Madam, - G.F., in his interesting piece "Why the Magi meant so much to Matthew" (Thinking Anew, January 10th) tells only half the story when he writes: "Anyone who has lived in Spain will know that. . .January 6th is far more significant than December 25th". One should go further and ask: "Why was this?"
The answer is that Christmas on December 25th was not celebrated anywhere before 354 AD, when the first celebration took place in Rome. Advent ran through to the Epiphany on January 6th, which was the "showing forth" of Jesus at his baptism in Jordan (an emphasis still prevalent in the Orthodox churches), not as an infant before the Magi.
Thus the fine Manx scholar F.C. Conybeare observed in 1926 that "our earliest Spanish lectionary, the Liber Comicus of Toledo, provides lections for five Sundays in Advent, and the Gospel lections chosen regard the baptism of Christ, not His birth". - Yours, etc.,
Dr MARTIN PULBROOK, New Meeting House, Prince's Street, Cork.