Amid all the talk of Christmas being “cancelled” (Letters, 23 December), it is worth recollecting that the birth of Jesus in December is a myth. Historians are still debating the likely date, but when I last investigated it was thought to be around September, when shepherds in that part of the world would still be watching over their flocks by night. The Christian world celebrates his birth at this time because it suited various authorities to conflate the so-called divine birth with the pagan festival of the renewal of the light. It would therefore make perfectly good religious as well as practical sense to move this celebration to the summer and the psychological return of light thanks to the miracle of the new vaccines.
Salley Vickers
Wilcot, Wiltshire
• Has anyone else noticed how many Christmas cards this year are very dark? In a string of 16 cards on our wall, eight are predominantly black. Can this be a subtle result of the dark and difficult times we have all lived through this year? Or does it remind us of the true message of Christmas: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Liz Hallett
Romsey, Hampshire
