[ad_1]
One of the biggest holidays for Christians is associated with the birth of Jesus. But it was not until more than three hundred years later that they began to be celebrated in Bethlehem. And in Rome only from the 430s, after the wooden pieces of the venerated manger were brought to the Eternal City and Pope Sixtus built the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, where he introduced the Midnight Mass, the first Christmas mass and vigil.
It was already busy on December 25th.
Originally, midnight, which passed from December 24 to December 25, was significant as the darkest and most mysterious time of the day. By then, all the expectations of Advent will be condensed. And the date of birth, December 25, was linked to the darkest day of the year, which most peoples had already counted and celebrated in some way long before Christianity. The winter solstice does not symbolize darkness, but also the end of something and the beginning of a new one. Although it does not coincide with the current solstice of December 21, in the days before exact calendars, a lot of Slendrianism fitted in.
There was another chance for another lighter
This day is the invincible Sun. (invincible sun) it was celebrated as his birthday in ancient Rome by decree of the Emperor Aurelian (270-275). They were taken so seriously that the emperors who followed him even banned circus games. And they were very attached to them. The beloved Solt was then identified with Christianity and Jesus’ greatest rival, the Middle Eastern deity Mithras, whose cult at that time spread so rapidly throughout the empire that it had a great chance of becoming a world religion.
IN MANY SIMILARITIES, MITHRASH WAS BORN ON DECEMBER 25 TO A VIRGIN BY TRADITION.
The day of Jesus’ birth on December 25 was decided at the Council of Nicea in the IV. in the middle of the century. The festival of light has been maintained, according to the symbolic explanation of the new content, this day is the birthday of Jesus, the eternal Sun, the divine source of light. Since the scriptures do not write about the exact date, there has been much debate about the exact time of Jesus’ birth. The decision also addressed two issues: on the one hand, the controversy surrounding the birthday was over, and on the other, it installed a major holiday on the holy day of the rival religion Mitra and essentially integrated it. Jesus could easily have been replaced by the sun god, since he himself is the “Day of Truth”, the “light of the world”.
Not at midnight or at the same time
For the first time in the East, for example in New Zealand at 11 or 9 in Sydney, Little Jesus is born. It is most prevalent on the 33 coral islands of the Kribati Pacific (12 hour lead). One is called Christmas Island. This is where the new year begins on Earth for the first time, and if we want so much,
we could skip a day at a time when the date line passes here.
To the east of the date picker, the date from one day earlier is valid, while to the west, we would be one day earlier (compared to the other date).
But you don’t even have to wait until midnight. Since 2009, the December 24 ceremony has been held every year from 10:30 in the main church of Christianity, St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Now, in the epidemic situation, it was brought forward another two hours due to the curfew from ten at night. And up to a hundred believers are admitted to the largest temple in the world, even with prior reservation.
With us, the restriction for the first days of Christmas was lifted. However, at the time of writing, the date of the “midnight” mass had not yet been decided.
(Cover image: Midnight mass in Saint Martin de Mondaye on December 24, 2018. Photo: NurPhoto / Getty Images Hungary)
[ad_2]
