The real reason for the season

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Duke

Duke

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Happy Winter Solstice, everyone! This is the real reason behind many of the Western religious holidays that seem so common at this time of year. It marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, and thus signals the slow return of better weather and easier living.

The winter solstice occurred precisely at 7:42 am EST on December 21st. At this time the center of the Sun’s disc was directly above the Tropic of Capricorn at a point about midway between Africa and South America in the mid-South Atlantic Ocean. This will provide us with the shortest length of daylight in the Northern Hemisphere, amounting to 9 hours and 26 minutes on the East Coast of the US.

This, of course, means the Summer Solstice or Midsummer's Eve to our friends in the Southern Hemisphere - another time for pagan celebration and holiday times.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to post this message yesterday, but I wanted to wish everyone here the best for the coming year, regardless of what religion or philosophy you practice. Pause a moment and give thought to the natural event that underlies this holiday season.
 
1/2 my family is devout catholic, 1/4 protestant, and 1/4 pagan (I'm an open-minded atheist, personally). I usually attend the festivals, but this year I'm trapped in the frigid upstate of NY, not too far from Canada.:nervous:

I doubt anyone I know will see this, but happy solstice, merry xmas, and blessed yule to all my somehow-related-in-whatever-faith-you-have family!
 
Happy Saturnalia! :D


Of course, all good Christians know that they celebrate 25th December because the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine declared it to be Jesus's date of birth, and actual study places the birthdate, from the biblical account and appropriate astrological phenomena at roughly September 16th/17th 4BC.

Not to mention the fact that the date was set in 532AD (the year was declared as such, suddenly, also) by the Roman Catholic Church and that subsequently we've seen 305 leap years (that's 305 full leap days) which were not accounted for by the Roman calendar (which also had New Year on the 25th March), and a switch in 1752 to the Georgian calendar, through which the 3rd to the 13th September of that year were completely omitted.

But I digress.
 
...

*watches the "A Christmas Story" marathon on the local network and rocks back and forth*

Kwiiissmuuuhhsss.... :drool:
 
Yay! Happy Sun-That-Won't-Be-As-Far-Away-As-Before!

We thought you'd never come back to us Earthlings as closely as you did back in June, so we made a holiday for you!
 
Thanks, Duke, for the nice sentiment. 👍



Famine
Happy Saturnalia! :D


Of course, all good Christians know that they celebrate 25th December because the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine declared it to be Jesus's date of birth, and actual study places the birthdate, from the biblical account and appropriate astrological phenomena at roughly September 16th/17th 4BC.

Not to mention the fact that the date was set in 532AD (the year was declared as such, suddenly, also) by the Roman Catholic Church and that subsequently we've seen 305 leap years (that's 305 full leap days) which were not accounted for by the Roman calendar (which also had New Year on the 25th March), and a switch in 1752 to the Georgian calendar, through which the 3rd to the 13th September of that year were completely omitted.

But I digress.
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Aye! Where's my funnies, Mr GTPlanet's Funniest Member By a Longshot?? :grumpy: You'd better shape up if you want my vote!


M
 
Wow! I learned something. Happy Festival-Of-Your-Choice, y'all!
 
TenTen-san
1/2 my family is devout catholic, 1/4 protestant, and 1/4 pagan (I'm an open-minded atheist, personally). I usually attend the festivals, but this year I'm trapped in the frigid upstate of NY, not too far from Canada.:nervous:

I doubt anyone I know will see this, but happy solstice, merry xmas, and blessed yule to all my somehow-related-in-whatever-faith-you-have family!
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Hey it wasn't that cold today. Monday it was about Zero fahrenheit with high winds on top of it though.

Happy vacation time or weekend off to all.
 
Solid Lifters
Oh, crap! I celebrated it yesterday!
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No, you're correct! It was the 21st - I was just offline most of the day, which is why I didn't get to post this until this morning.
 
Famine
Happy Saturnalia! :D


Of course, all good Christians know that they celebrate 25th December because the Holy Roman Emperor Constantine declared it to be Jesus's date of birth, and actual study places the birthdate, from the biblical account and appropriate astrological phenomena at roughly September 16th/17th 4BC.

Not to mention the fact that the date was set in 532AD (the year was declared as such, suddenly, also) by the Roman Catholic Church and that subsequently we've seen 305 leap years (that's 305 full leap days) which were not accounted for by the Roman calendar (which also had New Year on the 25th March), and a switch in 1752 to the Georgian calendar, through which the 3rd to the 13th September of that year were completely omitted.

But I digress.
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Are you also taking into account that in the early days of the Roman empire, they were using a 10 month calender?
Only Christ and his dad know when he was really born.
I'm gonna keep going to church all year regardless, and trying to be some sort of example thru my life (which is the real challenge anyway).
Happy holidays all.:D
 
Yeah, have fun up north. Us Texans just got our first snow today. Might get a White Christmas for once. Its been over 20 years since Texas had one. And the weather only gets worse.
 
Gil
Are you also taking into account that in the early days of the Roman empire, they were using a 10 month calender?
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At 28 days each - yes, I was also taking that into account... :D

The clue is in the names of September, October, November and December... :D
 
Heh, I never realised that :dunce:

I just went out looking at Christmas lights, some were purdy :D, others....not so purdy :grumpy:
 

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