It's not about the Calendar

Have you ever wondered about the purpose or date of the Holidays that we celebrate? It is obvious why we celebrate New Year's, Independence's Day, Patriot's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, St. Patrick's Day and St. Valentine's Day but what about those Holidays that are not always on the same date every year like Easter or Mother's Day? Here is one that is at the same day of the year but many people still have issues with it's origin, Christmas. Why do we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on this day as apposed to any other day of the Calendar? Many people think that it is because that was the day He was born, that is not the case. I don't believe that anyone living on Earth today knows when he was born. It could be possible that someone who has done exteremily exstensive research throughout thier life could narrow it down to an approximate month, but I don't believe anyone could determine the exact date of His birth. Although an Austrailian astronomer believes that he has by using computer software he can determine what the sky over the Holy Land looked like a couple thousand years ago. He believes that Jesus was born on June 17,2BC based on the alignment of planets and the birth of a new star that would have shone like a beacon of light described in the Nativity story of the New Testemant.
Some of the things that we know is that He was born in the time that Harod ruled and we know that Herod died in Jericho around 4 B.C. It is believed that in that era only sinners celebrated thier bithdays, not the saints. I don't know if this is true or not but if it were then no one would have made a big deal about remembering the date that they were born. Many scholars have researched over the years to predict the actual date of His birth, some say May 20th, some say April 19th or 20th, Some say March 28. As you may notice these dates are in the opposite time of year that we currently celebrate the birth of Jesus.
In Egypt they celebrated the the visit of the Magi and the birth of Eternity on January 6th. December 25th was later adopted as the designated time to celebrate as there were many gods born on that day such as Attis and Mithras as well as the celebration of Saturnalia in mid December. This date was observed first in the Western World in 354 AD and then in 427 AD in Egypt. The first Cristes Maesse, or the Mass of Christ, was observed in 1038.
Why does this confusion have to stop people from celebrating the Birth of Christ Jesus? So what if we celebrate His birhday on the wrong day, isn't the fact that we pause and celebrate His birth valuable in itself? So many things have been tied to Christmas that it is easy to loose the important things like the fact that God sent his only son to suffer the price of our wrong doing so that we wouldn't have to. The fact that Jesus was and is the King of all Kings, the Most High Ruler of the Universe but was sent to be born in human flesh and walk among those that would crucify Him. Where would most rulers be born? A royal birth would no doubt be held in a royal palace or some place of dignity with attendance and medical personal to assist with the needs of the mother and child. Not this King, he was not welcomed in any home or inn instead he was cast away into a stable what we would now call a barn. He was not nestled in a royal cradle with silk blankets or Egyptian cotton linen but placed in a eating trough cushioned by straw and rags. Wouldn't you expect the first visitors of the Ruler of the Universe to be Kings and rulers of the land? The first to lay eyes upon our Lord were lowly shepards of the fields. These are the things we should be gathering in honor of not gifts and material possesions or feasting and drinking to make ourselves merry. God sent Jesus to bring Peace to all mankind. We were given God in the flesh to learn from and to model our lives to match His, yet we can't even bring ourselves to set aside a time to remember and reflct upon this occasion. We had rather think of ourselves and the gifts we believe we have earned from being "good all year" or the celebrations we deserve from "working hard all year".
It's not about the date or the calendar, it's about the event of His birth or as some say the ADVENT.