Show FIXING THE CHRISTMAS DATE brooklyn eagle I 1 christmas day has not always been kept on a fixed date for at first it was as much a movable feast as easter ealter and was waa celebrated by the eastern churches in april and may this 00 yearly commemoration of christs birth was first kept about the year 98 and it was ordera to be held at a solemn fout feast by pope Telesphor us about it is curious that the birth of christ and the day of the birth should have offered an opportunity for a diversity of which has baa placed it in every month of the year the egyptian christians held that it fell in january according acco iding to the old style of reckoning russia which still adheres to the old style has her christmas festival in january insists on the birth having occurred in february bochard in march and several authors quoted by clement of alexandria in april other learned men have placed it in may speaks of some who placed it in june and of others who held that it happened in july Wa gensell not being quite sure as to february being the right month suggested that it might be august lightfoot places it on september 15 Soa liger and others in october others again in november and in latin latin and Prote protestant stUnt churches in december at one period december 6 was declared to be the proper anniversary and the feast who was solem nihed at cyprus on that day as early as the fourth century for two or three centuries een the eastern church kept christmas day on january 6 and it was only after a considerable lapse of time that a general agreement was was come to in favor of december 28 25 townsend says that the date generally admitted as an that on which the savior became incarnate is april B C 4 As to the commemoration of christs death which is kept on good friday iwas made a moveable moveably move able feast because of its dependence on faster easter the day of the commemoration of christs resurrection the former being held three days before the latter the proper time for the celebration of easter has occasioned no little controvert cont the great maw mass of the eastern christians celebrated easter on the fourteenth day of the first jewish month or moon considering it to be the equivalent of the jewish passover the council of aries in decreed that the day of keeping this festival should be the sunday after the fourteenth day of the march MOODY moon and the council of nice in confirmed this decision but owing to the intricate calculations this rule rendered necessary disagreements in the time of celebration still continued and the rowan roman method was not established in france till and in britain and ireland till about the alteration of the calendar by gregory XIII in 1584 permanently fixed the first sunday after the full moon immediately following march 21 as the the day for observing this festival |