" CHRISTMAS"
“Christmas” (Christ
Mass) originally referred to the Catholic Mass celebrated at midnight on
December 24 in honor of Christ’s birth.
God’s willingness
to become a human being reveals that God wants to be close to us, that our
human body is God’s good creation, to be one day restored to its original
perfection, that the man Jesus was the closest revelation of God’s perfection
that He can reveal to this sinful world, and, lastly, that it was consistent
with God’s character to be willing to lay aside his divine glory and to be
humbled for our salvation.
Christ was born in
September or October. This is indicated
by His death at Passover in March or April, by the fact that it still was warm
enough for the flocks to be in the field at night, by the custom of the Romans
to arrange censuses at a time that would be convenient for the people, and,
lastly, because the Feast of Tabernacles, that falls late in September or early
in October, was a time of joy and the presence of God, and therefore an
appropriate time for the birth of Christ.
Christians did not
have “Christmas” during the first two centuries. This custom entered the church in the third
or fourth centuries. At that time
December 25th was the pagan feast of the birthday of the Invincible Sun, when
after the winter solstice, the days began to lengthen and the ‘invincible’ sun
triumphed again over darkness, and which they celebrated with “the most
splendid games”, the kindling of fires, a profusion of light and torches and
the decoration of branches and small trees.
This feast had captivated the followers of the cult to such a degree
that even after they had been converted to Christianity they continued to
celebrate the feast. To facilitate the
acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the church found it convenient to
institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ, to divert
them from the pagan feast.
The term “Christmas”
is a compound of two words that derive from the Old English Crista Masseuses, the
Mass of Christ, that is, the Catholic Mass celebrated at midnight on December
24 in honor of Christ’s birth.
ALL ABOUT MY CHRISTMAS VACATION
Christmas to me is a celebration, which includes spending time with my family, decorating the entire house, inside and out, and shopping, for the people I love. Doing this with the people I love is what means the most to me. I feel so fortunate, to have my family throughout the year, but especially, at Christmas time. When showing, my family just how much I love them and what exactly they mean to me. That is so very important to me. Christmas, for me is about being with family, loving each other and showing each other just exactly how we all feel.
