If we count our years from the time that Jesus was born being Dec. 25th (Christmas), then why dont we start the New Year the day after rather than the 31st... like only have 25 days in December rather than 31. If you know please tell me.
2006-12-17 10:11:28 · 5 answers · asked by Adam M 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
Jesus was actually born in April. The reason we celebrate his birthday on December 25th is because of the persecution of Christians by the Pagans. The Pagans celebrated the Winter Solstice which was on December 22nd - also the Beginning of Capricorn. So the Christians decided to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th to avoid persecution, and it stuck.
2006-12-17 10:17:39 · answer #1 · answered by Anton Mathew 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dang, and I was reading about this a few weeks ago, but it's a complex story, how we came to settle on our current calendar, Christmas, and Year start and stop.
What we use now is all quite recent, there used to be a hodge podge from place to place about when the year started.
I got a really detailed explanation of this in a history of knowledge I highly recommend called The Discoverers.
But it isn't like both of those decisions were made simultaneously -- they weren't, but I forget all the details. Sorry.
I do remember that the final piece in the quilt, as it were, was that the year starts Jan 1. I think the English (and therefore Americans, too) started the year some strange date like March 25 or something -- it was hard to keep track of what year was which under that system. March 24 1703 was immediately followed by March 25 1704.
It was a real task for historians to put histories of different places together, since everyone had their own year-numbering system, and different date when the year changed to the next.
(Whew! remembered more than I first thought!)
2006-12-17 12:46:17 · answer #2 · answered by tehabwa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
what i do know is that jesus wasn't actually born on the 25...he was born later than what is said. so maybe that has something to do with it, or maybe society just wanted to finish out the month before they started the new year
2006-12-17 10:15:39 · answer #3 · answered by alexandria 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
jesus wasn't really born on the 25th that is just when we celebrate it
2006-12-17 10:14:07 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
may be people used to festival that day
2006-12-17 10:17:38 · answer #5 · answered by micho 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋