The REAL Christmas Story
What is Christmas? it’s easy to get caught up in the history of the various symbols. Some of which go back several thousand years. To really understand this holiday (or holy day) one need not go any further than the name, Christmas or Christ’s Mass. HolyCross.edu defines Christmas this way:
Christmas is the feast commemorating the birth of Christ. It is fixed in the liturgical year as December 25 and is preceded by four week of fast called Advent. The Gospels recount a census that compelled Joseph and Mary to journey to “the town of David which is called Bethlehem” and while they were there she was delivered of a child. “And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the in.” (Luke 2:4-7).? The birth was heralded by angels who announced to Jewish shepherds that their Messiah had come.? Later, wise men from the east, gentiles, arrived to acknowledge Christ’s birth.? In the Middle Ages, Christmas was not an extremely important feast; it was far less solemnly celebrated than Easter.? For Kempe, however, with her frequent references to Christ and a child, and her imagining that she was present as a handmaiden to the Virgin, the moment had particular resonance.
The most commonly read account of the birth of Christ can be found in Luke chapter 2.
