Seeker

When someone's birth date is unknown and that person is significant then designating a 'birthday' seems like a good idea. It doesn't matter that the 'birthday' chosen isn't the 'real' one when you simply want to celebrate someone's life and all it means to you. Isn't that what birthdays are for? So we have 25th December for the birth of Jesus of Nazareth when no-one knows what day of what month Jesus was born and even the year is subject to scholarly argument. Similarly the fact that Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and many Anglican churches celebrate 'The Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary' today, 8th September, doesn't mean she was born that day. The date was probably chosen because it was the beginning of the Byzantine year and the Eastern Orthodox liturgical year. The traditional festival began in Jerusalem in the 5th century and was adopted in the Roman church in the 6th/7th centuries.  The icon in the image above shows a rath...