Data about christmas

[Clifford Black]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Holy_Days

[Clifford Black]

See if you can pull the abstracts together in order to 'get the picture'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nast

[Adisa]

Many of the Christmas songs mentioned yuletide and I heard of the yulelog, but I never really knew what it meant.  To my surprise Yuletide was what Christmas was called in its beginning. Yule was originally a heathen festival which lasted twelve days.   

[Jay Anderson]

Wow, I typed a long message that I accidentally erased but I will sum it up by using some links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_%28song%29

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reyes_Magos (Spanish)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi (English)

and leading up to Christmas:

http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Posadas (Spanish)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Posadas (English)

The last of the links which has written, "he nine-day novena represents the nine months of pregnancy,^[3][4] specifically the pregnancy of Mary carrying Jesus." which I find interesting since posada means "inn" or "hostel."

[Adisa]

Looking into King Melchoir brought me back to this thread.  Thank you Jamaal for pointing out the Biblical Magi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_Magi

The Magi are popularly referred to as wise men and kings. The word magi is the plural of Latin magus, borrowed from Greek μάγος magos,^[10] as used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew ("μάγοι"). Greek magos itself is derived from Old Persian maguŝ from the Avestan magâunô, i.e., the religious caste into which Zoroaster was born, (see Yasna 33.7: "ýâ sruyê parê magâunô" = "so I can be heard beyond Magi"). The term refers to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism.^[11] As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic, although Zoroastrianism was in fact strongly opposed to sorcery. The King James Version translates the term as wise men, the same translation is applied to the wise men led by Daniel of earlier Hebrew Scriptures (Daniel 2:48). The same word is given as sorcerer and sorcery when describing "Elymas the sorcerer" in Acts 13:6–11, and Simon Magus, considered a heretic by the early Church, in Acts 8:9–13. Several translations refer to the men outright as astrologers at Matthew Chapter 2, including New English Bible (1961); Phillips New Testament in Modern English (J.B.Phillips, 1972); Twentieth Century New Testament (1904 revised edition); Amplified Bible (1958-New Testament); An American Translation (1935, Goodspeed); and The Living Bible (K. Taylor, 1962-New Testament).

[Tricyah]

This science is sacred.I love knowing that it is a brilliant story or an allegory written.

[Tricyah]

The pregnancy of Ma(matter)ry(ra),carrying Zesus begins in March according to the spring time and his birth is around the winter solstice.The spirit of man is awaken

[Clifford Black]

Namaska Tricyah---We will, in the future, discuss these thoughts in class. Glad to know that you are feeling that feeling.

B.

[Adisa]

Coptic Christmas is observed on what the Gregorian Calendar labels the 7th day of January (which is also the date of Christmas in Eastern Orthodox countries such as Russia). The 25 December Nativity of Christ was attested very early by Hippolytus of Rome (170–236) in his Commentary on Daniel 4:23: “The first coming of our Lord, that in the flesh, in which he was born at Bethlehem, took place eight days before the calends of January, a Wednesday, in the forty-second year of the reign of Augustus, 5500 years from Adam.” Another early source is Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea (115-181): "We ought to celebrate the birth-day of our Lord on what day soever the 25th of December shall happen." (Magdeburgenses, Cent. 2. c. 6. Hospinian, de orign Festorum Chirstianorum). However, it was not until 367 that December 25 was begun to be universally accepted. Before that, the Eastern Church had kept January 6 as the Nativity under the name "Epiphany." John Chrysostom, in a sermon preached in Antioch in 387, relates how the correct date of the Nativity was brought to the East ten years earlier. Dionysius of Alexandria emphatically quoted mystical justifications for this very choice. 25 March was considered to be the anniversary of Creation itself. It was the first day of the year in the medieval Julian calendar and the nominal vernal equinox (it had been the actual equinox at the time when the Julian calendar was originally designed). Considering that Christ was conceived on that date, 25 March was recognized as the Feast of the Annunciation which had to be followed, nine months later, by the celebration of the birth of Christ, Christmas, on 25 December.

There may have been more practical considerations for choosing 25 December. The choice would help substitute a major Christian holiday for the popular Pagan celebrations surrounding the Winter Solstice (Roman Sol Sticia, the three-day stasis when the sun would rise consecutively in its southernmost point before heading north, December 21, 22 and 23. The celebrations began a full week prior to the religious observance and the drunken revelers were expectantly sobered and orgies exhausted by the festivals close, prompting the eve or vigil of the 24th/25th as an optimally moral and safe time for the Feast of Christ's Nativity). The religious competition was fierce. In AD 274, Emperor Aurelian had declared a civil holiday on 25 December (the "Festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun") to celebrate the deity Sol Invictus. Finally, joyous festivals are needed at that time of year, to fight the natural gloom of the season (in the Northern Hemisphere).

Until the 16th century, 25 December coincided with 29 Koiak of the Coptic calendar. However, upon the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, 25 December shifted 10 days earlier in comparison with the Julian and Coptic calendars. Furthermore, the Gregorian calendar drops 3 leap days every 400 years to closely approximate the length of a solar year. As a result, the Coptic Christmas advances a day each time the Gregorian calendar drops a leap day (years AD 1700, 1800, and 1900). This is the reason why Old-Calendrists (using the Julian and Coptic calendars) presently celebrate Christmas on 7 January, 13 days after the New-Calendrists (using the Gregorian calendar), who celebrate Christmas on 25 December. By AD 2100, the Coptic Christmas will be on the Gregorian date of 8 January.

[Clifford Black]

Why do people get so upset when they find out that there has been information that has been right in front of their face all of the time that could have given them a way out of ignorance.

B.

[Adisa]

Recently an individual engaged me in a conversation regarding belief, when the conversation went in a direction they were not prepared to attempt to defend the individual responded, "I don't want to get to a semantic level..."  I am really confused by this attitude.    

[Clifford Black]

Namaska Adisa, once the action, that you are allowing us to see, takes place, regarding semantics, this moment, lets you KNOW that the individual you are speaking with is working with a dim light bulb, It Is NOT WISE to prolong conversation with this kind of humanoid. In the future let this sound the alarm and move on by looking at your watch.

B. 

[Adisa]

Semantic change (also semantic shift, semantic progression or semantic drift) is the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings. The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology, and semantics.