{"id":10031,"date":"2009-12-07T11:03:30","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T18:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=10031"},"modified":"2009-12-07T11:05:06","modified_gmt":"2009-12-07T18:05:06","slug":"celebrate-god%e2%80%99s-creation-not-man%e2%80%99s-invention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/12\/celebrate-god%e2%80%99s-creation-not-man%e2%80%99s-invention\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrate God\u2019s creation, not man\u2019s invention"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ellen

Ellen Wedum<\/p><\/div>\n

This is in response to Michael Swickard\u2019s Friday column, <\/em>\u201cChristmas or not? Let our leaders vote.\u201d<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

I used to watch my online weather forecast site before and after Dec. 21 to see how the length of the days changed. The 22nd was one second longer, the 23rd was 5 seconds longer, the 24th was 8 seconds longer and December 25th was 10 seconds longer (a total of 24 seconds increase).<\/p>\n

It is amazing to me that in Roman times, with no fancy scientific instruments, they were able to measure the increase in the length of the day precisely enough to choose Dec. 25 as date for the Mithraic celebration of \u201cDies Natalis Invicti Solis,\u201d or the \u201cBirthday of the Unconquered Sun,\u201d based on an increase in the length of the day of less than half a minute.<\/p>\n

The Mithraic religion was a strong competitor of Christianity in Rome. In particular, between the weeklong Saturnalia that started Dec. 17 and honored the Roman god of agriculture and the Mithraic celebration on Dec. 25th, the Christians had no presence. Their chief holiday (holy day) was Easter, commemorating the death and celebrating the resurrection of Christ and their expectation of the second coming.<\/p>\n

\"Guest<\/p>\n

The emperor Constantine the Great was born in approximately 274 AD. The Roman Empire was over 1,000 years old, Jesus had been dead for 241 years and for Christians the expectation of an imminent second coming of Christ was fading. Constantine appears to have been a \u201ccloset Christian\u201d who only converted on his deathbed. When he became emperor he initiated the \u201cChrist\u2019s Mass\u201d (not \u201cChrist\u2019s Birthday\u201d) that was celebrated on Dec. 25.<\/p>\n

Clearly this was done deliberately in order to conflict with the Mithraic celebration, just as competing television networks schedule their best shows opposite each other. Since Constantine was emperor, it was more politically correct to attend the celebration that he favored.<\/p>\n

A date chosen for political reasons<\/h3>\n

The first mention of Dec. 25 as the birthday of Jesus, the \u201cSon of God,\u201d rather than as the birthday of \u201cthe Unconquered Sun\u201d appeared in the Roman calendar in 336 AD (Constantine died in 337 AD). If the Romans had possessed better instruments, the Mithraic celebration, and thus the copycat Christian celebration, would be on Dec. 21, the day of the solstice, or perhaps Dec. 22.<\/p>\n

Commonsense and many authorities tell us that it is much more likely that Jesus was born in the spring (lambing time) or the fall (after the harvest) than during the rainy season, when the Wise Men could not see the stars and shepherds were unlikely to be abiding in the field. \u00a0This reasoning also applies to the Roman census (Luke 2:1-4<\/a>), which was very unlikely to have occurred in winter, when temperatures often dropped below freezing and roads were in poor condition for traveling to one\u2019s place of birth (Bethlehem, for Joseph).<\/p>\n

So we can reasonably conclude that Dec. 25 is a date chosen for political reasons by the emperor Constantine. It was later officially accepted by the Catholic Pope Julius in 349 AD.<\/p>\n

Dec. 21, the day we call the solstice, is arguably a more appropriate holy day. Our planet is tilted 23.5 degrees from the perpendicular of the plane of our orbit around the sun, which results in seasonal temperature changes as well the changes in the length of our days. This is a direct manifestation of God\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

Happy Solstice<\/h3>\n

But in 2002 the right-wing Christian fanatics attacked this season of \u201cPeace on Earth, Goodwill Toward Men.\u201d On Dec. 15 of that year the House of Representatives passed a resolution \u201cprotecting the symbols and traditions of Christmas\u201d by an overwhelming 401-22 vote.<\/p>\n

Rep. JoAnn Davis, R-Va. and the resolution\u2019s sponsor, said the resolution was necessary to counter \u201cpolitical correctness run amok.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one,\u201d she said, \u201cshould feel like they have done something wrong by wishing someone a Merry Christmas.\u201d But neither should they be forced to say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d instead of \u201cHappy Holidays,\u201d \u201cHappy Hanukah\u201d or \u201cJoyous Kwanzaa,\u201d etc.<\/p>\n

I was shopping in Alamogordo on Dec. 21, 2005, and it was obvious that every clerk had been ordered to say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d rather than \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d at the checkout stands. I replied each time, \u201cHappy Solstice.\u201d That probably would have gotten me fired if I worked there.<\/p>\n

I now tend to avoid the stores the week before Dec. 25 as much as I can.<\/p>\n

Christians often complain that Christmas has been commercialized. I suggest that this is God\u2019s punishment on them for supporting a copycat celebration invented by a Roman emperor and, more recently, for turning the cross into a symbol of political oppression, particularly of women.<\/p>\n

Happy Solstice, y\u2019all.<\/p>\n

Wedum is a retired physical chemist and lives outside of Cloudcroft. She has been the Democratic candidate for the House District 59 seat twice and plans to run against incumbent Republican Nora Espinosa again in 2010.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We can reasonably conclude that Dec. 25 is a date chosen to celebrate the birth of Jesus for political reasons by the emperor Constantine. Dec. 21, the day we call the solstice, is arguably a more appropriate holy day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":447,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10031\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}