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~*Was the official Birth a January baby!*~It may not be too late to send the presents back, as astronomers have calculatedthat Christmas should not be celebrated on December 25 - but on June 17instead.Researchers tracked the appearance of the 'Christmas star', which theBible states three wise men followed to find Jesus.Australian stargazer Dave Reneke used complex computer software to chart the exactpositions of all celestial bodies and map the night sky as it would have appearedover the Holy Land more than 2,000 years ago.He discovered that a bright star really did appear over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago- but pinpointed the date of Christ's birth as June 17, and not December 25.Scientists claim the Christmas star was most likely a magnificent conjunction ofthe planets Venus and Jupiter, which were so close together they would have shoneunusually brightly as a single 'beacon of light' which appeared suddenly.Mr Reneke says the wise men probably interpreted it as the sign they had beenwaiting for, and they followed the 'star' to Christ's birthplace in a stable inBethlehem, as described in the Bible. Generally accepted research has placed thenativity to somewhere between 3BC and 1AD. Using the St Matthew's Gospel as areference point, Mr Reneke pinpointed the planetary conjunction, which appeared inthe constellation of Leo, to the exact date of June 17 in the year 2BC. Mr Reneke,who is editor of Sky and Space magazine, said: 'We have software that can recreatethe night sky exactly as it was at any point in the last several thousand years.Venus and Jupiter became very close in the the year 2BC and they would haveappeared to be one bright beacon of light.'We are not saying this was definitely the Christmas star - but it is thestrongest explanation for it of any I have seen so far. 'Astronomy is such aprecise science, we can plot exactly where the planets were, and it certainlyseems this is the fabled Christmas star. There's no other explanation that soclosely matches the facts we have from the time.This could well have been what thethree wise men interpreted as a sign. They could easily have mistaken it for onebright star.'He added: 'December is an arbitrary date we have accepted but it doesn't reallymean that is when it happened.'This is not an attempt to decry religion. It'sreally backing it up as it shows there really was a bright object appearing in theEast at the right time. Often when we mix science with religion in this kind offorum, it can upset people. In this case, I think this could serve to reinforcepeople's faith.'Previous theories have speculated that the star was a supernova (exploding star)or even a comet. But Mr Reneke says that by narrowing the date down, thetechnology has provided the most compelling explanation yet.A leading theory behind why December 25 was chosen as the date to celebrateChrist's birth, was that it was selected by the church as it aligned closely witha major pagan festival, which allowed the church to claim a new celebration forChristianity. However, if the findings are correct, it would mean a change fromChristmas cards featuring traditional snowy scenes to sunny beach views in June.~*A Brief History of Yule/Christmas*~The very early church has not left us with any indication that Christmas was apart of their yearly calendar. Certainly the New Testament doesn't include such anemphasis. Philip Schaff, a church historian, offers three reasons for this.

In the first place, no corresponding festival was presented by the Old Testament,as in the case of Easter and Pentecost. In the second place, the day and month ofthe birth of Christ are nowhere stated in the gospel history, and cannot becertainly determined. Again: the church lingered first of all about the death andresurrection of Christ, the completed fact of redemption, and made this the centerof the weekly worship and the church year. Finally: the earlier feast ofEpiphany...afforded a substitute. The artistic religious impulse, however, whichproduced the whole church year, must sooner or later have called into existence afestival which forms the groundwork of all other annual festivals in honor ofChrist.So the Christmas celebration appeared comparatively late in church history. And itappeared as the result of a change in the ways Christians dealt with theirsurrounding culture. In order to see the progression of this change, it will behelpful if we consider early pagan festivals that were eventually transformed bythe church.Some scholars assert that the earliest precursor of the Christmas celebration canbe found within a Persian religion that influenced Roman life.One of the great festivals of ancient Rome was related to the winter solstice,celebrated on December 25 as the Natal Day of the Unconquerable Sun and tied tothe Persian religion of Mithraism, one of Christianity's early rivals. The churchtook over this day to turn the attention of Christians from the old heathenfestival to the celebration of the "sun of righteousness."It is especially interesting to note that the mythological god Mithra, for whomMithraism was named, "is described as being born from a rock, the birth beingwitnessed by shepherds on a day (December 25) that was later claimed by Christiansas the nativity of Christ."Actually "the Christmas festival was probably the Christian transformation orregeneration of a series of kindred heathen festivals...which were kept in Rome inthe month of December, in commemoration of the golden age of universal freedom andequality, and in honour of the unconquered sun, and which were great holidays,especially for slaves and children." Our contemporary struggle with how to reactto Halloween may be similar to the struggle the early church had with Christmas.In particular, they had to decide if they should and would celebrate the birth ofChrist. Then the question was, when would this celebration take place? Theiranswers are instructive for us today.Schaff describes this regeneration of heathen festivals in light of the culturalchanges that began to affect the church:Had the Christmas festival arisen in the period of the persecution, its derivationfrom these pagan festivals would be refuted by the then reigning abhorrence ofeverything heathen; but in the Nicene age this rigidness of opposition between thechurch and the world was in a great measure softened by the general conversion ofthe heathen. Besides, there lurked in those pagan festivals themselves, in spiteof all their sensual abuses, a deep meaning and an adaptation to a real want; theymight be called unconscious prophecies of the Christmas feast.Frank Gaebelein informs us that before Christmas was recognized in the Westanother festival was prominent among Christians in the East.The earliest reference to December 25 as the date for the Nativity occurs in thePhilocalian calendar, which refers to its Roman observance in A.D. 336. But