,
nestork wrote:

;3175436 Wrote:

You can tell all of the anti-Christian lies you want, as often as you
like, but it doesn't make them any more true. The dates are far more
different than that because of changes in the calendars. Christmas
was pegged as December-25 because it is nine-months after the
"historical" Easter. The story is that Christ was conceived and died
on the same date, so...


Quite honestly, I would expect that if 500 or 600 years ago anyone made
the assertion that Jesus was conceived and died on the same date because
a normal human pregnancy is 9 months, and Christmas is 9 months after
Easter, they would have been burned or boiled in oil as a heretic.

You see, Christian doctrine is that Mary's was an "Immaculate
Conception", meaning that she was still a virgin when she gave birth.
To suggest that the pregnancy followed much the same course as any
normal pregnancy would
have a distinctly agnostic/athiest flavour to it. The conception
certainly wasn't normal, so there would be no expectation that the
ensuing pregnancy would be the same as for any normal human baby.

No one actually knows the date of birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

except krwless



Also, I stand corrected. The shortest day of the year in 2013 was
December 21, not December 23rd as I had previously stated. 2000 years
ago, the shortest day of the year occured on or about December 25th, and
to many pagan cultures that represented the end of one year and the
beginning of a new one. 2000 years ago, the Romans celebrated
"Saturnalia" on the winter solstice, and it was one of the most
prominant holidays on the Roman calendar. Early Christians picked
December 25th to celebrate the birth of Jesus because to do so would
allow them to join in the festivities along with their fellow Roman
pagans. As Christianity grew in popularity, and paganism waned,
Christmas became the more prominant celebration, but it is still
celebrated on December 25th.