40 Days With Jesus: Celebrating His Presence (Jesus Calling®)

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In eastern Europe also, pre-Christian traditions were incorporated into Christmas celebrations there, an example being the Koleda, [100] which shares parallels with the Christmas carol. Day of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-17): The Day of Jubilee is a Jewish holiday that marks the end of the sabbatical cycle. It is observed with a special meal and the reciting of prayers. While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in the U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected "a transition state about Christmas here in New England" in 1856. "The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so." [148] Jesus, the ultimate example of love and compassion, celebrated various Jewish festivals, including Passover, Sukkot, and Hanukkah.

In 1822, Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem A Visit From St. Nicholas (popularly known by its first line: Twas the Night Before Christmas). [145] Further information: Christmas traditions and Observance of Christmas by country Christmas at the Annunciation Church in Nazareth, 1965 Dark brown – countries that do not recognize Christmas on December 25 or January 7 as a public holiday. Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 [a] as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. [2] [3] [4] A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it follows the season of Advent (which begins four Sundays before) or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night. [5] Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries, [6] [7] [8] is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, [9] as well as culturally by many non-Christians, [1] [10] and forms an integral part of the holiday season organized around it. However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of popery" or the "rags of the Beast". [92] In contrast, the established Anglican Church "pressed for a more elaborate observance of feasts, penitential seasons, and saints' days. The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party." [114] The Catholic Church also responded, promoting the festival in a more religiously oriented form. King Charles I of England directed his noblemen and gentry to return to their landed estates in midwinter to keep up their old-style Christmas generosity. [106] Following the Parliamentarian victory over Charles I during the English Civil War, England's Puritan rulers banned Christmas in 1647. [92] [115]Saint Nicholas traditionally appeared in bishop's attire, accompanied by helpers, inquiring about the behaviour of children during the past year before deciding whether they deserved a gift or not. By the 13th century, Saint Nicholas was well known in the Netherlands, and the practice of gift-giving in his name spread to other parts of central and southern Europe. At the Reformation in 16th–17th-century Euro Ghana: “Otofo” is a special yam dish eaten on birthdays, which is considered a staple and significant part of the birthday celebration. Want to make this Christmas season one to remember? Let’s consider how to move into the neighborhood with our celebration. Let’s help people know God’s love this season by being generous inside and out, true from start to finish. Jesus’s names, so familiar to the Christmas season, can give us insight into how to model His character to our world. As we enjoy Christmas, please help us to remember that we celebrate because of the story of the birth of Jesus.

You hear a lot about peace on earth at this time of year. But no matter the truce talks at Christmas, whether on the battlefields or in your home, you can’t impose peace. Peace radiates from the inside out—it follows when the heart is at rest with God. Consider the things that churn in your heart this season. Questions or decisions may weigh heavily on your mind. Relationships may be out of sync. With faith, surrender these needs to your Father. He promises that He will “keep in perfect peace [literally, shalom] him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in [Him]” (Isaiah 26:3 NIV). The earliest extant specifically Christmas hymns appear in fourth-century Rome. Latin hymns such as " Veni redemptor gentium", written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan, were austere statements of the theological doctrine of the Incarnation in opposition to Arianism. "Corde natus ex Parentis" ("Of the Father's love begotten") by the Spanish poet Prudentius (d. 413) is still sung in some churches today. [210] In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Christmas "Sequence" or "Prose" was introduced in North European monasteries, developing under Bernard of Clairvaux into a sequence of rhymed stanzas. In the 12th century the Parisian monk Adam of St. Victor began to derive music from popular songs, introducing something closer to the traditional Christmas carol. Christmas carols in English appear in a 1426 work of John Awdlay who lists twenty five "caroles of Cristemas", probably sung by groups of ' wassailers', who went from house to house. [211] Child singers in Bucharest, 1841 Christmas played a role in the Arian controversy of the fourth century. After this controversy ran its course, the prominence of the holiday declined for a few centuries. The "Calculation hypothesis", suggests that Christmas was calculated as nine months after a date chosen as Christ's conception (the Annunciation): March 25, the Roman date of the spring equinox. The hypothesis was first proposed by French writer Louis Duchesne in 1889. [65] [60] [66] Susan Roll (1995) wrote that the calculation hypothesis is historically the "minority opinion" on the origin of Christmas, but was "taught in graduate liturgy programs as a thoroughly viable hypothesis". [67] To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die…”Christmas can be a reminder of loss. For those who have lost a loved one, Christmas can be a difficult time of year. In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned, [144] and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories. [106] A Norwegian Christmas, 1846 painting by Adolph Tidemand Post-classical history The Nativity, from a 14th-century Missal; a liturgical book containing texts and music necessary for the celebration of Mass throughout the year Genethliazō): This is the verb form of “birthday” and literally translates to “I celebrate a birthday”.