Page 50 - July - August 2019 - v3_june_july_2009_Neat

50 Calculating Christmas

Calculating Christmas and the Trinity of the Persons in the One activities has been a part of the economy for
Godhead. decades in the small towns that dot the valleys
near Area 51. The boom began around 1989,
Continued From Page 30 A Christian Feast when Bob Lazar, a self-described engineer,
claimed to a Las Vegas television station that he
Integral Age Thus, December 25th as the date of the Christ’s worked on extraterrestrial aircraft that were
birth appears to owe nothing whatsoever to housed at Area 51. Since then, business owners
So in the East we have April 6th, in the West, pagan influences upon the practice of the and residents have welcomed tourists hoping to
March 25th. At this point, we have to introduce Church during or after Constantine’s time. It is get a peek at the military facility or spot a UFO
a belief that seems to have been widespread in wholly unlikely to have been the actual date of in the sky.
Judaism at the time of Christ, but which, as it is Christ’s birth, but it arose entirely from the But the Facebook event has ramped up
nowhere taught in the Bible, has completely efforts of early Latin Christians to determine the buzz to levels residents have never witnessed,
fallen from the awareness of Christians. The historical date of Christ’s death. with motel and campground owners receiving
idea is that of the “integral age” of the great And the pagan feast which the Emperor scores of calls a day. If the event brings the
Jewish prophets: the idea that the prophets of Aurelian instituted on that date in the year 274 masses it’s promised, many in the area are
Israel died on the same dates as their birth or was not only an effort to use the winter solstice excited for the potential extra business. Some,
conception. to make a political statement, but also almost though, are also concerned about the lack of
This notion is a key factor in certainly an attempt to give a pagan significance infrastructure to accommodate the crowds that
understanding how some early Christians came to a date already of importance to Roman could attend.
to believe that December 25th is the date of Christians. The Christians, in turn, could at a “This is the most overwhelmed I’ve ever
Christ’s birth. The early Christians applied this later date re-appropriate the pagan “Birth of the felt in my entire life,” said Connie West, who co-
idea to Jesus, so that March 25th and April 6th Unconquered Sun” to refer, on the occasion of owns a motel, bar and restaurant called Little
were not only the supposed dates of Christ’s the birth of Christ, to the rising of the “Sun of A’Le’Inn with her mother in Rachel, a tiny town
death, but of his conception or birth as well. Salvation” or the “Sun of Justice.” • about 50 miles from Alamo. Since the end of
June, her business has been inundated with calls
There is some fleeting evidence that at least
some first- and second-century Christians About the Author: William J. Tighe is about everything from room bookings to bands
thought of March 25th or April 6th as the date of Associate Professor of History at Muhlenberg that want to play on her property during the
Christ’s birth, but rather quickly the assignment College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and a event. Like Holaday, she’s heard the conspiracy
of March 25th as the date of Christ’s conception faculty advisor to the Catholic Campus Ministry. theorists talk of invading Area 51 for years, but
prevailed. He is a Member of St. Josaphat Ukrainian nothing of this magnitude. “It’s a frenzy,” she
It is to this day, commemorated almost Catholic Church in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. said.
The Little A’Le’Inn is the only business
universally among Christians as the Feast of the
Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel 'It's a Frenzy': in Rachel, a close-knit desert community of
brought the good tidings of a savior to the Virgin about 70 people that spans about 3 miles on the
Mary, upon whose acquiescence the Eternal Communities Near Area Extraterrestrial Highway. (Formerly known as
Word of God (“Light of Light, True God of True 51 Brace for Influx of State Route 375, the highway was renamed by
God, begotten of the Father before all ages”) the Nevada Tourism Board in 1996.)
forthwith became incarnate in her womb. What UFO Tourists
is the length of pregnancy? Nine months. Add Last weekend, West, 51, and a handful of locals
sat in rocking chairs and at picnic tables under
nine months to March 25th and you get
ALAMO, Nev. — The first time Vern Holaday the shade of a silver maple tree, discussing
December 25th; add it to April 6th and you get
heard people talk about trying to storm Area 51, preparations for Sept. 20.
January 6th. December 25th is Christmas, and
he was sitting around a campfire with about a West has been calling food and alcohol
January 6th is Epiphany.
dozen UFO enthusiasts outside the motel he vendors — the motel hosts the only bar for about
Christmas (December 25th) is a feast of
owns in Alamo. 100 miles in any direction — to make sure she’s
Western Christian origin. In Constantinople it
It was the fall of 2009, and the 15-room stocked up. She’s been ordering more T-shirts,
appears to have been introduced in 379 or 380.
Alamo Inn was hosting an annual UFO mugs and other novelty items for the gift shop
From a sermon of St. John Chrysostom, at the
conference. As it usually did, the conversation inside the restaurant. The motel also rents out
time a renowned ascetic and preacher in his
turned from alien life forms to conspiracy campsites, and West is in the process of clearing
native Antioch, it appears that the feast was first
theories about Area 51 — the secretive military more land to make room for patrons attending
celebrated there on 25 December 386. From
facility about 35 miles west of Alamo. the event.
these centers it spread throughout the Christian
That night, a man from Idaho, who “There’s not a way or walk of life that
East, being adopted in Alexandria around 432
worked on motorcycles for a living, suggested to hasn’t come through those doors in the last 31
and in Jerusalem a century or more later. The
the others around the campfire that they could years,” West said of the conspiracy theorists,
Armenians, alone among ancient Christian
rush the facility on motorcycles, believing the UFO believers and astronomy buffs she’s
churches, have never adopted it, and to this day
military guards wouldn’t be able to stop them hosted. “All are welcome.”
celebrate Christ’s birth, manifestation to the
that way, Holaday recalled. Still, West said she was concerned about
magi, and baptism on January 6th.
Nothing ever came of that scheme people getting hurt or arrested trying to make
Western churches, in turn, gradually
beyond campfire chatter, but Holaday, 59, their way to Area 51. Some have speculated that
adopted the January 6th Epiphany feast from the
thought of it recently when a Facebook event, local law enforcement will shut down roads
East, Rome doing so sometime between 366 and
titled “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of leading to the military facility to prevent anyone
394. But in the West, the feast was generally
Us,” set off an internet frenzy. Even though the from getting close. Lincoln County Sheriff
presented as the commemoration of the visit of
event’s creator, Matty Roberts, claimed it was a Kerry Lee said he could not discuss the details,
the magi to the infant Christ, and as such, it was
hoax and the Air Force warned against anyone but that the agency was prepared.
an important feast, but not one of the most
breaking into the property — located within the Nellis Air Force Base said in a statement
important ones—a striking contrast to its
Nevada Test and Training Range at the Nellis that “any attempt to illegally access the area is
position in the East, where it remains the second
Air Force Base — almost 2 million people have highly discouraged.”
most important festival of the church year,
RSVP’d on Facebook for the Sept. 20 gathering. “Who knows what’s going to happen,”
second only to Pascha (Easter).
“All I thought was, ‘Here we go again,’” West said. “It could happen and be great for
In the East, Epiphany far outstrips
Holaday said, chuckling. As of this week, his business or it could be a financial disaster.”
Christmas. The reason is that the feast celebrates
motel, about 90 miles north of Las Vegas, had Michael Shepherd, 44, a Rachel resident,
Christ’s baptism in the Jordan and the occasion
only two vacant rooms left for the days of the is concerned about the trash that the influx of
on which the Voice of the Father and the Descent event.
of the Spirit both manifested for the first time to visitors could leave behind.
Tourism drawn by talk of extraterrestrial (Continued on Page
mortal men the divinity of the Incarnate Christ