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Gift Ideas Food & Recipes Decorations Christmas Trees Crafts Messages Printables Christmas 2019 Christmas Day 2019 is on Wednesday, December 25th, 2019! MERRY CHRISTMAS 2019 Christmas is the biggest festival in all over the world. People of all countries irrespective of their religion celebrate the Christmas with fun and party. Christmas is considered as the birthday of Jesus Christ whose life, influenced the mankind most. His life changed the way people live and think. Christmas has become a phenomenon for more than two millennia, seen as both a commercial, religious and cultural event. And this religious celebration has been commonly observed on the 25 th day of December by billions of people around the world. Millions of people sacrificed their life to promote his principles, parents taught their children the values of his principle and introduced Jesus Christ as their family members who has sacrificed himself to save them. People even consider the time as his year (AD). Though the exact date is not mentioned in the bible by either Matthew or Luke, billions of Christians around the globe celebrate Christmas on 25 th December every year. The celebration has become such a phenomenon that the whole of December turns into a celebratory mood two to three weeks before the specific day. Some of the Christmas customs include decorating Christmas trees, holding feasts, exchanging gifts, families and friends coming together, singing of corals, church processions, and others believe in Santa’s visit. This day was declared a federal holiday in 1870 in the United States. However, to better understand the significance and history of this day, we have to look into the aspects surrounding this auspicious day in details. Christmas Day 2020 Friday, 25 December Image used under Creative Commons. https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottfeldstein/66473478 Christmas 2019 Let us ready to welcome Christmas 2019 christmas 2019 (Image used under Creative Commons) SOURCE : https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottfeldstein/66473478 Christmas History Christmas, the most anticipated Holiday of billions of people around the globe has its roots in ancient pagan traditions. Long ago, even before Jesus was born the mid-winter season was celebrated around the world. Winter season meant extreme weather conditions and on the Winter solstice people celebrated the coming of longer days and extended sunlight hours. One of the early celebrations of Christmas was seen among the Mesopotamians around 4000 years ago. The celebration was called ‘ Zagmuk ’ the Romans celebrated Saturnalia, in remembrance of their God of Agriculture -Saturn. The celebrations began before the winter solace and continued for a month or so. For centuries, Christians celebrated Easter as the main festival and only around the fourth century the Church officials decided to announce a holiday in the name of Jesus Christ on his birthday. Pope Julius I chose December 25th as the birthday of Jesus Christ and soon the celebrations became popular in countries nearby. Christmas had a different name in the beginning; it was called as the Feast of the nativity . Church officials wanted to make the Christmas celebrations popular across the world so they combined the old pagan Saturnalia tradition into the Christmas celebrations. Around middle age, pagan religion was replaced by Christianity and there were varied different rituals of celebrating Christmas. One of the ways was to crown a beggar or student as the ‘lord of misrule’ and knock about rich people house demanding their best food and drinks. Failing to live up to their dreams, these intoxicated less fortunate citizens would punish them with various mischief. In England, Puritan forces cancelled Christmas around 1645. Americans also had a bad experience. The English separatists who came to America in 1620 were orthodox and as a result Christmas was not even a holiday in early America. Furthermore showing Christmas spirit or joy was a crime which was charged five shillings. Finally Christmas was declared a holiday in 1870. BIRTH OF JESUS Source The traditional narrative behind Christmas revolves around the birth of Jesus. In fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies, as demarcated in the New Testament of the Holy Bible , Jesus was born in a town called Bethlehem. Joseph (The earthly father of Jesus) and Mary (the virgin mother) arrived in Bethlehem in the evening and found that the inn had no available rooms. This led to the young family staying at a stable where Jesus was soon born. Baby Jesus was born in a manger, and the angels celebrated by proclaiming the good news to the shepherds, who also circulated the message further. Though the bible does not specify the exact date of the birth of Jesus, the western Christian church chose 25 th December in the early- to – mid fourth century. This was later to be adopted by the Eastern Church and the date has remained so until today. To many Christians around the world, the date of the birth of Jesus is not the primary purpose for celebrating Christmas day. The holiday is simply in honor of the belief that The Creator, God took the form of man in order to come into the world and atone for the sins of humanity. It gets though: Christians around the world celebrate Christmas on December 25 th according to the Gregorian calendar. However, not all Christians use the Gregorian calendar to celebrate Christmas; some eastern Christians celebrate Christmas on December 25 th of the Julian calendar. This corresponds to January 7 th of the Gregorian calendar. But this is not a dispute rather a difference in calendars, which led the church in the Council of Tours of 567, to recognize both the eastern and western dates by declaring twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany to be a unified festal cycle. Why Christmas is Celebrated in December 25? Although the reason why the December 25 th date was chosen for Christmas celebration, is not known: there are factors that influenced this choice. Some of those factors include: The date of December 25 th was chosen in early A.D 273. The church settled for this date in order to stop the Roman pagan festivals like the Saturnalia . This was a week-long celebration of lawlessness held between December 17 th – 25 th . Christian leaders in the 4 th century desired to turn pagans to Christianity by celebrating a Christian holiday without all the evils that came with Saturnalia. They succeeded in converting most of the pagans. In 1446, Pope Paul II revived most of the evils of the Saturnalia carnival. December 25 th is the day the Romans marked as the darkest day of the year, known as the winter solstice. It is the shortest and darkest day of the year. This date is nine months after the birth of Jesus was announced. And because the days that follow the winter solstice are brighter and loner; this date of December 25 th was easily chosen in reference to the fact that Jesus is linked to the sun based on the book of Malachi in the Old Testament. Isaac Newton stated in the 17 th century that the date of Christmas was chosen to correspond with the solstice. History of Christmas Cards History of Christmas Stockings History of Santa Claus History of Christmas in America History of Christmas Mistletoe History of Old Christmas Day Christmas Celebrations Indian girls pose for photos near statues of decorative Santa Claus outside a church on Christmas in Mumbai, India, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014. Christians make up about 2 percent of the population in India, a secular country of more than 1 billion people where Hindus form the overwhelming majority. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) CHRISTMAS OVER THE YEARS For years, Christmas festive has been observed in honor of the birth of Jesus in many countries. The term Christmas came from the old English word ‘Cristes Maesse’ ;which means Christ Mass”. Though everyone celebrates Christmas around the world; the younger generation views the holiday as more of a cultural celebration than...