The Second Day of Christmas: Festival of Light

It's arguable that Jesus was probably not born in mid-December, but more likely in the Spring. Evidence cited to back up that deduction includes how, in His birth narrative, the shepherds who would come to see him in stunned homage (look, I'd be stunned if a horde of shining angels showed up, singing divine praises), had been "living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock" (Luke 2:8). My understanding is that this is indeed typical of Semitic shepherds – in April or May.

So… why celebrate His birth in mid-/late December?

It is because – as of December 21/22 – the days have begun lengthening again, and light is returning to the world, which for so long had known far more darkness than light. Of course this is as much metaphorical as literal, yet it serves also as a lovely, outer-world parallel to what Jesus' birth and life represent for all of humanity.

(December 21 +/- is, of course, the Winter Solstice, when (due to the tilt of the Earth relative to the Sun, and its position in its orbit about the Sun) the Northern Hemisphere sees the least amount of direct sunlight of all days of the year… but now our tiny, fragile planet's orbit slowly begins to bring the tilt back toward, and not away from, the Sun. Thus, more direct sunlight, and longer, for the upper half of the planet.)

And amid the Church's array of dates set aside to honor particular saints (figures of great virtue and spiritual example), this choice of dates for Jesus' birth-celebration has a really neat parallel: the feast of his herald, John the Baptist.

John preached hard and unrelentingly against human corruption, and for redemption from our failings, and so of course was mistaken as a/the Messiah ("the anointed one" in Hebrew; the Greek word is "Khristos"… i.e., "Christ"). He denied this vehemently, and said that in fact he wasn't even of enough worth to untie the true Messiah's dirt-encrusted sandals.

There does seem to have been a bit of a tension between John's camp of followers, and Jesus' – which no doubt troubled both these men. John quashed this unceremoniously and flatly by saying of Jesus, quite simply, that "He must increase; I must decrease" – i.e., in role and immediate significance for humanity: John had come to alert the world (his little part of it, at that time) that our savior/rescuer/mediator was about to step up to the metaphorical podium… and all points beyond.

So… the day set aside to celebrate the birth of John the Baptist is June 24, right around the Summer Solstice: when indeed the light begins decreasing.