The radio station I listen to everyday has a feature in the afternoon where they tell you about when the sun will go down that day and for now this includes telling us about how many more seconds of sunlight we will have.
I found it interesting that a few days ago they were speaking of Dec 21st as being the shortest and darkest day of the year. After this we started to gain sunlight by the seconds. But the sun did not come up earlier, but instead it stayed up longer.
Yesterday the sun rose the latest of the year for those in the US mainland.
The December solstice always brings the shortest day. However, the latest sunrises do not coincide with the day of least sunlight.
That doesn't start happening until today, January 6th.
I thought at the time that the date sounded familiar. Not growing up in what I call the Catholic church and her offspring, I was not aware of the 'holiday' called Epiphany. I'd heard of it but was never in attendance of a service that celebrated it. It was interesting to find out that this is the day that a majority in the Church at large celebrates this day as the 'revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.' and "the manifestation to the Gentiles".
Was it this astrological reason that they picked this date? I don't see how they could know when the 'Magi' visited, a close reading of this story shows that Yeshua was a young child at the time and not a babe.
I also do not understand the reasoning behind this being the manifestation to the Gentiles. His ministry to the Jews did not begin until he was 30 years old. How does that mesh with to the Jew first?
Back to Today, January 6th. This is called also the Birthday of the Invincible Sun.
Emperor Aurelian established December 25 as the birthday of the "Invincible Sun" in the third century as part of the Roman Winter Solstice celebrations. Shortly thereafter, in 273, the Christian church selected this day to represent the birthday of Jesus, and by 336, this Roman solar feast day was Christianized. January 6, celebrated as Epiphany in Christendom and linked with the visit of the Magi, was originally an Egyptian date for the Winter Solstice.
Due to our eccentric orbit, Earth travels fastest in January and slowest in July. Clock time gets a bit out of synch with sun time by about the tune of 1/2 minute per day for several weeks around the December solstice.Earth comes closest to the sun in early January.
For us at middle latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the earliest sunsets come in early December.
The shortest day comes on the solstice around December 21,
but the latest sunrises come in early January.
So January 6th the sun starts to come up earlier and thus to add to the seconds of the sunset.
Winter Solstice means to 'stand still' or Sun stood still. Interesting we see this in the book of Joshua.
Perhaps the sun did not only stay up as interpreted here, but this was actually a reference to the time of year it happened?
It also says that there were large hailstones that killed more than the sword.
In December from the 23 to the 25th the sun actually seems to be standing still, the days do not change. This can happen on different days depending on the earths rotation. For example this year in my neck of the woods it went like this:
The first is the date, then the time of sunrise, then sunset and Noon.
Dec 24, 20107:20 AM4:40 PM9h 19m 53s+ 08s12:00 Noon
Dec 25, 20107:21 AM4:41 PM9h 20m 06s+ 12s12:01 PM
Dec 26, 20107:21 AM4:41 PM9h 20m 22s+ 16s12:01 PM
Dec 27, 20107:21 AM4:42 PM9h 20m 43s+ 20s12:02 PM
Dec 28, 20107:22 AM4:43 PM9h 21m 08s+ 24s12:02 PM
As you can see Dec 25th, 26th and 27th the sun stood still and rose at the same exact time. The sunset only started to increase at the end of these three days. These were known as the darkest days.
(I understand that the Coptic Church is celebrating Christmas today and tomorrow.)
This date is also used to commemorate his baptism. However that doesn't jive with what Luke says that he was 'about 30 years old' meaning almost but not quite. But that wouldn't make sense because he supposedly was born on Dec 25th.
This is an interesting bit on the sun related to the winter solstice.
I found it interesting that a few days ago they were speaking of Dec 21st as being the shortest and darkest day of the year. After this we started to gain sunlight by the seconds. But the sun did not come up earlier, but instead it stayed up longer.
Yesterday the sun rose the latest of the year for those in the US mainland.
The December solstice always brings the shortest day. However, the latest sunrises do not coincide with the day of least sunlight.
That doesn't start happening until today, January 6th.
I thought at the time that the date sounded familiar. Not growing up in what I call the Catholic church and her offspring, I was not aware of the 'holiday' called Epiphany. I'd heard of it but was never in attendance of a service that celebrated it. It was interesting to find out that this is the day that a majority in the Church at large celebrates this day as the 'revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.' and "the manifestation to the Gentiles".
Was it this astrological reason that they picked this date? I don't see how they could know when the 'Magi' visited, a close reading of this story shows that Yeshua was a young child at the time and not a babe.
I also do not understand the reasoning behind this being the manifestation to the Gentiles. His ministry to the Jews did not begin until he was 30 years old. How does that mesh with to the Jew first?
Back to Today, January 6th. This is called also the Birthday of the Invincible Sun.
Emperor Aurelian established December 25 as the birthday of the "Invincible Sun" in the third century as part of the Roman Winter Solstice celebrations. Shortly thereafter, in 273, the Christian church selected this day to represent the birthday of Jesus, and by 336, this Roman solar feast day was Christianized. January 6, celebrated as Epiphany in Christendom and linked with the visit of the Magi, was originally an Egyptian date for the Winter Solstice.
Due to our eccentric orbit, Earth travels fastest in January and slowest in July. Clock time gets a bit out of synch with sun time by about the tune of 1/2 minute per day for several weeks around the December solstice.Earth comes closest to the sun in early January.
For us at middle latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the earliest sunsets come in early December.
The shortest day comes on the solstice around December 21,
but the latest sunrises come in early January.
So January 6th the sun starts to come up earlier and thus to add to the seconds of the sunset.
Winter Solstice means to 'stand still' or Sun stood still. Interesting we see this in the book of Joshua.
Perhaps the sun did not only stay up as interpreted here, but this was actually a reference to the time of year it happened?
It also says that there were large hailstones that killed more than the sword.
In December from the 23 to the 25th the sun actually seems to be standing still, the days do not change. This can happen on different days depending on the earths rotation. For example this year in my neck of the woods it went like this:
The first is the date, then the time of sunrise, then sunset and Noon.
Dec 24, 20107:20 AM4:40 PM9h 19m 53s+ 08s12:00 Noon
Dec 25, 20107:21 AM4:41 PM9h 20m 06s+ 12s12:01 PM
Dec 26, 20107:21 AM4:41 PM9h 20m 22s+ 16s12:01 PM
Dec 27, 20107:21 AM4:42 PM9h 20m 43s+ 20s12:02 PM
Dec 28, 20107:22 AM4:43 PM9h 21m 08s+ 24s12:02 PM
As you can see Dec 25th, 26th and 27th the sun stood still and rose at the same exact time. The sunset only started to increase at the end of these three days. These were known as the darkest days.
(I understand that the Coptic Church is celebrating Christmas today and tomorrow.)
This date is also used to commemorate his baptism. However that doesn't jive with what Luke says that he was 'about 30 years old' meaning almost but not quite. But that wouldn't make sense because he supposedly was born on Dec 25th.
This is an interesting bit on the sun related to the winter solstice.
I didn't even think about that, I was more concentrating on the actual symbol, that got my attention and you should really read that whole article if you didn't already, it contained some very interesting prospectives about the connection of the earthly things to the sky. 
