Indeed, I turned up a reference to the earliest celebration of Jesus’ birth occurring around A.D. 200 – in May.
Which would have meant God boinked Mary around August, for those who are counting. It’s also possible that Mary was not pregnant for a full 9 months. Since Jesus’ Y-chromosome materialized ex nihilo (assuming he had one), then the Incarnation could just have easily involved Mary being implanted with a more mature embryo.
Actually, I think I misunderstood. The Encyclopedia entry says the first celebrations may have been in January. Or maybe March or April. Suffice to say, they’re all over the map. Which is perhaps why (as the article notes) early church father Origen dismissed birthdays as things for sinners.
Wait, Slipster. . re.: the LDS dating of Christ’s birth. This wasn’t something I learned in Sunday School or young women’s group. . . not that I doubt you, but cite? Or anyone else want to corroborate this? Interesting.
Ah, I found some info on it. Very interesting. Sort of like how Venice was “founded” on Annunciation day, as were any number of other cities. . . In case anyone’s interested here is some discussion of it by church uppity-ups.
Well, thanks to you and Walloon I now understand the difference between the Annunciation and the Immaculate Conception – which, as a life-long Catholic, was never made especially clear to me before. The Church does not do a good job of drawing the distinction (in my experience), and celebrating the IC during the Christmas season only adds to the confusion.
As others have noted, the current date for Christmas was based on the Winter Solstice, and two other events back-calculated from there: the Annunciation nine months earlier; and the Nativity of John the Baptist six months earlier, since the Gospel of Luke indicates that Elizabeth was in her sixth month at the time of the Annunciation. IN the past the Annunciation and Nativity of JtB coincided with the Vernal Equinox (also New Year’s Day) and Summer Solstice, respectively; but due to shifts in the Julian calendar, and later corrections introduced by the Gregorian calendar, all of three holidays are now about four days off the equinox/solstices.
Capybara: a quick Internet search shows that it is asserted that Jesus was born on April 6 in Doctrine & Covenants 20.1. As you probably know better than I (I’m not a member of the denomination), April 6th has other points of significance for the LDS, among them being April 6, 1830, the date on which Joseph Smith incorporated the church.