Up until now one thought that the date of December 25^th was a Christianisation of the Roman Saturnalis which celebrated the rebirth of the Unconquered Sun. However, a new discovery throws a little light on the date of the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Israeli erudite, Shermanyahu Talman, has already published a study on the calendar of the Jewish sect of Qumran. Here one finds the calendar of the services of the Temple which the priests assumed one after the other, at the time of the birth of Jesus.

The priest Zacharias, father of St. John the Baptist, was of the family of Abias, (Lk. 1:5). He had to be on duty in the Temple twice a year from the 8^th to the 14^th of the third month, and from the 24^th to the 30^th of the eighth month. This latter date fell at the end of September. It is thus logical that the Byzantine calendar celebrates the feast of the conception of St. John the Baptist on the 23^rd of September, nine months before his birth on the 24^th of June. The "six months" that is referred to at the Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel coincides will with the liturgical feast of the 25^th of March, three months before the birth of the Baptist (on the 24^th of June) and nine months before the 25^th of December. Truly this gives historical value to the choice of the 25^th of December for the feast of Christmas.