hmmm...
// December 8th, 2011 //
Here is the audio from my interview with Pastor Steve Wilkins. We discuss Saint Nicholas, Advent, Christmas, the Church Calendar (and why it’s important!)
A good interview. Although we ran out of time, so I didn’t get a chance to convert him into a Notre Dame fan. Maybe next time…
// December 5th, 2011 //
This Wednesday, December 7th, at 12:00 EST, I will be interviewing Pastor Steve Wilkins of Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church. We will be discussing the history of St. Nicholas and Christmas. I will be interviewing as part of the Leigh at Lunch! internet radio program by author and Christian education leader, Leigh Bortins.
I am really looking forward to hearing him on this topic, as I’ve been able to hear some of this stuff on this in the past. You will thoroughly enjoy the conversation, Pastor Wilkins has a great grasp of history.
The only problem is that he really doesn’t like my Fighting Irish, I only hope we can partake in the Christmas spirit and get past that.
// December 26th, 2010 //
We got our white Christmas weekend, and the kids are loving it!
// December 25th, 2010 //
“If there’s anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they’re either braver than me or else just silly.”
“Then he isn’t safe,” asked Lucy.
“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don’t you heart what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Merry Christmas! All hail the King of kings!
// December 24th, 2010 //
I have myself accepted the argument of Christ’s birth being linked to December 25th due to paganism. So much so, that for a time, my family didn’t celebrate Christmas at all–it being a pagan holiday (in our minds).
The most loudly touted theory about the origins of the Christmas date(s) is that it was borrowed from pagan celebrations. The Romans had their mid-winter Saturnalia festival in late December; barbarian peoples of northern and western Europe kept holidays at similar times. To top it off, in 274 C.E., the Roman emperor Aurelian established a feast of the birth of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun), on December 25. Christmas, the argument goes, is really a spin-off from these pagan solar festivals. According to this theory, early Christians deliberately chose these dates to encourage the spread of Christmas and Christianity throughout the Roman world: If Christmas looked like a pagan holiday, more pagans would be open to both the holiday and the God whose birth it celebrated.
However, I have since reconsidered this argument. My family celebrates Christmas, rejecting its supposed pagan connections for more Biblical arguments as to why the people of God should celebrate their delivery from sin, death, hell, and Satan through Jesus Christ. And so, the following discussion is of particular interest to me:
Around 200 C.E. Tertullian of Carthage reported the calculation that the 14th of Nisan (the day of the crucifixion according to the Gospel of John) in the year Jesus died was equivalent to March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar. March 25 is, of course, nine months before December 25; it was later recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation—the commemoration of Jesus’ conception. Thus, Jesus was believed to have been conceived and crucified on the same day of the year. Exactly nine months later, Jesus was born, on December 25.
I’m not sure it matters how accurate our dating is, as to whether or not we celebrate victory in Christ. But it is always a point of discussion. So, if you’d like to read more of the argument, you can do so at Biblical Archaeology Review’s How December 25th Became Christmas.
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