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srothstein wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 9:36 pm

03Lightningrocks wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:59 pm Merry Christmas to you Pagen Devils as well. I once heard that Jesus was actually born in June/July range. That Christmas was actually a Pagan ritual and Christians' stole it from them and made it all about the little baby Jesus.

I was taught that Jesus would have been born in the spring, probably around April. This would be based on them traveling for the tax census which was done in May. I had a friend who was a retired Tax Assessor-Collector who liked to remind people that the tax man was the real reason for the season.

I was always taught that Christmas got moved to December because the Roman Saturnalia festival was around the winter solstice. Moving the celebration to coincide allowed the Christians to hide their religion from the Romans to avoid the persecution that was ongoing back then.

Being Jewish, I cannot verify that either of these teachings is accurate, but both make sense. I can verify that Jews know a lot about hiding celebrations to avoid persecution, so they may have recognized this in others or used it to make Jews and Christians seem more alike than different.