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Edited on Sun Dec-31-06 11:52 AM by TRYPHO
Everyone went mad Xmas eve and Chanukah going on and on about what Xmas meant and whether or not people should express their religions on others or shine their enjoyment in others faces. So how come no-ones moaning about choosing January 1st for the New Year, which is an equally arbitrary choice for celebrating our "new year". Yes, its not so far off of the Winter Solstice, so the winter is about to start in earnest (well, in the Northern hemisphere), but thats no excuse for a "new year" to start now. The calendar has gone through so many arbitrary and random changes to come to a systems that approaches the Earth's standard/ish rotation period, with a regular addition every 4th year so we don't roll forward too fast, and perhaps another day every 500 years or so to fine-tune it even better. (You wouldn't want to celebrate the winter solstace whilst sunbathing at the beach - again reference just to the Northern Hemisphere here). Most systems of calendar have 4 separate "annuals" in their calendar: 1. Calendar. 2. School. 3. Financial. 4. Religious.
So in the UK we have these: 1. Jan 1st 2. Sept 1st. 3. April 5th 4. Jan 1st?
(sorry - don't know for sure when US schools start, or financial year end is)
Well, perhaps the Western World needs to re-think the New Year date, or perhaps the Church got it wrong by putting Jesus' Birth-Celebration so close to the calendar start?
Any quiet months in the calendar? July or August don't have much in them - if the Christian "new year" was then I bet it would be much better repsonded to or better accepted/appreciated etc.
Another of the early church leaders failing?
Just a thought since the forum is so quiet!
Happy "new calendar" to you all.
TRYPHO
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