Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"the thing i love about christmas is it calls us to be our best selves. on this day, 105 years ago, a truce spread across the battlefields of the First World War, as soldiers realized they didn't *have* to kill each other. The top brass was terrified the war would end that day.

"it's the day when we recognize that it's a bad thing to be an asshole, it's a bad thing to hurt each other, that everyone deserves basic kindness and generosity, and that peace can and should prevail.

"For as much as Christmas is commercialized -- a symptom of deep capitalistic rot -- it's still got, on SOME level, the Gospel at it's heart: we do not need to *live* like this. A better world is possible and within our power.

"At the core of Christmas is a story, whether you believe it to be true or not, about God himself incarnating as the child of the poor, who would become a refugee, whose very existence is a challenge to princes and the rich.

"(As I'm tweeting this, I overhear my stepdad say 'tenants have too many rights')

"Christmas is, and ought to be, about incarnating that spirit ourselves: of being *with* people, of offering kindness and love wherever we can, even if just for one day a year."

-- Merry Magdalene (Magdalene Visaggio -- magsvisaggs), 2019-12-24

[To everyone celebrating the first day of Christmas today: joyeux Noël / καλα Χριστουγεννα / feliz Navidad / merry Christmas! God rest ye merry, gentlefolk. Also, happy third day of Hannukah!]

AFAIK there are four Christian calendars: Gregorian (Catholic, Anglican, Protestant), old-calendar Orthodox (Julian -- so their Christmas day is about two weeks hence), new-calendar Orthodox (Gregorian for most things, Julian for Easter and things timed relative to Easter), and Coptic (Ethiopian calendar with different month-names -- I think their holidays align with old-calendar Orthodox but I need to do more research).

Today is
Gregorian: 2019 December 25
Julian: 2019 December 12
Hebrew: 5780 Kislev 27
Islamic: 1441 Rabi`ath-Thani 27
Persian: 1398 Dey 04
Mayan: 0.0.0.13.0.7.2.0
Indian: 1941 Pausa 04
Coptic: 1736 Koiak 15