Christmas Eve is the evening or
entire day preceding Christmas Day, the widely celebrated annual festival
commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. It occurs on December 24 in the Western Christian
Church, and is considered one of the most culturally significant celebrations
in Christendom and the Western world, where it widely observed as a full or
partial holiday in anticipation of Christmas Day.
One reason celebrations occur on
Christmas Eve is because the traditional Christian liturgical day starts at
sunset, an inheritance from Jewish tradition, which in turn is based in the
story of creation in Genesis: "And there was evening, and there was
morning – the first day." This liturgical day is followed for all days in
the Eastern rite, and the custom of beginning Christmas celebration (as well as
Sunday and the other major festivals) in the preceding evening is preserved in
western Churches that have altered the liturgical day to start at midnight, for
example the Roman Catholic Church. Many churches still ring their church bells
and hold prayers in the evening before holidays; for example, the Nordic
Lutheran churches. In some languages, such as the Scandinavian, Christmas Eve
is simply referred to as "Christmas Evening".
Since Christian tradition holds
that Jesus was born at night (based in Luke 2:6-8), Midnight Mass is celebrated
on Christmas Eve, traditionally at midnight, in commemoration of his birth. The
idea of Jesus being born at night is reflected in the fact that Christmas Eve is
referred to as "Heilige Nacht" ("Holy Night") in German,
"Nochebuena" ("the Good Night") in Spanish and similarly in
other expressions of Christmas spirituality, such as the song "Silent
Night, Holy Night".
Christmas day
Christmas
(Old English: Crīstesmæsse,
meaning "Christ's Mass") is an annual commemoration of the birth of
Jesus Christ and a widely observed holiday, celebrated generally on December 25
by billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian
liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of
Christmastide. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is
celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part
of the Christmas and holiday season.
The precise year of Jesus' birth,
which some historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. His birth is
mentioned in two of the four Canonical Gospels. By the early-to-mid 4th
century, the Western Christian Church had placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted in
the East. The date of Christmas may have initially been chosen to correspond
with the day exactly nine months after early Christians believed Jesus to have
been conceived, as well as the date of the southern solstice (i.e., the Roman
winter solstice), with a sun connection being possible because Christians
consider Jesus to be the "Sun of righteousness" prophesied in Malachi
4:2.
The original date of the
celebration in Eastern Christianity was January 6, in connection with
Epiphany, and that is still the date of the celebration for the Armenian Apostolic
Church and in Armenia, where
it is a public holiday. As of 2012, there is a difference of 13 days between
the modern Gregorian calendar and the older Julian calendar. Those who continue
to use the Julian calendar or its equivalents thus celebrate December 25 and
January 6 on what for the majority of the world is January 7 and January 19.
For this reason, Ethiopia, Russia, Ukraine,
Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia,
and the Republic
of Moldova celebrate
Christmas on what in the Gregorian calendar is January 7; all the Greek
Orthodox Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25.
