In the 1600's, Bishop Ussher of Armagh calculated that God had created the heaven and the earth on Sunday October 23rd, 4004 BC, precisely at 12 o'clock; that Noah's Ark had floated upon the Flood 1659 years later and that Solomon had sung his Song in 1074 BC.
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Christmas as a celebration was suppressed by the Christian churches themselves in Scotland and much of New England until the last century.