Christmas

• Christmas(or Feast of the Nativity) is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25^[a] as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.^[2][10][11] A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an octave.^[13] Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world’s nations,^[14][15][16] is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians,^[17] as well as culturally by many non-Christians,^[1][18] and forms an integral part of the holiday season centered around it.

History

The nativity sequences included in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke prompted early Christian writers to suggest various dates for the anniversary.^[42] Although no date is indicated in the gospels, early Christians connected Jesus to the Sun through the use of such phrases as “Sun of righteousness.”^[42][43] The Romans marked the winter solstice on December 25.^[24] The first recorded Christmas celebration was in Rome on December 25, AD 336.^[44][45] In the 3rd century, the date of the nativity was the subject of great interest. Around AD 200, Clement of Alexandria wrote:

There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord’s birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [May 20] … Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [April 20 or 21].^[46]

Various factors contributed to the selection of December 25 as a date of celebration: it was the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar and it was nine months after March 25, the date of the vernal equinox and a date linked to the conception of Jesus (now Annunciation).

Christmas played a role in the Arian controversy of the fourth century. After this controversy ran its course, the prominence of the holiday declined for a few centuries. The feast regained prominence after 800 when Charlemagne was crowned emperor on Christmas Day. Later during the Protestant Reformation, the Puritans banned Christmas in England, associating it with drunkenness and other misbehavior.^[47] It was restored as a legal holiday in England in 1660, but remained disreputable in the minds of many people. In the early 19th century, Christmas was reconceived by Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and other authors as a holiday emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and Santa Claus

Modern History

Associating it with drunkenness and other misbehaviour, the Puritans banned Christmas in England in the 17th century.^[47] It was restored as a legal holiday in 1660, but remained disreputable. In the early 19th century, the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church ushered in “the development of richer and more symbolic forms of worship, the building of neo-Gothic churches, and the revival and increasing centrality of the keeping of Christmas itself as a Christian festival” as well as “special charities for the poor” in addition to “special services and musical events”.^[96] Charles Dickens and other writers helped in this revival of the holiday by “changing consciousness of Christmas and the way in which it was celebrated” as they emphasized family, religion, gift-giving, and social reconciliation as opposed to the historic revelry common in some places.