My Christmas Vacation

                                                                                          " 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.