What Month Was Jesus Born In?

DESCRIPTION: "What month was Jesus born in? Last month in the year." The song details Jesus' birth in December and the humble cercumstances of his birth.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recording, Heavenly Gospel Singers)
KEYWORDS: Bible religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 58-59, "(What Month Was Jesus Born In?") (1 text); pp. 245-246, "What Month Was Jesus Born In?" (1 tune, partial text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 384, "Tell Me What Month Was My Jesus Born In?" (1 text)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, various authors, "A Singing Stream: A Black Family Chronicle" [an entire issue about a documentary of the Landis Family], Vol. XXXVI, No. 1 (Winter 1989), p. 53, "When Was Jesus Born?" (1 text, contained in the script of the documentary)
Roud #13975
RECORDINGS:
Vera Ward Hall, "No Room At the Inn/The Last Month of the Year" (on NFMAla5) (on LomaxCD1706); "What Month Was Jesus Born In" (on ReedWard01)
Heavenly Gospel Singers, "When Was Jesus Born?" (Bluebird B-8907, 1941; on Babylon)
Pete Seeger, "What Month Was Jesus Born" (on PeteSeeger12)
NOTES [110 words]: It should be noted that there is no Biblical evidence that Jesus was born in December; indeed, those scholars who have an opinion generally think he was born in spring.
In any case, December was not always the "last month of the year"; in the classical Roman calendar, it was the tenth month, and even after this changed, it was remembered for quite some time. In addition, for much of the Middle Ages, the new year began on March 25 (approximating the equinox).
Even if we ignore all that, Jesus was Jewish, and would have used the Jewish calendar, which had no month of December. Nor was its (approximate) equivalent of December the last month of the year. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: CNFM245

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