25-12-2020

December 26, 2020

Yesterday I read Why Christmas is celebrated on 25th December Let's learn about it...?

Christmas is close and, despite the pandemic, the cheer is in the air. Though there will be less parties considering the Coronavirus pandemic, one can still celebrate with whom they are staying and attend the mass at the Church.It is common belief that Christmas is the birth day of Jesus but honestly, the Bible never mentions the birthday of Jesus.td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}

Christmas is an abbreviation of Christ's mass. It is a day where one who believes is supposed to attend a mass in honour of Jesus and to celebrate his birth in our world, but it was never considered his birthday originally. Some suggest as he was born when shepherds were around he might be a spring baby; while others suggest he was a September child.Well the clue is in the way it's celebrated. Most Christian festivals do not encourage any celebration that might be considered pagan but Christmas is filled with traditions of bringing a tree in, decorating it, feasting, and so forth.That is because all these traditions were brought in from other European festivals celebrated around the same time that Christmas replaced.For instance, in Rome, end December marked Saturnalia, the celebration of Saturn which was done amid a lot of feasting and pomp. Some Romans also worshipped Mithras, who was supposed to have been born on the 25th of December.In the Nordic religion, end of December was when Yule was celebrated- a festival where evergreen trees would be bought into the house to celebrate the perseverance of nature and animal sacrifices would be made to the Gods Odin, Njord, Freyr and on the appropriate days, the goddesses, Freya and Frigg. Those celebrating would pray for better times ahead and for their departed ancestors. Then they would feast and revel as well.

All these festivals took place around the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year, which even other cultures would celebrate. Even as Christianity started spreading in Europe, it was found difficult to get people to give up their age-old celebrations. Thus many of them were adapted to Christmas rather than suppressed and that is why, until recently, it was celebrated quite differently everywhere.

The evergreen Yuletide tree was decorated with apples to signify the fruit of knowledge Adam and Eve consumed and that tradition gave way to Christmas ornaments we use today. The feasting and drinking from all religions was now done on the day of Christ's mass, which was on the day of Mithras's birthday.