Feast of the Nativity of Christ: Why the 25 December?

Only evangelist to evoke the Nativity, Luke gives no birth date for Christ. The rare elements make it possible to estimate that the Nativity probably took place around the year 5 or 6 Before our era, but without a specific day being known. Moreover, for early christians, the Christmas party did not exist : only Easter mattered, feast of the Resurrection...

It's towards 330 that Christmas began to be celebrated in Rome on 25 December. A date that corresponds to a pagan holiday, the feast of Sol invictus, the invincible sun, celebrated when the days began to lengthen and during which big fires were lit. Christians quickly associated Christ with the sun, and today the Christian tradition resounds with these symbols of the Savior of the nations designated as a “Rising Sun”, as the liturgy of Christmas Eve recalls with the text of Isaiah : “The people who walked in darkness saw a great light. » (Is 9, 1). Christmas, however, is not celebrated on 21 December, winter solstice day. A difference due to the Julian calendar, instituted in 46 of. AD. by Julius Caesar, who fixed the solstice at 25 December. It is this official date of the solstice that the Council of Nicaea (325) will resume for Christmas.

Why do we say the "midnight mass" ?

From the sixth century, it has become customary to celebrate three masses at Christmas. The premiere was celebrated at midnight, according to the tradition that Jesus was born at this time. Today, we celebrate a “family mass” at the beginning of the evening, with the texts of the night mass (and not those of Christmas Eve). The night mass insists mainly on the event of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and the adoration of the shepherds warned by the angels.

Source: The cross