In The Faith - A Chronicle of the Christian Faith

Christmas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Christmas (i.e. the Mass of Christ) is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar which takes place around the end of December and celebrates the nativity of Jesus Christ. Christmas is also celebrated as a secular holiday throughout much of the world. The precise date of the birth and historicity of Jesus are hotly debated (see Jesus). The word “Christmas” is often abbreviated to “Xmas”, the “X” being an uppercase Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of “Christos” in Greek. The abbreviation is widely but not universally accepted; some view it as demeaning to the name of Christ.

Date of Celebration

Christmas is celebrated on December 25 in all Christian churches (Eastern Rite Roman & Protestant), but since most Eastern Orthodox churches have not accepted either the Gregorian calendar or the Revised Julian Calendar reforms, the Ecclesiastic December 25 will fall on the civil date of January 7 for the years between 1900 to 2099. The date comes from the tradition that Jesus was born during The Jewish Festival of Lights (i.e. Hanukkah the 25th of Kislev – the beginning of Tevet) Kislev being accepted generally to correspond with December. Though, Christmas really was based on the Jewish winter feast of the dedication (Hanukkah), Hanukkah itself was based upon Saturnalia. The modern popular choice of 5BC for the year of Jesus’s birth would place the 25th of Kislev on the 25th of November with the Old Julian calendar.

Traditionally in the United Kingdom the Christmas season ran for twelve days following Christmas Day, the twelve days of Christmas, a period of feasting and merrymaking that ended on Twelfth Night, the Feast of the Epiphany. This period corresponds with the liturgical season of Christmas.

History of the Date of Christmas

Many scholars have argued over the exact birthday and year of Christs birth. It is not a conclusive matter. It is probably impossible to say that He was born on one date or another. What we do know is that the year was between 5-7BC due to the astrological pnomen at that time, and the date of the Census. Where these coincide there we have the most likely date. Some say it was not possible to have been born in deep winter. But this is speculation. The fairest thing is to say that He was born probably between October and March 5-7BC. Originally, Christmas’ date was set to correspond with Roman festival of the birth of the Sun God Mithra. As early as A.D. 354, the Birth of Christ was celebrated on Dec. 25th in Rome. Other cities had other traditional dates. The history of Christmas is closely associated with that of the Epiphany. The earliest body of gospel tradition, represented by Mark no less than by the primitive non-Marcan document embodied in the first and third gospels, begins, not with the birth and childhood of Jesus, but with His baptism; and this order of accretion of gospel matter is faithfully reflected in the time order of the invention-of feasts. The great church adopted Christmas much later than Epiphany, and before the 5th century there was no general consensus of opinion as to when it should come in the calendar, whether on the 6th of January, or the 25th of March, or the 25th of December.

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