According to our Armenian Apostolic faith, Jesus Christ was born on January 6th.  
 However, according to hearsay, since the Romans controlled Jerusalem during those 
early biblical times and had been mandating a yearly census for tax collection on 
December 25th, the early Christians logically decided to use December 25 as the day 
of our Lord’s birth.   This, of course, eliminated an extra need to travel since 
traveling in those early biblical days was prone to many dangers.   And so it came 
to pass that Western Christians adopted December 25 as Christmas while early Eastern
 Christians remained with January 6th.   Who’s right?  I don’t know but since our 
Lord, Jesus Christ, is Eternal, I don’t think He would quibble over the difference 
of a few weeks.   What’s more, I don’t believe He would mind having two birthdays. 
   As things stand today, the larger part of the Christian world and the United 
States of America, recognize December 25 as Christmas.   And accordingly, I also 
recognize December 25 as Christmas.   At the same time, I also acknowledge and 
respect January 6th as Armenian Christmas.   Nevertheless, I have some reservations
 because my Armenian Apostolic Church in North America remains physically divided. 
  I therefore feel that if the leaders of my Apostolic Christian faith, can interpret
 faith according to their personal or political self-seeking interests, then I 
can do a little interpretating of my own.  And in this regard, I don’t think that
 our Lord will condemn me or most of our assimilating youth who interpret things 
as I do.   Do I consider myself less of an Armenian for feeling this way?   Not by
 a long shot.   What’s more, if for whatever reason I’m not allowed to get on that 
elevator going up, I am certain it won’t be because of my choice as to which 
Christmas I chose to celebrate.   And if by some miraculous chance, if our religious
 leaders become more Christian and make our North American churches one again, 
I may not give up on December 25, but I’ll surely become more reverent on January
 6th than I have been lately.  Who knows.   I may even start going to church and 
start singing in the choir again.   Come to think of it, if both of our Prelacy
 and Diocese church leaders could come to terms by combining their Christmas and
 Easter masses in the same church with both Diocese and Prelacy faithfuls in 
attendance, it could be the start of a giant step toward reuniting our North 
American churches again. Meantime, I would like to wish all of our December 25th
 celebrants a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.   And to all of our 
divided January 6th celebrants, I would like to wish a united and Happy New
 Year and a very united Merry Christmas as well.  
 
Joseph Vosbikian