Importance of Christmas

Christmas as the emergence of the central celebration of Christianity

We define Christmas as one of the most important holidays in the world of Christianity, deriving from the Latin term Nativitas which means in our language Birth, and is together with Pentecost and Easter of Resurrection one of the most celebrated, considering the commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ in the city of Belen. Christmas is a way of congregating the faithful of Christianity, in all its different versions, around of the Manger where the baby Jesus is born and where we reflect on the miracle of God's presence in our life.

What does Christmas represent? This holiday is essential to all of Christianity because it is, in other words, the beginning of its most direct faith. On this date the birth of Jesus, son of God and his direct representative on Earth is celebrated. In this way, with Christmas the process of diffusion of Christianity throughout the Earth begins to develop historically, which deepens and increases after the death of Jesus. It is usually presented in the form of a manger, the place that represents the shed where the baby Jesus was born, and with certain foods. Nowadays, in any case, Christmas appears colored by other customs inherited from the countries of the North, for example the presence of Santa Claus or magical figures such as elves and reindeer.

Christmas traditions around the world

As noted earlier, Christmas today is celebrated everywhere in a similar style due to the remnants of the globalization that makes different regions take traditions from North. However, there are traditions that are characteristics of each part of the planet and that also depend on issues such as the climate. For example, in the southern hemisphere, meals are usually cold and light, unlike the caloric food in the north. Gifts are delivered in some parts of the world at twelve o'clock while in other places boys and girls open them the next morning. On the other hand, it is increasingly common in some places to have dinner in restaurants rather than in private homes, while in many countries it is common to wait for it in civic and public centers, fairs where the inhabitants of the town. It is estimated that a total of 70% of the world population celebrates this festivity.

Christmas is celebrated on December 25 both in the Catholic Church and in the Anglican Church or in variations of the Church Protestant, in addition to the Romanian Orthodox Church, while as far as the Orthodox Church is concerned, this celebration takes place on January 7, due to not accept the reform of the Gregorian Calendar, maintaining the traditional Julian Calendar prior to the modifications made precisely by the Pope Gregory XIII.

In the Anglo-Saxon countries the word Christmas is used to define this festivity, defining the Mass of Christ as such, while in the languages ​​of Germanic origin it is referenced under the name of Weihnachten, which in our language has the meaning of Blessing Night, maintaining in both ethnic groups the custom of celebrating the Birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

Christmas in the different calendars and the ways of dating it

As regards references to the Catholic Encyclopedia, curiously we do not find this celebration registered in the list of those Christian Festivities that belong to the Irenaeus list, nor in Tertullian's list, these being the oldest notations in regard to celebrations.

On the contrary, the oldest data of it was found in Alexandria, in the year 200 after Christ, when the investigation carried out by theologians who, according to Clement of Alexandria, would have discovered and established as a royal day of birth on May 20 (in its original language, 25 Coptic pahons) in the twenty-eighth year of August.

From the year 221 d. C., with the creation of the work Chronographiai, it was that the celebration of December 25 as the date of birth of Jesus became quite popular, this being narrated by Sextus Julio Africano, while for the year 325, when the Council of Nicaea I was held, it was the Alexandrian Church itself that established the Díes Nativitatis et Epifaníae for said date.