Just in case you missed it, this is what Doug's cult says about the time of the birth of Christ:
>>Neither can Easter claim to be the time of Christ's conception, His birth coming in the autumn (3312 years before His death in the spring).<<
He also says:
>> Yet God makes no mention of the equinox in relation to the timing of Passover, only of the new moon and the beginning of the spring harvest. <<
... and Easter starts, not in relation to the equinox, but in relation to the first new moon after the equinox. If it started in relation to the equinox, it would be on the same day every year. The lunar calendar is tied to the solar calendar by the equinoxes, so no, God didn't mention the equinoxes. But what defines a lunar month?
>> The length of the festival varied greatly from five days in Rome to 11 in Mesopotamia and included the ancients' New Year's festivals. <<
Funny. Three is less than five to 11. What's the connection.
>> Some involved a week of fasting and purification before the festival proper began. <<
Yes, fasting exists in nearly every culture. (Pagans eat; I guess eating must be pagan, too.) But how does one week of fasting relate to 40 days? It doesn't.
>> As mentioned, the actual rites of Isis lasted one day and two nights. In Byblos the death of Adonis was mourned for two days by Venus Urania before he was resurrected and ascended into heaven, accompanied by great joy. Kybele mourned for Attis for two days before finding him and celebrating throughout the third day.<<
When Jesus died, the sky turned black. Day became night. Even pagan observers wrote, bewildered at the occurence. Then daylight broke again. Then "normal night" came. Then daylight broke again. Then another normal night. Then daylight broke again. And with the break of dawn, Jesus rose from the dead. This sounds odd, but it reconciles what would otherwise be a conflict in the scriptures: some places say he rose on the third day. Others said he would rise after three days. But "on the third day," means at most two days.
>> Easter specifically also seems to celebrate political corruption, murder and incest. <<
Huh? I'll leave it up to y'all to decide if your Easter observances celebrate corruption, murder and incest.
Where does the date of Easter come from? Well, since it NEVER falls as early as March 21, that's an odd explanation that Doug has. And of course, there's no historical record of when Jesus was born. But we actually do know when he died: March 25th (or April 6th, according to the Julian calendar, IIRC). So figure Easter was on the third day after that, and you get March 27th.
But the li'l cultist isn't completely off the mark, for the dates of Easter and Christmas are, in fact, related. It was a commonly held notion of the ancient Jews that great prophets died on the day of their conception. Hence, March 25th (and NOT March 21st!) is also held by the Catholic Church to be the date of the conception of Jesus. Count nine months forward, and you get to December 25th. (40 weeks was a little advanced for a primitive culture which could not detect the moment of conception. So, they counted estrous cycles, starting from the skipped one.)
Now it so happens that December 25th is also the date of the re-dedication of Solomon's Temple. Now, if a Protestant wants to reject the book of Maccabees which explains this in detail, I can't stop him. But, for the record, this is the Feast of the Dedication, which *IS* in Protestant bibles. Now, the temple was held to be the divine presence of God dwelling among Man. Jesus claimed HE was the temple. So again, it's a good guess (albeit hardly proof) that he was born on Dec. 25th. A good enough guess anyway that in the absence of any concrete knowledge, the early Christians could suppose it was then better than any other date.
Was Jesus born in the fall? I've never heard that. Usually, I've heard he was born in the Spring. This notion is based on the fact that the shepherds were in the fields, keeping night watch over their flock (Luke 2)... and supposedly they would only do that in the Spring. Sorry, but I've heard too many cases wherein bible "experts" asserted what the ancient Jews would or would not have done... and they've almost always been proven wrong. But maybe he was born in the Spring. Or the fall. Big deal... we know why the early Christians supposed he was born in December; even if thet were wrong, their reasoning was still pius.