Save the Date

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It's a good thing that Jesus is forgiving, because I think we have celebrations of His birth and resurrection based on atypical birth and re-birth calculations.

Easter is celebrated on the Sunday after the paschal full moon. This means that the date changes (if you haven't noticed).  I think that means that we humans have a quirky way of telling time, because I don't know of anyone else who has the re-birthday (ok, resurrection day. Just go with it) on the same day of the week EVERY YEAR!

Now let's look at Christmas. Many have assumed Christmas in December was celebrated as Christ's birth in order to replace a pagan festival. Well, I wasn't there, so don't take me as an eyewitness, but according to this article, Christmas was chosen in December because of the assumption that the Annunciation (or conception of Christ) was 9 months prior to that (duh. bear with me) because it was assumed that prophets died on the same day they were conceived. Which would be Easter.

I've read that the famous taxation of the Roman empire, when "all the world went to be taxed", occurred in the spring. Christ was born shortly after that taxation. I believe the day of his birth and the day of his Resurrection are roughly the same: around April 6th.

But I don't think He really minds when we celebrate, as long as we remember.



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