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Originally Posted by naraht
The other oddity that happened as the Christian traditions moved north is that the story of the innkeeper in regards to "No room at the inn" gets uglier and uglier. In a place like Germany or England, being forced to sleep out with the animals near the winter solstice is Cruelty to Mary and Joseph and places the young babe at risk. Late December in Bethlehem is simply the rainy season with temperatures *rarely* dropping below freezing. And straw was probably the sleeping padding for those in the Inn as well...
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Except that nowhere do the gospels say that Jesus was born in December, and to the degree to which they say anything about the timing of his birth, they suggest summer, not winter. It's well-known that the celebration of the nativity and Incarnation was liked to the winter solstice for a variety of symbolic reasons, as well as because of a theory of Jesus' conception happening on the same (spring) date as the crucifixion.
But two thing that Luke tells us -- that shepherds were in the fields with their sheep at night and that Mary laid Jesus in a manger (which presumably wasn't needed to feed an animal at the time) -- suggest the warmer weather of summer or early spring. Animals in that part of the world were penned at night from October/November until March/April; only in the warmer months would they have remained in the fields at night. And Luke also gives information relating when Jesus was conceived and born to when John the Baptist was conceived and born. That information also suggests a late summer/early autumn birth for Jesus.