Happy Xmas!

The Editorial Team of News & Events wishes all readers a happy and joyful Xmas even during these stressful times of COVID-19 pandemic!

The first recorded celebration of Christmas

Tomorrow (25 December 2020) is Christmas day. But for the first 300 years of Christianity, it wasn’t so. When was Christmas first celebrated? In an old list of Roman bishops, compiled in A. D. 354 these words appear for A.D. 336: “25 Dec.: natus Christus in Betleem Judeae.” December 25th, Christ born in Bethlehem, Judea. This day, December 25, 336, is the first recorded celebration of Christmas.

For the first three hundred years of the church’s existence, birthdays were not given much emphasis–not even the birth of Christ. The day on which a saint died was considered more significant than his or her birth, as it ushered him or her into the kingdom of heaven. Christ’s baptism received more attention than his birthday in the January 6th feast of Epiphany. (Read more about the history fo Christmas celebrations HERE.)

The word Christmas comes from Christ-Mass, the Church service that celebrated the birth of Jesus!