the catholic church changed the pagan festival into a more "acceptable" one for the masses

“December 25….a festival was celebrated among the
heathen, at that precise time of the year, in honour of
the birth of the son of the Babylonian queen of heaven
…the sun-god Nimrod…the same festival was adopted
by the Roman Church, giving it the name of Christ.”
–The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop

I’ve heard that the church wanted to make the transition from pagan religion to Christianity easier for newer converts, so they created a holiday on the same day as the pagan one, but about Christ

yes

Tammuz is like Pan

It could also be that the pagan holidays moved to dec 25th to appease the Christians.

https://twitter.com/RealMattCouch/status/1342570835559723010

I feel like its worth pointing out that the 25th December has been suggested for the correct date of Jesus's birth from at least as early as AD 195, thus before the claims that it 'replaced' a pagan festival.
A few ancient historians claim to have verified this date using the documents from the census mentioned in Luke.
If you have the time I'd highly recommend listening to the podcast these graphics come from, as it looks in a lot more depth into the Christmas and Paganism debate

Hmm, interesting

I think, based on the grazing of sheep mentioned in the book of Matthew, it's more likely that it occurred in March. Interestingly, a conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn occurred in that month, in about 1 or 2 B.C.

If I read it correctly.

I question why the specific date really matters. I mean if it was so important, wouldn’t it have been included in the Bible? Thoughts?

Not sure. Perhaps there was a date discrepancy. Was the Julian calendar in use at the time? I think it was.

I haven't asked. What I've said is all I know.

The old Julian calendar was probably used but, we don't know since people used many different calendars in those times

You should ask him if it did. Angels are messengers of God, after all.

He said he woke up the moment it came close enough

Can you find the angel picture?

Or do you know what type of angel it is?

It was this exact picture that he said it looked exactly like

I think that is a seraphim

Or a heavily exaggerated one

What was the setting if he knows?

"A Sandhouse in the desert"

Also my mistake this was the picture he jumped at

Dude

I was literally thinking of a desert

It looks like a mix of ezekiel's wheel and a seraphim but heavily exaggerated

Desert had very blue skies

maybe dunes? Idk

just sandy

Regardless I believe it was a message, unclear as it was

Yeah, perhaps it's why the orthodox celebrate Christmas somewhere in early January too. So they went by approximation based on manuscripts and bible references. But we do know it was during winter. Thoughts?

January 7th on the old Julian Calendar

For sure. Angels will come to deliver messages to people

For him, it's probably up to interpretation

I know. Life is full of surprises.

The temple flocks were kept outside all year round, so their likely would have been sheep and shepherd out in the field in December

1-2 BC would have been about a couple of years after Jesus was born too, based on the census dates I believe the generally accepted year is about 5 BC. The Magi didn't come for at least a year or two, so it doesn't mean that that star in 2 BC wasn't what they saw

https://twitter.com/creepingsharia/status/944344653121323008?s=19

😂