Author: Sun Zhengfan (Doctor of Astrophysics, Popular Science Writer)
Santa Claus (Source: GIPHY.com)
Christmas is here again, European and American countries have begun the Christmas holiday, and many shopping malls have entered carnival mode. Although Christmas is a religious holiday, it does not prevent us from being more truthful – why is there a Christmas Eve before Christmas? This matter really has something to do with astronomy!
December 25 is Christmas, followed by Christmas Eve, commonly known as Christmas Eve. On this night, Santa Claus drives a reindeer cart and is busy throwing gifts to the children from the chimneys (if there is no chimney, let's make a big move, he is a god anyway). The U.S. and Canada's North American Air Defense Joint Command (NORAD) also announced the progress of the old man's "courier" work on the website decently, and it seems that Santa Claus can't be lazy.
Santa Claus giving gifts (Source: NORAD)
Santa Claus driving a reindeer (Source: GIPHY.com)
Are you also wondering why you have to set up a "Christmas Eve" since there is Christmas? Did Jesus still make a special one, to have a two-day "birthday"? In fact, this is a difference caused by the transformation of ancient astronomy and modern time systems.
According to the New Testament, Jesus was born at night, and at that time the three Eastern Doctors (or "sage" and "Maggie") came to the city of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born, according to the instructions of the stars, and offered gold, frankincense, and no (mò) medicine. Herod, the ruler at the time, knew this and prepared to persecute Jesus. Jesus' parents fled with Jesus overnight. The gold sent by the Third Doctor was used as a fare for the escape. As an aside, this is often the content of The Christmas drama.
Bible Story: The Three Dr.s of the East Search for the Star of Bethlehem | YouTube.com
But there is a problem here, the Bible is not a history book after all, the story of the birth of Jesus is only recounted many years after his death, the author did not think of accurately recording the exact time of Jesus' birth, so we have no idea what year, day, and time Jesus was born. Jesus was not born in the first year of the Common Era, according to the astronomer Kepler, it should have been born in the 4th year BC (actually not the first year of the Common Era?). Not the focus of this article, and will not be expanded here. Christmas, December 25, is a festival of appropriations of the Roman sun god in order to suppress pagan beliefs—as the saying goes, "Live someone else's holiday, leave others without a festival." (This is still not the focus of this article and will not be expanded for the time being.) ）
The Bible only records the birth of Jesus at night, without recording the exact moment, which brings another problem—is it the "night" shortly after sunset, or the "night" before sunrise? Does "Christmas" count the day before or the day after?
When does the day start? It doesn't seem to be a problem, and it seems to be a problem. We usually have several options:
01 Starts at 0:00 a.m
Modern habits, starting at 0 midnight. This habit comes from the inheritance of ancient Roman culture. Ancient Chinese astronomy also had a similar definition, using "zizheng", which is now called 0 hour, as the boundary between the two days before and after.
02 Starts at sunrise
The so-called "sunrise and work", which is more in line with the habits of life, the beginning of the "new day", people in ancient times may have defined it in this way.
03 Starts at sunset
Since Babylon, this has been the custom in the Middle East. We can see this at the beginning of the Old Testament Genesis of the Bible. The world began with only darkness, and God created light from darkness "To have light, there is light," so "there is night, there is morning, and this is the first day." ”
04 Starts at noon
Modern astronomy also offers another way, starting at noon. This method is to facilitate astronomers to make observations all night, it is more convenient to record the time, and there is no need to change the date at midnight.
Sunset | GIPHY.com
Jesus was born in the Middle East, the biblical writers were also a Jewish people, and the custom adopts a third definition, a "day" that begins at sunset. In their view, there is no need to record whether Jesus was born in the first half of the night (before 0 o'clock) or in the second half of the night (after 0 o'clock), because they belong to the "same day."
When Christianity entered the Roman Empire, it consciously broke away from Jewish customs and switched to the Roman calendar and culture, and the "day" (night plus day) that was originally bounded by sunset was divided into two days before and after midnight. Therefore, it was not until Roman times that Jesus had an exact but inaccurate birth year and date; and the undefined time of birth caused the "Christmas Day" to be divided into two parts: "Christmas Day" and "Christmas Eve", December 24 was Christmas Eve, and December 25 was Christmas.
But this extends the joy of the festival, which is very good.
It's good to have an astronomical festival.