Things you mightn't know about Christmas

Some information you won’t find in a cracker:

1. For the first three centuries of Christianity, the Church did not celebrate Christmas. The major Church festival was Easter Pentecost. It was only in the fourth century AD that the Church began to celebrate the events connected with the birth of Jesus.

2. Nobody knows the actual date of Jesus’ birth. Based on Matthew’s Gospel and the references to King Herod the Great, the accepted year of Jesus’ birth is 4 BC, according to our modern Gregorian calendar.

3. It’s very unlikely that Jesus was born in December or in winter, for Luke tells us that the shepherds were out in the fields with their sheep. This is something Palestinian shepherds did not do in wintertime.

4. The date of December 25th has to do with the winter solstice. For the pagan Romans this astronomical phenomenon became an event of religious significance. They turned the solstice into a two-week religious festival in which they celebrated the birthday of Sol Invictus (The Unconquerable Sun). As with many other pagan Roman feasts, the early Christians took it over and sanctified it as the festival of the birthday of the Son of God.

5. Our word “Christmas” comes from the Old English Christes Mæsse, which means “Christ’s Mass.” The first recorded use of Christes Mæsse dates from 1038 AD.

6. While the commercial Christmas ends with the close of business on Christmas Eve, the liturgical Season of Christmas begins on Christmas Eve with Midnight Mass and continues until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, (which takes place this season on January 12, 2014).