A Christmas question

[Fox Mike]

Don't want to start a firestorm but why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. The Bible say that the shepherds were watching over their flocks by night when Jesus was born. Shepherds only do that in the spring when the young are generally born.

 

[ned]

If we celebrated it in spring the shepherds would be too busy to get off work?

 

[akbluz]

and also no "while shepherds wash their socks by night" - they couldn't find detergent

 

[Actnbill]

Tax advantage before the year was out ???

 

[mr surveyor]

Don't want to start a firestorm but why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. The Bible say that the shepherds were watching over their flocks by night when Jesus was born. Shepherds only do that in the spring when the young are generally born.

I've always actually thought that it occurred in September near the end of the grazing period, and that the late December time was chosen by the Catholic church to appease the pagans .... a lot of years ago. Yeah, I'm grabbing at straws, but at least I can still grab.

jd

 

[Yaworski]

I've always actually thought that it occurred in September near the end of the grazing period, and that the late December time was chosen by the Catholic church to appease the pagans .... a lot of years ago. Yeah, I'm grabbing at straws, but at least I can still grab.

At that time, it was just "the church" but you're right. The celebration of Christmas moved around quite a bit but it wound up in December to encourage a bunch of pagans who didn't want to give up their winter festival.

 

[Kevin]

Hasn’t the calendar changed several times already? Whose to say it wasn’t celebrated in the summer months way back when.

 

[Jeepnik]

Because of differing calendars Easter moves every year. It's no so much a particular day but the fact we celebrate Christ's birth.

The precision with which the manger is depicted isn't so important as the fact that his birth took place in poor circumstances.

Oh, and a lot of countries celebrate Three Kings Day on January 6th. And this might be closer to the actual date considering how long it took to travel then.

 

[gnappi]

Easy it's because the calling card companies of the day needed another day between all of the other holidays to chisel their stone greeting tablets.

 

[redhawker]

I heard (or read somewhere) it was because there was some pagan celebration in December, and the church (I don't remember which church, but that far back, I think it something was like 500 - 600 AD give or take, catholic is a good bet) thought this would be a good way to counteract that.

 

[protoolman]

I'm pretty sure the Romans tax time was on record so I think.they know approximately when it really was.

 

[JackBull]

Don't want to start a firestorm but why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. The Bible say that the shepherds were watching over their flocks by night when Jesus was born. Shepherds only do that in the spring when the young are generally born.

When Rome conquered a people, instead of making them adapt Roman customs they would allow these peoples to continue their traditions. This made it easier to control groups at the extremes of the empire.

When a Christian church joined with Constantine on the 300's they continued this behavior. Saturnalia became Christmas, Vestal virgins became nuns, blood sacrifice became the eucharist. This made it easier for the pagans to accept the now government lead, un-Biblical churches.

https://bigthink.com/the-present/pagan-roots-of-catholicism/

 

[GasGuzzler]

If "they" put it in spring, it would interfere with Easter. I would have guessed fall as well.

 

[NC FNS]

Maybe it’s part of the calendar correction once someone figured out we needed leap day?

 

[Mobuck]

Heck, I 'watched over my flock' EVERY night and I didn't even have sheep. Would not be unreasonable to have a 'night watch' in many locations.

 

[Sam Summey]

Don't want to start a firestorm but why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. The Bible say that the shepherds were watching over their flocks by night when Jesus was born. Shepherds only do that in the spring when the young are generally born.

We celebrate Jesus's birth in December because it interferes with his death in the Spring.

 

[vito]

Speaking of Christmas..... Something that I always wondered about was that the birth of Jesus was seen as a miracle, with a bright star in the East and the Three Kings visiting with gifts for this special child. Then it seems everyone sort of forgot about Jesus of Nazareth as he grew up. No miracles reported, and basically nothing at all until he arrives in Jerusalem as a grown man. Always seemed very odd to me.

 

[peachhead]

Speaking of Christmas..... Something that I always wondered about was that the birth of Jesus was seen as a miracle, with a bright star in the East and the Three Kings visiting with gifts for this special child. Then it seems everyone sort of forgot about Jesus of Nazareth as he grew up. No miracles reported, and basically nothing at all until he arrives in Jerusalem as a grown man. Always seemed very odd to me.

Possibly because there was really nothing to report until he started his ministry.
They could be undiscovered books of the Bible that documented his youth. I don't know, could be that the Lord has not seen that we have a need for that yet.

 

[Joey]

Speaking of Christmas..... Something that I always wondered about was that the birth of Jesus was seen as a miracle, with a bright star in the East and the Three Kings visiting with gifts for this special child. Then it seems everyone sort of forgot about Jesus of Nazareth as he grew up. No miracles reported, and basically nothing at all until he arrives in Jerusalem as a grown man. Always seemed very odd to me.

John Prine explained this in "The Missing Years".

 

[Achigan]

We needed to co-opt the fertility rites of Spring with Easter, so that time of year was taken(wink wink).

 

[Yaworski]

Because of differing calendars Easter moves every year.

Easter is a movable feast because it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox.

 

[Deer Hunter]

I'm pretty sure the Romans tax time was on record so I think.they know approximately when it really was.

Roman tax time was indeed early spring. The 'Ides of March' was the day taxes were to be paid by, just as April 15 is to the USA.

 

[davevabch]

The Bible is a great Story, but no where near to Historical facts. In fact there is no historical facts about Jesus. For example there are many records of Pontious Pilot all throughout his life, Nothing of Jesus ever mentioned in any records. Just one example.

Sun of God or Son of God.

 

[Yaworski]

Hasn't the calendar changed several times already? Whose to say it wasn't celebrated in the summer months way back when.

There was the Julian calendar which was replaced by the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian calendar accounted for the extra quarter day each year which is why we have leap years. There is currently a 13 day difference between the two, that's why "Russian Christmas" is on January 7th.

 

[Yaworski]

The Bible is a great Story, but no where near to Historical facts.

I have a friend who says that everything in the bible is true because it is in the bible.

 

[ex13F]

Y'all are welcome to believe what you will. I place my trust in The Lord.

 

[Jeepnik]

I have a friend who says that everything in the bible is true because it is in the bible.

It's called Faith. You either have it or you don't. I don't need accuracy backed by empirical proof to believe. I have my faith to guide to guide me.

 

[WV460hunter]

Don't want to start a firestorm but why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. The Bible say that the shepherds were watching over their flocks by night when Jesus was born. Shepherds only do that in the spring when the young are generally born.

Constantine when He became emperor His vast kingdom contained both Christians and pagans . Pagans worshiped the winter solstice on Dec. 21st and Constantine had converted to Christianity . To prevent squabbling and blood shed He decided to make an appeasement to both sides that would create a sorta Uni-Holiday . And with the 25th being close to the pagan holiday and Christians having no formal date for celebrating Christ Jesus Birth He arbitrarily decided to create that day to unify his people.
It worked. Christians never celebrated Jesus Birth originally as no set date is given other than during that time Shepherds were in the fields watch their flocks "by night" . Which makes it abundantly clear in was in the spring more than likely April during lambing season.

 

[WV460hunter]

Speaking of Christmas..... Something that I always wondered about was that the birth of Jesus was seen as a miracle, with a bright star in the East and the Three Kings visiting with gifts for this special child. Then it seems everyone sort of forgot about Jesus of Nazareth as he grew up. No miracles reported, and basically nothing at all until he arrives in Jerusalem as a grown man. Always seemed very odd to me.

One must look to ancient Jewish traditions for the answer to ypur question
As the Jewish Messiah, Jesus was a descendant of King David from the tribe of Judah (Matthew 1:1–17; 2:1–6). According to ancient Jewish law and custom, thirty years was considered the age of full maturity, physically and mentally, and suitable for high degrees of responsibility: “David was thirty years old when he became king” (2 Samuel 5:4); “Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh” (Genesis 41:46). The Jewish Levites began their priestly service at age thirty.
So you see it was at this age a man's words carried weight among other men . And it certainly didn't take long for the Sanhedrin to take notice either.
Every single law was fulfilled by Christ Jesus and even the little things like tradition were not over looked either there were no mistakes.

 

[Yaworski]

It's called Faith. You either have it or you don't. I don't need accuracy backed by empirical proof to believe. I have my faith to guide to guide me.

The gourd! The shoe!