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A Different Way To Look At Why We Celebrate Christmas On December 25th
People enjoy Christmas because it's a time for giving and receiving gifts, especially for children!
Posted By- Khyati Rathod | Posted On - Sep 29, 2022
Christians commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, whom they believe to be the Son of God, by celebrating Christmas.
Christmas got its name from the Mass of Christ (or Jesus). Christians commemorate the death of Jesus for us and his subsequent resurrection during a Mass service, which is also referred to as Communion or Eucharist. Only the "Christ-Mass" service was permitted to begin after dusk (and before dawn the following day), so people attended it at Midnight! As a result, Christ-Mass is now known as Christmas.
Whether they are Christians or not, people now celebrate Christmas all over the world. It's a time when friends and family get together to celebrate their blessings. People enjoy Christmas because it's a time for giving and receiving gifts, especially for children!
Date of Christmas
Nobody is aware of Jesus' actual birthday! Why do we observe it on December 25 if the Bible doesn't specify a day? The question of when to celebrate it was undoubtedly a contentious one among the early Christians. Jesus' birth probably didn't occur in the year 1 but rather a little earlier, possibly in the year 4 BCE/BC (there isn't a 0 - the years go from 1 BC/BCE to 1!).
Christmas was celebrated on December 25 for the first time on record in 336, under the rule of Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). But at the time, it was not a recognized Roman state festival.
However, there are numerous customs and explanations for why Christmas is observed on December 25.
According to a very early Christian tradition, the Annunciation—now celebrated on March 25—was the day Mary was informed she would give birth to Jesus, a very special child. The 25th of December is nine months from the 25th of March.
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Early Christians also believed that the world was created on March 25, that Jesus died on that day when he was an adult, and that the two events occurred on the same day of the year. Because it was close to the March/Vernal Equinox, the date was chosen (when the date and night are of equal length in March).
According to the Jewish calendar, Jesus passed away on Nisan 14, which is also the day of the Passover holiday. The Jewish calendar follows the Gregorian calendar's dates because it is lunar (based on the moon rather than fixed dates). Jesus was conceived on Nisan 10, according to the teachings of Saint Ephrem the Syrian (306–373)! In order to denote these "movable" dates on the Jewish calendar, March 25th was made a "fixed" date on the Gregorian calendar.
Christmas or XMAS
Xmas is another name for Christmas. Some believe that calling Christmas "Xmas" is incorrect because it removes the "Christ" (Jesus) from the holiday. (Christmas is derived from Christ-Mass, the Christian celebration of Jesus' birth.)
But that's not exactly correct! Greek letter chi (pronounced "kye"; rhymes with "eye"), which is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Christos, is the letter that resembles an X in the Greek language and alphabet.
The early church made a monogram (symbol) to represent the name of Jesus using the first two Greek letters of Christos, "chi" and "rho." This appears to be an X with a tiny p at the top:
Christians occasionally use the image of a fish as a symbol (you might see a fish sticker on a car or someone wearing a little fish badge). The first Christians had to meet in secret at that time because the Romans wanted to kill them (before Emperor Constantine became a Christian). People began to use the symbol after Jesus said he wanted to make his followers "Fishers of Men."
When two Christians met, one of them sketched out a basic fish shape with their foot in the ground's dust, and the other one sketched out the other half. "Ikthus" or "Ichthys" is the Greek word for fish. The word has five Greek letters in total. It can also be used to form the Christian belief phrase "Ie-sous Christos Theou Huios So-te-r," which translates to "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour" in English. The second of these five letters, X, stands for Christos.
Thus, Xmas can also mean Christmas; however, it should be said as "Christmas" rather than "ex-mas"!
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