Dear Editor
The actual birth date of Jesus Christ is not known for sure. Many think that it was during the springtime of a year about 2017 to 2019 years ago.
About 320 years later leaders in the fledgling Christian following decided they wanted an actual date to celebrate Christ's birth.
At the time, they were living in the Roman Empire, whose citizens worshipped a number of pagan gods including Varuna (as god of the heavens) and Mitra (as god of light). The Romans had figured out that each year daylight hours had stopped getting shorter and had started getting longer about Dec. 25, so that's when they had celebrated the birth day of Mitra and a sun festival.
Seeing this, early Christians decided the concept of celebrating the "return of the sun" fit well with their beliefs about the "coming of the Messiah." So they adopted Dec. 25 as the date they would celebrate Christ's coming.
They also decided that they wanted a special calendar year to include celebrations like Easter, Pentecost and Christmas among other events. For example, about 360 AD Christians fixed Jan. 6 for a feast to celebrate Christ's circumcision. Scholars have now found that Christ was actually circumcised at about age three.
Of course, this information is good discrediting fodder for those who find it inconvenient to practice Christianity or any form of religion other than materialism.
The fact that you're reading this means that you survived the "end of the world," which was held on Dec. 21 or 22. Just more convenient discrediting fodder.
Dennis Hall
Saskatoon
