medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
One explanation (e.g., in Roland Bainton's study of the earliest celebrations of Christmas in Egypt and elsewhere) is that the calendars were so out of line with actual astronomical observations by the time of Christ that the solistices and equinoxes were occurring, at least in some calendars, around the 25th of the month rather than the 20th-22nd. I do not know enough about astronomy to be able to explain this and I haven't read Bainton's book, only an article and that was 20 years ago. I'm sure there are more thorough discussions of it. But the basic point is that the major feasts were fixed on what was the solistic/equinox by their calendar (March 25th for the Annunciation, Christmas 9 mos later; John the Baptist therefore had to be on June 24 or 25th or thereabouts because Scripture has him six months old (gestation) at the time of Christ's conception.
Exactly why June 24th was chosen rather than June 25th, I don't know. If that was your specific question, I don't have an answer. I'm sure someone else knows far more about it. But the slight discrepancy from the actual solar equinoxes has to do with the imperfections of calendars that were preserved for social and religious reasons long after they had gotten "out of whack" astronomically.
I have just finished working through Ludolf of Saxony on the birth of John the Baptist and he does not employ the "He must increase, I must decrease explanation" (late 14thc). Perhaps other medieval writers did; perhaps it is a more modern explanation--since medieval folik did celebrate the solistice on June 24, I don't think the 3-day discrepancy would have been a problem for us. We are the ones who have the solistice fixed on the 20th, 21st, or 22nd, based on precise astronomy. They didn't.
Dennis Martin
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