ah, so you knew that was a picture of me, did you?

well, to be honest, no. i'm kind of indifferent. but enjoy. i'm glad its all over. for this year.

woah, woah, woah. who said it was all over? armenian christmas is still right around the corner on january 7th...

i do believe it's some sort of eastern orthodox ? tradition, whose adherents include many armenians?

yeah, i think they believe the true date of jesus birth was january 7th.

course, the implied belief is also that christmas is a celebration of the birth of jesus, when in fact it's not--has nothing to do with jesus q. christ at all

I'm Jewish you insensitive clods!





(I'm realy not Jewish, but I figured it would be funny to interject something like that into a thread about Christmas :P )

so was ebenezer scrooge. just for you though, i recommend that you....put on your yamaka, cause it's time for hanukka

http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanag...lerx-large.jpg

???

It's a usurped pagan holiday.

Today is my favorite day of the year. Up until midnight tonight it will be a FULL EFFING YEAR TILL CHRISTMAS!!:D

Armenian? So sell me some Goddamn rugs,Hovaness...

Yes, the date is a usurped pagan holiday.
When you are a banned religion, its good to celebrate when the police are on a drunken binge. The early Christians weren't stupid, you know.)

As to the REASON for the celebration, it has EVERYTHING to do with the birth of Jesus.
There are a great many misconceptions in the conventional knowledge about Christmas that are not found in the Bible itself. The Bible does not have the wise men visiting the stable, nor does it say there were three wise men. Shepherds are NOT in the fields around Bethlehem tending their flocks by night in late December. The time of Jesus birth is unknown, but more likely in the Spring.

I thought that the reason for the celebration was big business, prodding us to buy presents.

In any case, there are very many people who celebrate Christmas, while not believing in the divinity of Christ.

True, on both counts.

Fall is also likely. It only talks about 3 gifts from the wise men. They could have split into gifts as many as 20 for one gift... They visited a house about 2 years after the birth of christ it would seem from my study...
The 25th of December was a celebration of (IIRC) the sun or some old god's festival. To look like they were participating and to avoid persecution while still looking like they were conforming, Christians said that they were celebrating the birth of Christ on that day amongst each other...
Christians really get up tight if you start talking about this to them though... I personally don't like Christmas, but my reasons are personal...
A fish among fishes type of thing as Chairman Mau would say...