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The Celebration of Christmas: Difference between revisions
→How did Christmas end up being celebrated on December 25th?
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The Bible could really not be any clearer on this subject. Christians have the freedom to set aside a day (or multiple days) to celebrate the birth of Christ or for any other reason they may want to praise God. | The Bible could really not be any clearer on this subject. Christians have the freedom to set aside a day (or multiple days) to celebrate the birth of Christ or for any other reason they may want to praise God. | ||
==How did Christmas end up being celebrated on December 25th?== | |||
The Annunciation of the Lord (or simply the “Annunciation”), is, according to Luke 1:26, the announcement by the archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth and become the mother of Jesus Christ, the Christian Messiah and Son of God, marking the Incarnation. | |||
We also know from Luke 1:26 that the Annunciation occurred "in the sixth month" of Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist. In AD 221, Sextus Julius Africanus named March 25, the traditional spring equinox, as the day of creation and of Jesus's conception. The Christian has historically observed this event with the Feast of the Annunciation on 25 March. | |||
Zechariah's ministry in the Temple, as described in Luke 1:5–23, took place on Yom Kippur the year before Jesus's birth. Yom Kippur takes place in late September. If Yom Kippur took place on September 25, then 6 months later would also mesh with a March 25 date for the conception of Jesus. John the Baptist would have been born on June 25. | |||
If the conception of Jesus occurred on March 25, then his birth would have been on December 25, 9 months after conception. This is the most plausible explanation given for Christmas being celebrated on December 25. | |||
=The Bible and Christmas= | =The Bible and Christmas= | ||