“Save the best for the last.”
This is how we can describe Christmas in the simplest way possible as it is an important celebration for many people around the world. It is celebrated before we bid goodbye to the previous year and welcome the new one filled with positive hopes and expectations.
But do we even know how this event actually began? Some of us may already be familiar, but let us nourish our knowledge further and deepen the understanding that we already have regarding the most wonderful time of the year.
The birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ is the main reason for celebrating Christmas for Christians. The English term “Christmas” actually came from “mass on Christ’s day.” In other languages, “Feliz Navidad” is how “Merry Christmas” is greeted in Spanish. “Buon Natale” in Italian and “Joyeux Noël” in french. These phrases simply mean happy greetings of nativity.
The whole world is delighted to receive the most beautiful gift that the earth has ever received from God — none other than His only begotten Son. Filled with love and joy, Christmas is also a special day for the families and relatives to gather together and share gifts with one another.
Way back on early times, there was a strong opposition regarding the pagan event of celebrating and recognizing birthdays of martyrs, including of Jesus’. A mass number of Church Fathers leave sarcastic comments, for they believe that a commemoration of the day of the martyrs’ martyrdom should be honored instead from the Church’s own perspective.
The actual day of Christ’s birthday was never really proved to be during the 25th day of December, as what we know it’s exact day to be it is. But various calculations are made by different philosophers and historians in order to come up to atleast the most accurate and closest day and time when Jesus was born.
Christian traveler and historian of the late second and early third centuries, Sextus Julius Africanus was the first one to identify Jesus’ birth date to be December 25th. It is then later became the universally accepted date. An ubiquitous explanation of the origin of this date is that the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati (day of the birth of the unconquered sun) was held on this day. The said event is a popular holiday in the Roman Empire in which the winter solstice serves as a symbol of the reappearance of the sun as a sign of the beginning of spring.
Right after making December 25 as the official day of Christmas globally, Christian writers made a connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son, for a mind opening fact due to its undeniable resemblance that can be observed.
Another view tells us that December 25 became the birth of Christ by a prior reasoning that states that the spring equinox is the time when the fourth day of the creation day occured, and after light was created. March 25 is the estimated date of Jesus’ conception in which we can conclude that nine months later, he was then born (December 25). His baptism which is celebrated every January 6, is observed to be in line with his birthday as the events happened simutaneously.
It already became a part of tradition every Christmas that we send gifts to our loved ones, even to those who are far from us. This gift giving is similar to when the three wise men (Gaspar, Melchor and Baltazar) or the magi, came to Bethlehem to offer gifts to the baby Jesus as part of worshipping Him. Sending Christmas cards also became a practice, in which a greeting and message is composed together with the gifts wrapped in a box.
Christmas can be celebrated in a variety of ways, whether extravagant or just simple. The presence of the people that we love around us is what makes this day extra special and through which we can feel its true spirit. Most importantly, the true meaning of Christmas should never be extinguished from our minds and hearts. It is by spreading the love with one another not just by giving material things, but by making each other feel special when we have the chance.
Indeed, it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Maria Angela Patrice M. Mabutol
Writer, Content Management Team - Media Ministry
Maria Angela Patrice M. Mabutol was a former senior high school student at Eastern Star Academy and took HUMSS Strand under Academic Track. She was a former member and writer of Aranzes Journal at NSDAPS. Aside from being passionate in writing, she is also into photography and music. Angela is a firm believer that life is just a matter of perspective that if you change your view, the rest will follow. Being a part of Media and Public Information Ministry is a dream come true for her, as it allows her to express her faith not just from being an active parish worker, but through her talent and skills which she thinks people deserve to be shared with.
