To think we should move Christmas to a different month?

[Allandria]

Christmas and all it’s super-spreading events seems to come smack-bang in the middle of Covid and flu season.

Since covid and it’s ever-changing variants appear to be here for good would it not make sense to rearrange Christmas dates?

Perhaps March or April instead.

Sounds fun, though we'd have to move New Year as well, which it's probably used to, if we're moving large festive gatherings. Possibly other things as well though most I know tend to have smaller celebrations for those.

The 25th of December isn't the only day Christmas is celebrated, though the latest I know of is late January, largely caused by official calendar changes conflict. Maybe we need a new calendar... The Sym454 is interesting, I think. That or Christmas might shift again in celebration though I think that one could actually be harder to do - I think businesses and people would more welcome a new calendar than shrinking any festivities any further right now. I think more festivities may be desired, not less.

Since pre-history times midwinter in northern hemisphere has had some kind of celebration. It's always around/near shortest day of the year so 21/22 December.

There were some types of celebrations, though in many places they swung across the calendar from mid-November to most of January, likely depending on how the food supplies were going and when it became unreasonable to maintain herds and flocks with the big celebration often coming when large parts of those were slaughtered.

They weren't that fixed to dates until calendars were more enforced which varies widely by area depending on many factors like how astronomically inclined and authoritarian among others.

No!!!!
Move to the Southern Hemisphere.
Or if course you and yours can decide to celebrate at another time if you wish and isolate over winter. Covid will be bad over winter regardless and we just have to learn to live with it.

I haven’t read the whole thread, but I’ve long thought Christmas was too early in the winter. I realise it’s technically slightly past half way through the darkness, but there’s a lag after it getting dark before it gets cold and wintery. By February, Christmas feels like it’s long past, yet there’s still a long way to go.

I guess if you’re in the south of England and spring starts in February, it’s not too bad, but where I live, it’s still midwinter in February, so I’d love to have Christmas at around Candlemas on 4th February, so that I had something to look forward to through the long cold months.

However that wouldn’t suit you OP because it’s probably still cold and flu season! So perhaps we should leave it where it is and resign ourselves to making the best of it.

We need something to break up the winter. In Scott we get a really short daytime during winter and it’s just dark for what feels like months. Jesus wasn’t born on 25th December, no one knows exactly as record keeping wasn’t as rigorous. Also since that tube the calendar has changed dramatically, two months were added, data were removed etc so no one can be sure. There has always been so etching to mark the solstice and the church just took that time and decided that when they would celebrate the birth of Christ and Easter was always a time of renewal and again hijacked from the ancient Oestre.

I thought you were joking but apparently not. What's it like being so ridiculous?

@BellaChagall

An utterly ridiculous post and actually quite offensive to Christians.

This. ^ Imagine if someone had posted to say we should change the date of another religion! The thread would have been deleted. OK to throw mockery at Christianity/Christmas though.

Calendar printers will love you, what a crazy idea, sadly it’s just the way it is.

Curious question, in the northern hemisphere the pagan people celebrated the winter solstice and the days starting to get longer again.

Do the indigenous people and tribes of the southern hemisphere celebrate their winter solstice?

Do you know how stupid you are OP?
Christmas was a bright spot in the Medieval year. It was a feast in the middle of a long hard spell. A way to brighten everyone's spirits and remind them a new year was approaching.
Try see Christmas as time of giving.... maybe you can become a Better person. Which is the whole reason for the celebrations.

Some of you appear a tad confused. The Christians appropriated the Pagan festival of Yule to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Same as Easter, which is held at the same time as the Pagan festival of Eostre.