December 26 = New Year's Day

For those of us who celebrate Christmas, I suggest we should consider December 26 as New Year's Day.

After all, there's a variety of New Year dates in various cultures and religions, many based on the cycles of the moon (or lunar calendar) instead of the cycles of the sun (solar calendar):

* Chinese New Year usually comes between January 20 and February.

*Islamic New Year varies because it, too, follows the lunar calendar.

*Hindu New Year is normally on April 13 or 14, following the astrological (not astronomical) calendar.

*Many countries begin their New Year at the vernal equinox, the start of spring, usually March 21. This includes many parts of Central Asia, South Asia, Northwestern China, and some of the

countries formerly part of the Soviet Union.

*Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, also is a movable date in September, depending on the lunar calendar but also on Jewish religious regulations.

*Ethiopian New Year is September 11 or 12 and marks the end of the summer season.

So, with these multiple dates, why would I want to add one more? Why do I think December 26 is better than the Good Ole American and European January 1?

Think of it this way:

Christians make a great deal out of Jesus's coming into the world. Under the influence of the early church, historians have calculated history in two categories: before and after the birth of Jesus. The commonly used system indicates events as BC (Before Christ) and AD (the Latin term Anno Domini, "the year of our Lord").

Increasingly, those two eras are being designated with reference to "the Common Era," with BCE (Before Common Era) replacing BC and CE (Common Era) replacing AD. Even so, this is still an acknowledgement of the way Christians have marked epochs of history.

Of course, I don't expect December 26 to take hold in the broad context of American life. After all, what would that do to the Bowl Games?

But here's the point: If the birth of Christ were as important to us as we like to say, it would revolutionize the way we look at time.

Luke's Gospel tells us, after the shepherds found the Baby in the manger, "they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them."

Matthew says, the Wise Men "departed to their own country by another way" after they found the Baby and His parents. Can we infer from this that their lives took a different direction?

If we were stopped in our tracks by angels the way the shepherds were that night in the fields outside of Bethlehem, if we were willing to travel the distance the Wise Men did in order to try to find the Newborn King of the Jews, the Day After Christmas in truth would be the start of a New Year.

So let's hear it for New Year's Day: December 26!