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To the Editor of The China Journal of Science end Arts. Snr-In your article on Christmas in the December number of your Journal you say that the Christian festival was fixed on December 25 by the fathers of the Church "in the middle ages." All educated Christians who care for the history of their Church know now that there seems to have been no certain tradition of the date of Christ's birth. While the reason which you give for the choice of December 25 is commonly given, there seems to be at least one other possible reason, and in any case the choice was not made "in the middle ages." The Middle Age is described by The Concise Oxford Dictionary as "about 1000.1400," and the present learned Bishop of Truro has written, giving exact reference to his authority, that "in the Roman Church as early as the end of the second century on December 25 bad been fixed upon; and this date has been generally adopted" (A New History of the Book of Common Prayer, ed. 1905, p.321). Thus "in the middle ages" is an error of perhaps a thousand years. I am, Yours truly, A. C. Moulr.
unless otherwise indicated
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