Job Discussion Forums

isabel · Joined: 07 Mar 2003 Posts: 479 Location: God's green earth

This is indeed a festive time of the year. December 21st is the winter solstice, and is recognized as a special time by most peoples. It marks the true turning of the year- in the Northern hemisphere, it means the slow return of the sun. In the far north this is especially welcome.

No one knows, especially the Bible, the date of Jesus' birth. At that time, birthdays weren't celebrated. By the way, the Prophet Mohammad's birthday is marked, but very little celebrated, and not at all in Saudi Arabia. Funnily enough, The Buddha's birthday is widely celebrated.

Why is Jesus's birthday now 25 December?

Here is one explanation: "December 25th might have also been chosen because the Winter Solstice and the ancient pagan Roman midwinter festivals called 'Saturnalia' and 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' took place in December around this date - so it was a time when people already celebrated things.

The Winter Solstice is the day where there is the shortest time between the sun rising and the sun setting. It happens on December 21st or 22nd. To pagans this meant that the winter was over and spring was coming and they had a festival to celebrate it and worshipped the sun for winning over the darkness of winter. In Scandinavia, and some other parts of northern Europe, the Winter Solstice is known as Yule and is where we get Yule Logs from. In Eastern europe the mid-winter festival is called Koleda.

The Roman Festival of Saturnalia took place between December 17th and 23rd and honoured the Roman god Saturn. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti means 'birthday of the unconquered sun' and was held on December 25th (when the Romans thought the Winter Solstice took place) and was the 'birthday' of the Pagan Sun god Mithra. In the pagan religion of Mithraism, the holy day was Sunday and is where get that word from!"

http://www.whychristmas.com/customs/25th.shtml[/url]

Tigerstyleone · Joined: 26 Mar 2010 Posts: 87

Its Christmas in Paradise, Paradise, and I'm off with pay today.
Paradise, paradise.

isabel · Joined: 07 Mar 2003 Posts: 479 Location: God's green earth

Prof.Gringo · Posted: Tue Dec 25, 2012 6:07 pm Post subject: Mass in HCMC for X-Mas

I really enjoyed the Vietnamese language Roman Catholic Mass tonight at Duc Ba Notre Dame Cathedral in the heart of D-1 HCMC.

The large variety of religions, churches, opinions and open discussion about religion shows that Vietnam has true freedom of religion.

I actually prefer the more "laid-back" approach to Buddhism or the Catholic church here in VN, but some misunderstood my comments.

In the past week I've been to Mass in a Roman Catholic church, a Mosque, 2 Buddhist Pagodas, a Hindu temple...

Happy Holiday Cheer to ALL!

Religion in VN in all it's forms and incarnations fulfills an important roll in the society & culture of Vietnam.

douglas1969 · Joined: 21 Sep 2012 Posts: 30 Location: Canada

TRH · Joined: 27 Oct 2011 Posts: 65 Location: HCMC

Mr. Kalgukshi · Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2012 7:22 pm Post subject:

Several inappropriate postings have been deleted for being derailing, contentious, insulting, off-topic or focusing on religion. The latter is not permitted on this board.

If the inappropirate postings continue, the following will happen in an incredibly short period of time:

The thread will continue absent the inappropriate postings along with the members who chose to ignore this warning and posted such comments.

Members observing problematic postings are requested to promptly advise the Mod Team by PM or Report Post.