The reason for the season

Dear Editor,

I am writing about a cover story from the December 20th paper.

More specifically, the story about "Jesus being the reason for the season."

I know that while most of your readers are Christian, this seems like it's a bit biased.

Also, the origins of Christmas differ slightly from what you printed. Firstly, the Bible says nothing about when exactly Jesus was born, but it wasn't December.

It is speculated to be closer to March or April. The birth of Jesus was assigned to be celebrated on Dec. 25 in the fourth century A.D. in order to happen at the same time as the ancient pagan ritual of Saturnalia.

It was meant to make it easier for pagans to convert to Christianity. Also, the decorating of trees, a classic Christmas ritual, was also taken from pagan rituals. In fact, it was originally frowned upon in the Bible. As the years progressed, the pagan rituals melded into Christmas.

Let me make it clear that this email is NOT meant to offend anyone, simply to give you a more accurate story of the reason of Christmas. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this.

Andy Hutchins

via e-mail