interesting how a minor holiday has been elevated now to compete with christmas (which incidentally was the mithraic festival of the winter solstice. is there a mithrotsavam again in kerala this year?)
Actually it is the other way round, Christmas was moved to December only because Hanukkah falls in december. The alleged date of birth of Jesus Christ was April 1. However, since the early christians wanted to increase their numbers and the competitor at that time was Judaism,they thought if they move Christmas to December to be closer to Hannukkah, it would make good marketing sense to attract more people into the Christian fold. Hence, it was moved to 25th December. However, there were several christians, who were opposed to this idea and continued to celebrate christmas on April 1. The Church derided them calling them "April Fools". That is how the April Fools day come about. I believe Jeovah's witness chrisitians were the one's who opposed this move and were called April fools. Hope this helps.
good story, but i don't think you are right. it is well documented that the christists expropriated the pagan festival of the winter solstice (corresponding to makara sankranti and the festival of mithra) and arbitrarily declared that the alleged jesus (existence be upon him) was born then. you see this sort of grabbing going on today with christists in kerala doing vidyarambham at navaratri and having their kids write 'om namo yesuveh nama'! soon they will claim they brought this from the stinking desert (aka holy land) with them.
your april fool story is also cute, but not supported by, say, wikipedia.
2 comments:
Hi Rajeev,
Actually it is the other way round, Christmas was moved to December only because Hanukkah falls in december. The alleged date of birth of Jesus Christ was April 1. However, since the early christians wanted to increase their numbers and the competitor at that time was Judaism,they thought if they move Christmas to December to be closer to Hannukkah, it would make good marketing sense to attract more people into the Christian fold. Hence, it was moved to 25th December. However, there were several christians, who were opposed to this idea and continued to celebrate christmas on April 1. The Church derided them calling them "April Fools". That is how the April Fools day come about. I believe Jeovah's witness chrisitians were the one's who opposed this move and were called April fools. Hope this helps.
Guru
good story, but i don't think you are right. it is well documented that the christists expropriated the pagan festival of the winter solstice (corresponding to makara sankranti and the festival of mithra) and arbitrarily declared that the alleged jesus (existence be upon him) was born then. you see this sort of grabbing going on today with christists in kerala doing vidyarambham at navaratri and having their kids write 'om namo yesuveh nama'! soon they will claim they brought this from the stinking desert (aka holy land) with them.
your april fool story is also cute, but not supported by, say, wikipedia.
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