The Meaning of Christmas (cont.)

We described yesterday how the legend of Santa Claus began. Today we discuss the birth of Christ. The birth of Christ is recorded in Bible Books Matthew (1:18-25) and Luke (2:1-20). The story is simply told as the Virgin Mary was found with child conceived of the Holy Spirit.

No one knows precisely when Jesus was born; even his year of birth is only an educated guess. There is a good historical basis as to why the traditional date of December 25^th, accepted by the ancient Greek and Latin churches, may be a good approximate date. The date of the birth can be fixed with some precision, since Matthew 2:19 makes it clear that Jesus was born near the time of Herod the Great. Josephus mentions that Herod’s death occurred between an eclipse and Passover. The only eclipse recorded in this period in March 4 B.C., while Passover would have been in med-April. So Jesus was born at least a few months before spring 4 B.C., either the winter of 5 B.C. or the following spring. The fixing of the date of Christmas as December 25 dates to at least from the time of Constantine (A.D 306-337). The celebration became the church’s way to celebrate Jesus’ birth and have and alternative to a popular pagan feast.

Christmas literally means the Mass (celebration) of Christ. 

References:

*Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Commentary, 1999 5^th ed., p. 1252