http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314 No more Christmas cards with snowy winter views. Those carol singers knocking on your door should be wearing shorts and sandals, not wrapped up in scarves and mittens. Using computer software to track the exact location of the Christmas star 2,000 years ago, astronomers have calculated that Christmas should be celebrated on June 17th and not on December 25th. But it's not a knock on religion, the astronomers say. In fact, the opposite is true. No more Christmas cards with snowy winter views. Those carol singers knocking on your door should be wearing shorts and sandals, not wrapped up in scarves and mittens. Using computer software to track the exact location of the Christmas star 2,000 years ago, astronomers have calculated that Christmas should be celebrated on June 17th and not on December 25th. But it's not a knock on religion, the astronomers say. In fact, the opposite is true. en-us Tue, 09 Dec 2008 14:40:07 PST <p><span style="color: #0000ff"><span style="font-size: medium">The date of Christmas is not news.&nbsp; The Holy Fathers deliberately placed that date on Dec 25&nbsp;in opposition to the&nbsp;pagan feast to Saturn.&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size: medium"><a href="http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nativity"><span style="color: #0000ff">http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nativity</span></a></span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff"><span style="font-size: medium">It&nbsp;is also an assumption that the star that guided the&nbsp;Maggi was a natural astronomical event and not a miracle that God created for that purpose.</span></span></p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348564 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348564 <p><span style="color: #0000ff"><span style="font-size: medium">The date of Christmas is not news.&nbsp; The Holy Fathers deliberately placed that date on Dec 25&nbsp;in opposition to the&nbsp;pagan feast to Saturn.&nbsp;</span></span><span style="font-size: medium"><a href="http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nativity"><span style="color: #0000ff">http://orthodoxwiki.org/Nativity</span></a></span></p> <p><span style="color: #0000ff"><span style="font-size: medium">It&nbsp;is also an assumption that the star that guided the&nbsp;Maggi was a natural astronomical event and not a miracle that God created for that purpose.</span></span></p> <p>I was married on June 17 so that day is taken. Christians can have June 16th.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348621 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348621 <p>I was married on June 17 so that day is taken. Christians can have June 16th.</p> <p>I'm not cancelling Jack!&nbsp;&nbsp; My gifts are bought, my tree is decorated, I've dragged out my red sweater and made some hot chocolate.&nbsp; So Christmas is ON.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348624 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348624 <p>I'm not cancelling Jack!&nbsp;&nbsp; My gifts are bought, my tree is decorated, I've dragged out my red sweater and made some hot chocolate.&nbsp; So Christmas is ON.</p> <p>The reason they decided not to have Christmas on June 17th is because my birthday is on June 14 and I refuse to be upstaged !</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348628 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348628 <p>The reason they decided not to have Christmas on June 17th is because my birthday is on June 14 and I refuse to be upstaged !</p> <p>HM, don't be giving away my birthday.&nbsp; ;-)&nbsp;Besides, I need Christmas in December to lift me out of&nbsp;my winter/fog/dreariness funk.</p> <p>Nancy, Geminis are the best. No one can ever figure us out.&nbsp; :-)</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348891 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348891 <p>HM, don't be giving away my birthday.&nbsp; ;-)&nbsp;Besides, I need Christmas in December to lift me out of&nbsp;my winter/fog/dreariness funk.</p> <p>Nancy, Geminis are the best. No one can ever figure us out.&nbsp; :-)</p> <p>Additionally, the cleric who designed the calendar skipped from 1 BC to 1 AD without using zero. (The Mayans and Aztecs grasped the concept of zero before the Europeans.) That makes us at least two years off.</p> <p>Anyway, I once sat in on a presentation of the Christmas star at Griffith Observatory. The stars were recreated on the particular night. (Not Dec. 25.) The Magi followed the stars as they pertained to astrology. To be sure, an educated guess but the best one I've seen.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348935 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/talkofthetown/38314/#c_348935 <p>Additionally, the cleric who designed the calendar skipped from 1 BC to 1 AD without using zero. (The Mayans and Aztecs grasped the concept of zero before the Europeans.) That makes us at least two years off.</p> <p>Anyway, I once sat in on a presentation of the Christmas star at Griffith Observatory. The stars were recreated on the particular night. (Not Dec. 25.) The Magi followed the stars as they pertained to astrology. To be sure, an educated guess but the best one I've seen.</p>