We've always done it this way.

Merry Christmas!

"What's that?" you say.

Today, January 7, is one of the days on which some Christians -- and I don't mean a handful of eccentric individuals, but entire communities of people who have been Christians for many centuries, literally hundreds of millions of Christians -- celebrate Christmas.

Christians in the West -- those who celebrate Christmas, because not all of them do, you know -- and some Christians in the East, celebrate on December 25. (I know, you are saying to yourself, "Yeah, because December 25 is Christmas." Wrong!)

Armenian Apostolic and Armenian Evangelical Christians celebrate on January 6, the date on which some Western churches celebrate Epiphany, the visit of the Wise Men.  Lest you think "Armenian Apostolic and Evangelical Christians" is a pretty obscure group, I know some here in  Wisconsin. In the year 301 of the Common Era, Armenia became the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion. So maybe their opinion should count for something.

Many Eastern Orthodox Churches -- those who follow the ancient Julian calendar, which was the calendar all Christians followed until  after the Reformation -- celebrate today, January 7.

And to cap it off, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem celebrates on January 19. This is because the Patriarchate uses the original Julian calendar, unlike all those folks in the other Eastern churches who use the Revised Julian calendar.

So we have 4 dates for Christmas, 3 calendars for determining it ... and no doubt somewhere, a confused partridge in a pear tree.

Anyway, just a reminder that not everyone does much of anything the same way. So the next time someone glibly remarks, "Well, Christians do such-and-such" or "believe such-and-such," you can be polite and smile. 

But you will know better.