The Date for Christmas?

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Hi everybody,
Code: 
  Ok,  could the date of Christmas be like the date that Mary accepted her vocation as  the Mother of the Messiah? Then nine months later  He would have been born close to the Jewish New Year. 

  This would keep the view about Christ enterring this world on the days as they get longer.  Yet,   that the exact date doesn't matter as much as the  Christmas Spirit does.  

    And a question for  those who know Latin what is the difference between  "tuum" and  "tua".   It probably I would think it is  a difference in gender.   But which is which?

  Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.

  Fiat mihi secundum voluntas tua.


Merry Christmas,
BluesPicker
 
BluesPicker said:
Hi everybody,

Ok, could the date of Christmas be like the date that Mary accepted her vocation as the Mother of the Messiah? Then nine months later He would have been born close to the Jewish New Year.

This would keep the view about Christ enterring this world on the days as they get longer. Yet, that the exact date doesn’t matter as much as the Christmas Spirit does.

And a question for those who know Latin what is the difference between “tuum” and “tua”. It probably I would think it is a difference in gender. But which is which?

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum.

Fiat mihi secundum voluntas tua.

Merry Christmas,
BluesPicker
Click to expand...
Nope. The proper name of Christmas is the Feast of the Nativity (Birth) of the Lord. It can’t be a celebration of any other event than the Birth of the Lord, as its name states. For it to be anything else would make it a different feast entirely, for one thing.

It can’t, for example, be a celebration of the event of Mary accepting her vocation. We already HAVE a feast day to celebrate that event - the feast of the Annunciation (March 25)!

More generally we have the solemnity of Mary Mother of God (January 1) which also celebrates her motherhood of Christ.
 
What do you mean by the question? Do you mean the DATE should be something other than December 25th or that the feast should be CALLED something other than Christmas?

If you’re talking about the date, as you so rightly point out it doesn’t matter so there’s no possible justification for changing it from December 25th. Besides which why Jewish New Year? There’s no more evidence that He was born at that time of year than there is that it was December 25th anyway.

As for any other changes - no. Christmas MEANS by definition the date upon which we celebrate Christ’s birth - it’s more properly called the Feast of the Nativity. Since it’s a totally different event to the Annunciation, you can’t celebrate them on one and the same day - you don’t celebrate your child’s birthday on the day when it was conceived, but rather the date when it was born. Same with Jesus.

There’s already the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25th anyway, as well as more generally the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God on January 1 which celebrate Mary’s vocation.
 
BluesPicker said:
Code: 
    And a question for  those who know Latin what is the difference between  "tuum" and  "tua".   It probably I would think it is  a difference in gender.   But which is which?
Click to expand...
It means “your” or “thy”, the singular second person possessive.

In Latin it agrees with the noun it is applied to, in gender and in case.
 
Why do we Catholics keep wanting to debate the date of Jesus’ birth? Luke 1:26 “In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,” (this is one of today’s-Nuestra Sra. de Guadalupe-optional Gospel readings by the way).

If the Annunciation was in the sixth month, when does the year start? Rosh Hashannah, which in our calendar is at the end of September—so the Annunciation was at the end of March. Count to nine and we have Christmas!

Oh, and a little later in today’s reading, verse 36, the Angel Gabriel gives Mary the news that her cousin Elizabeth is in her sixth month of pregnancy. Take a look at Leviticus 16 if you are curious about what day a priest would be in the “Holy of Holies” in the temple, to get an idea when John the Baptist was conceived.

The whole myth that Dec. 25 is not the true Christmas, we constantly hear from the secular media, atheists, and even from Homilies in Catholic Churches (!!) Instead of believing the inspired words of St. Luke, people prefer to believe that the only time shepherds would be out with their flocks at night is lambing time in the Spring.

If that is true, then we have to believe that all predators (wolves, jackals, lions) in Judea hibernate during the winter, unlike others of their species around the world. And that “sheep rustlers”, thieves, also never come out at night. Also that, unlike sheep everywhere else in the world, Judean sheep never “pile on” when the weather gets really cold. Piling on is when sheep are huddling together to take advantage of the other sheep’s body heat, they panic, and begin to crush and suffocate each other.

Oh, and we hear that the date of Christmas is based on the date of the Roman sun god festival. What was the church supposed to do? Celebrate Christmas on the wrong day because it conflicted with a popular pagan feast? Yes, we started out only celebrating Epiphany. Before that we only celebrated Easter. Whats wrong with adding feasts and solemnities over the year as the church matures? We never celebrated Immaculate Conception until the last century. Does that make the celebration less valid?
 
BluesPicker said:
Hi everybody,
Code: 
  Ok,  could the date of Christmas be like the date that Mary accepted her vocation as  the Mother of the Messiah? Then nine months later  He would have been born close to the Jewish New Year. 

  This would keep the view about Christ enterring this world on the days as they get longer.
Click to expand...
At the Jewish New Year, the days are getting shorter not longer. Christmas, on the other hand, is just at the beginning of when the days begin to get longer.
 
Grace & Peace!

I remember reading somewhere that the date for Christmas was set according to a particular calculation regarding the date of the Crucifixion, March 25 in this case–also the date of the Annunciation. This had something to do with an ancient notion of the perfect man–that the day of his death and the day of his conception would coincide. All very fuzzy in my head right now, but…

Re: tuum vs. tua, Malcolm is quite right. The Latin adjective is tuus, -a, -um and agrees in gender, case, and number with the noun it modifies.

Verbum is nominative, singular, neuter: tuum is the appropriate form of the adjective

Voluntas is nominative, singular, feminine: tua is the appropriate form here.

Under the Mercy,
Mark

Deo Gratias!
 
“Our” March 25 at one time was also believed to be the date of the creation of the world.
Creation-Annunciation-Crucifixion, all on the same date. Not dogma, just a nice custom to believe.

But the Annunciation being in the Sixth month, that is biblical.
 
HI Volodymyr,
Code: 
  That looks like an excellent book on the question.
BluesPpicker
 
Hi Volodrmyr988,
Code: 
 That is not surprizing.  Ukies are predisposed to Math and stuff.   I almost married a beautiful Jewish girl from there and she would prouldly tell me of all the scientists and math people of the region.   Do you know if he is Russian Orthodox?  Oh boy, they don't kneel but will stand for a 4 or more hour Mass.   Many Great Saints also from there who overcame much adversity.
BluesPicker
 
He is a Ukrainian Greek Catholic whose head is Lubomyr Cardinal Husar.

I will refer you to the Eastern Catholic Forum for more information.
 
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