Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God.
The name 'Christmas' comes from the Mass of Christ (or Jesus). A Mass service (which is sometimes called Communion or Eucharist) is where Christians bear in mind that Jesus died for us and then came back to life. The 'Christ-Mass' service was the only one that was permitted to occur after sundown (and before dawn the next day), so people had it at Midnight! So we get the name Christ-Mass, shortened to Christmas.
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Christmas is now commemorated by people around the globe, whether they are Christians or not. It's a time when friends and family come together and keep in mind the good things they have. Individuals, and specifically kids, also like Christmas as it's a time when you provide and get presents!
The Date of Christmas
Nobody understands the genuine birthday of Jesus! No date is given in the Bible, so why do we celebrate it on the 25th December? The early Christians definitely had lots of arguments regarding when it ought to be celebrated! Likewise, the birth of Jesus probably didn't take place in the year 1 however a little previously, someplace in between 2 BCE/BC and 7 BCE/BC, perhaps in 4 BCE/BC (there isn't a 0 - the years go from 1 BC/BCE to 1!).
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The first documented date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th remained in 336, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). But it was not an official Roman state festival at this time.
Nevertheless, there are several customs and theories regarding why Christmas is commemorated on December 25th.
An extremely early Christian custom stated that the day when Mary was told that she would have a very special baby, Jesus (called the Annunciation) was on March 25th - and it's still celebrated today on the 25th March. Nine months after the 25th March is the 25th December! March 25th was likewise the day some early Christians believed the world had actually been made, and likewise the day that Jesus died on when he was an adult. The date of March 25th was picked since people had actually calculated that was the day on which Jesus died as an adult (the 14th of Nisan in the Jewish calendar) and they believed that Jesus was born and had actually passed away on the exact same day of the year.
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Some people likewise think that December 25th might have likewise been chosen due to the fact that the Winter Solstice and the ancient pagan Roman midwinter festivals called 'Saturnalia' and 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' took place in December around this date - so it was a time when individuals already commemorated things.
The Winter Solstice is the day where there is the fastest time between the sun rising and the sun setting. It occurs on December 21st or 22nd. To pagans this suggested that the winter season was over and spring was coming and they had a celebration to celebrate it and worshipped the sun for winning over the darkness of winter season. In Scandinavia, and some other parts of northern Europe, the Winter Solstice is known as Yule and is where we get Yule Logs from. In Eastern Europe the mid-winter festival is called Koleda.
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The Roman Celebration of Saturnalia occurred between December 17th and 23rd and honoured the Roman god Saturn. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti implies 'birthday of the unconquered sun' and was held on December 25th (when the Romans believed the Winter Solstice happened) and was the 'birthday' of the Pagan Sun god Mithra. In the pagan faith of Mithraism, the holy day was Sunday and is where get that word from!
The Roman emperor Aurelian produced 'Sol Invictus' in 274. However there are records of early Christians connecting 14th Nisan to 25th March and so the 25th December go back to around 200!
The Jewish celebration of Lights, Hanukkah starts on the 25th of Kislev (the month in the Jewish calendar that occurs at about the exact same time as December). Hanukkah celebrates when the Jewish people were able to re-dedicate and praise in their Temple, in Jerusalem, once again following several years of not being allowed to practice their religious beliefs.
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Jesus was a Jew, so this might be another factor that helped the early Church choose December the 25th for the date of Christmas!
Christmas had likewise been commemorated by the early Church on January 6th, when they also commemorated the Epiphany (which indicates the discovery that Jesus was God's boy) and the Baptism of Jesus. Now Epiphany primarily commemorates the check out of the Wise Men to the infant Jesus, however at that time it commemorated both things! Jesus's Baptism was originally seen as more crucial than his birth, as this was when he began his ministry. However soon people desired a different day to commemorate his birth.
The majority of the world uses the 'Gregorian Calendar' implemented by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. Before that the 'Roman' or Julian Calendar was used (called after Julius Caesar). The Gregorian calendar is more precise that the Roman calendar which had a lot of days in a year! When the switch was made 10 days were lost, so that the day that followed the fourth October 1582 was 15th October 1582. In the UK the modification of calendars was made in 1752. The day after second September 1752 was 14th September 1752.
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Many Orthodox and Coptic Churches still use the Julian Calendar and so commemorate Christmas on the 7th January (which is when December 25th would have been on the Julian calendar). And the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates it on the sixth January! In some part of the UK, January 6th is still called 'Old Christmas' as this would have been the day that Christmas would have commemorated on, if the calendar had not been changed. Some individuals didn't wish to utilize the new calendar as they thought it 'cheated' them out of 11 days!
Christians believe that Jesus is the light of the world, so the early Christians thought that this was the right time to commemorate the birth of Jesus. They likewise took over some of the custom-mades from the Winter Solstice and gave them Christian meanings, like Holly, Mistletoe and even Christmas Carols!
St Augustine of Canterbury was the individual who probably began the widespread celebration of Christmas in large parts of England by presenting Christianity to the regions run by the Anglo-Saxons in the 6th century (other Celtic parts of Britain were currently Christian but there aren't many documents about if or how they celebrated the birth of Jesus). St Augustine of Canterbury was sent by Pope Gregory the Great in Rome which church utilized the Roman Calendar, so western nations commemorate Christmas on the 25th December. Then people from Britain and Western Europe took Christmas on the 25th December all over the world!
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