As you finish your last-minute preparations for Christmas, has it occurred to you that sometime between 5 am and 11 am tomorrow (depending on the ages of your children), the majority of the chaos will be over?  It seems like a lot us rush around like crazy from Thanksgiving to Christmas with a list of never-ending errands.  Then by Christmas afternoon, most of the fuss is over.  It seems like an awful lot of effort for one morning–but wait a minute-this is the day that splits history.

According to David Harper, Ph.D., F.R.A.S., in A Brief History Of The Calendar, a monk named Dionysius Exiguus in Russia was calculating the dates of Easter.  In the process, he referred to the years in his calculations Anni Domini Jesu Christi.  That was the beginning of the concept of A.D.  Our history is split according to the birth of Jesus.  As long as we are dividing time with the abbreviations A.D. of B.C., we are acknowledging the fact that Jesus’ birth was the most significant event in hisory.  So as you go about your errands and last minute chores, remember that even though it seems as if all the effort will be for a few hours, the reality is that we are celebrating the day that split history.

Merry Christmas!