The traditional date for the birth of Jesus is January 6---and many if not most orthodox catholics observe Christmas then.
The December 25 date was an adaptation *to* a *roman* holiday, not an adaptation *of* a northern european one.
Similarly, Easter derives from *jewish* observances of Passover (orthodox christians observe it the same week, western christians are only off because of calendar reform) and has had pre-christian northern european traditions adapted *to* it. Passover and Easter are calculated on a lunar calendar, so though even though they happen in the spring, they generally don't fall on the spring equinox.
One poster below says "to be precise, we're talking about the two equinoxes here pretty much..." which is flatly wrong too. December 25th falls just after the winter *solstice*.
And um, what you've just managed to inform us all is that christianity is a highly syncretic tradition, which most serious christians know already. Get over yourself, it can't be that much fun bickering with ignorant fundamentalists about this kind of thing, especially when you're both just making things up as you go along.
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Uh, on what planet?
Also, I hate to nit-pick, but people have been around a lot longer than 2000 years...
>Oh, BTW where is Xmas mentioned in the Bible? Christmas is part of the christian tradition, which is more than just the bible.
The traditional date for the birth of Jesus is January 6---and many if not most orthodox catholics observe Christmas then.
The December 25 date was an adaptation *to* a *roman* holiday, not an adaptation *of* a northern european one.
Similarly, Easter derives from *jewish* observances of Passover (orthodox christians observe it the same week, western christians are only off because of calendar reform) and has had pre-christian northern european traditions adapted *to* it. Passover and Easter are calculated on a lunar calendar, so though even though they happen in the spring, they generally don't fall on the spring equinox.
One poster below says "to be precise, we're talking about the two equinoxes here pretty much..." which is flatly wrong too. December 25th falls just after the winter *solstice*.
And um, what you've just managed to inform us all is that christianity is a highly syncretic tradition, which most serious christians know already. Get over yourself, it can't be that much fun bickering with ignorant fundamentalists about this kind of thing, especially when you're both just making things up as you go along.
Oh lordy. GNU Emacs is an imitation of um, Richard Stallman's original emacs...