While Christmas is over, myths regarding Christmas (Xmas?) still float around during the festive season. We are eager to dispel such myths. If you believe in Father Christmas, let this warning act as a spoiler alert!

Jesus was born on December 25. Christmas has its roots in pagan festivals such as Saturnalia (December 17-23), the Kalends (January 1-5, the precursor to the 12 Days of Christmas), and Deus Sol Invictus or Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun (December 25). The Christian Church heartily disapproved of such celebrations and co-opted the pagans by declaring December 25 as Christ’s day of birth, though there is no evidence Christ was born on that day.

Jesus was born in AD0. The chronology of Jesus’s birth has always been up for debate by both religious and historical scholars. While the modern calendar places his birth at 2016 years ago (as of 2016), both the Gospels of Luke and Matthew place his birth around the time King Herod the Great died. As most scholars agree, this took place in 4 BCE, which would put Jesus’s birth around that time, possibly as late as 6 BCE.

Year zero (AD0) does not exist in the Anno Domini (or Common Era) system usually used to number years in the Gregorian calendar and in its predecessor, the Julian calendar. In this system, the year 1 BC is followed by AD1.

People who call it ‘Xmas’ are taking Christ out of Christmas. A favourite among many, but where does that ‘X’ in Xmas come from? The ‘X’ comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός, which in English is ‘Christ’. So Christmas and Xmas are really equivalent terms.

While the existence of Father Christmas has been the topic of many schoolyard fights, we have no evidence for or against this right now. We agree the whole story sounds improbable, an overweight man going up and down chimneys (just that rules out the majority of Maltese children) and bringing presents to all. But we still believe you need some magic during this period, however unlikely!

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