Both Orthodox and Catholic are wrong the correct time for Christmas is the Winter Solstice which with occurs on 21st/22nd of December using the Gregorian Calendar. It's no big deal, just saying.
B0ycey wrote:Apart from the obvious debate that the 25th December isn't the correct date, why does the position of our planet to the Sun have paramount importance to that to a festive timetable based on many celestial things?
The original Christmas, the pagan yuletide, was very much celebrating this feature of orbital mechanics as it effects the day/night cycle and meteorological patterns. To put it more poetically it is celebrating the time where the goddess becomes a mother again and births the Sun King, winter's turning point.
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Australians being antipodian are even more out of whack than anyone north of the equator. Aussies need to celebrate winter's turning point in
their winter not Europe's winter, Aussies should celebrate in mid June during what is the Summer Solstice for northerners but is the winter solstice for australians. The yuletide will be a lot less weird and jarring if you put out your fake snow and decorated fir tress in mid-winter rather than the height of summer. At some point you have to stop being colonists and become natives.