Christians around the world are celebrating Christmas, which marks the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem.

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"Millennial festivities would not even exist were it not for the Gregorian calendar structured around the birth of Jesus Christ, " said the writer, who pointed out that China had its own well-established dating system centuries before the Western one went into effect.

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Before the Revolution, Russia had not yet adopted the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to mitigate the errors of the Julian calendar, which owes its name to the Roman emperor who had chosen it 46 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.

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He said many of those who put themselves down at Christian did so because they thought of themselves "as a good person" rather than due to belief in the virgin birth, or of Jesus Christ as the son of God.

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