Hey! It's Aquagerl here (again), answering a few of the Editor's questions about my previous article, "Christmas True".
The Editor asked me why I had used the word 'cold' (sorry, but I don't recall using the word 'snowy') to describe the night Christ was born. Well, I did some research on www.yahoo.weather.com and found the local forecast for Jerusalem (which is very near Bethlehem) for this month. I found that (as I'd suspected before) desert temperatures can drop dramatically during the night. Tonight it's supposed to go down from +25 degrees Celsius to +10 degrees Celsius.
Now, I don't know about you, but if I lived near the Syrian desert where temperatures can reach a soaring +50 degrees Celsius (quite easily, I'd imagine) I'd call +10 cold. Even if it is in the winter. I mean, that's a difference of 40 degrees! That's like going from +20 which is an average temperature in the summer for where I live (and is warm or even hot to me) to -20, which is an average temperature for the winter (and is definitely cold, even to me who is used to that kind of weather), all in one day. +10 may not seem cold at all to people living in the northern States, Canada, or northern European countries, but to people living in Israel, that's pretty chilly!
The Editor also asked whether Christ being born in winter or summer would make a difference in the meaning of Christmas. Perhaps it would in other religions but certainly not in mine. We celebrate Christ's birth, not the time it took place. The fact that we may not be celebrating it on the correct date (which is more than likely) is irrelevant -- it's the mere fact that we are celebrating it that counts.
Anyway, it doesn't really matter if this gets published. I just thought that I'd clear up a few of those questions with what I think are the answers!
