Happy Holidays - fact checking Christmas

This is a holiday post from me (DG) offered as a sort of gift, a token of appreciation, first and foremost to my colleague and 'boss', Penigma (an inside joke - hope you are laughing, Pen).  Pen is the best possible blogging partner one could hope for; I am particularly grateful for his help to me with computer difficulties during this past year.  So - thank you Pen; this is especially for you.  But it is also offered with appreciation to our other contributors during this past year, and to our readers.

What do I do that is uniquely 'me', what is my 'bete noir'? Fact checking!  So, in selecting a topic around which to write a holiday post, I turned to - what else? - fact checking Christmas, including drawing on some experiences out of my own past, for a holiday perspective.

Certain Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches celebrate Christ's birth on January 7th, not December 25th - specifically, the Russian, Georgian, Egyptian, Ukrainian, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Serbian, and Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem churches.  It was an interesting experience to visit sites in Bethlehem in early January when a tourist in Israel some years ago, including viewing the image of a very western Santa Claus on a billboard, expecting Christmas to be over, other than possibly the feast of Epiphany on January 6th.  Some Armenian churches don't celebrate Christmas until January 18th for Christmas eve, and the 19th for Christmas Day.  So.......Christmas can quite literally be a celebration that keeps on giving well beyond the traditional 12 days of Christmas, into January, at the very least.

I want to focus specifically on the gospel of Matthew 2:1-12, referencing the astronomy and astrology of the Star of Bethlehem, and the visit of the wise men, or magi from the 'east'.  The offering of the gifts of the magi, the gold, frankincense, and myrrh, are at least part of the basis of our sometimes manic,  sometimes all too commercial tradition of gift giving, and therefore is very much at the heart of our seasonal celebration, whether we embrace the religious reasons for it, or only the secular traditions.

So.......having been to the Church of the Nativity, which is built over where the actual birthplace of Jesus is traditionally considered to be located, this is what you see.  No, it doesn't look much like a stable, with a manger, at all.  The church stands over a cave, not the freestanding stables we think of in our traditional nativity scenes.  I vividly still remember that night after visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, during this arc of traditional Christmas celebratory dates, looking up at the night sky in Jerusalem with my fellow travelers, and thinking that......nope! wrong stars! wrong night sky! wrong dates!

Because, yes..... I was something of a factchecking contrarian even then.

Why was I so certain that the traditional dates were wrong? ah....that is my holiday gift to you.

Some scholars place the change from spring dates to the Roman solstice celebration on December 25th, also known as Dies Natalis Solis Invictus.  (For those few Pagan readers who may celebrate the more correct astronomical solstice that took place on Tuesday, Dec. 21st, at 5:38 p.m. - 'Blessed Be'.  My pagan friends have added tremendous depth to my appreciation of certain liturgical language; for which I salute you.)

So, is the date of December 25th correct? What about all of those marvelous magical attributions - animals given the gift of speech briefly at midnight on Christmas eve, all the traditions surrounding Saint Nicholas, and so on?  Sadly, no.  If you accept as the inerrant word of God the various gospels, including the sections of Matthew which refer to the Wise Men from the east, then the date of Christ's birth is actually closer to mid April to late mid May, in 7 DC, and the 'star' of Bethlehem was actually most likely a conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn.  And contrary to the Biblical accounts written well after the events, Herold most likely died before the birth of Christ.  A lot of the confusion about actual events is attributed to a 6th century monk with the improbable name of Dionysius, who made some unusually bad computational errors relating to the calendar of his day.  My source? I direct Penigma readers to this account of the famous Star of Bethlehem lecture given by the  late professor of Astronomy at the U of Minnesota, the extraordinary Karlis Kaufmanis.  I had the rare privilege of enjoying lectures from Professor Kaufmanis, including  lectures ending with standing ovations, and more than one occasion of hearing him deliver this full lecture.  However, I will direct our readers to follow the link rather than give cause for concern to my colleagues over possible copyright infringement by publishing too much of this intellectual property on Penigma.  Enjoy! I hope our readers will find the astronomy cross referenced with the scripture enriches your Christmas experience, as it did for me when I was first introduced to it by a seminarian who was teaching our Sunday School classes.  I will always think of Professor Kaufmanis as the epitome of a scholarly, old world courtly professorial gentleman.  For me the term 'old school' will mean someone with his combination of warmth and formal manners.

Factual error and inaccurate Christian traditions are just some of the reasons why Pen was correct in his recent post about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial that we should not embrace religious intrusion into the sciences, including teaching creationism.

And with all the recent snow fall, don't forget to beware of those 'snow snakes'!