Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe to be the Son of God. The Gregorian calendar widely used in the West is based on his birth date. The years denoted BC are those before the birth of Christ and the years AD are those after Christ's birth, from the Latin 'Anno Domini' meaning 'in the year of our Lord'.
Advent is the season that leads up to Christmas Day on 25th December, starting on the Sunday closest to 30th November. Some churches have an advent wreath with five candles, one for each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day and one for the day itself. The celebration of Christmas is accompanied by the giving and receiving of presents and cards. Many families will gather together and eat a special meal, often a roast turkey or other bird, followed by a Christmas pudding.
Here is a brief synopsis of the Christmas story: Mary was planning to marry Joseph, a carpenter. Before the wedding an angel called Gabriel appeared to her and she was told that she would become pregnant through the Holy Spirit and give birth to a son, called Jesus, also sometimes known as Emmanuel, which means 'God with us'. Because she was pregnant, Joseph grew worried and considered not marrying her, thinking she had been unfaithful to him. God spoke to Joseph in a dream explaining everything, and telling him how Jesus would be sent to save humankind from their sins.
At that time Caesar Augustus, the leader of the Roman world, issued an order that a census should be taken of all the people that lived in his empire. Everyone had to return to their home town to be counted in the census. This is why Joseph and Mary travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Jesus was born in Bethlehem in a stable, since there was no room anywhere else as the town was full of people who had all returned for the census. It is considered likely that the stable would have formed part of a house, perhaps belonging to relatives of Joseph's. In those days, families usually shared the house with their animals.
The two ends of the social spectrum came to visit the new baby. Local shepherds, who were humble and poor, were the first to come and see the new baby. Then came the wise men, who were very learned and highly regarded by society and were guided to the baby by a new star. In the past, astrologers often connected the appearance of a new star in the night sky with the birth of a king.
When the wise men arrived in Jerusalem, Herod the King of Judea asked to see them in secret to find out why the star had appeared. He asked the wise men to report back to him where Jesus was so that he too could go and pay his respects. When Jesus was a few months old, the wise men came to visit him bearing gifts of gold, incense and myrrh. After their visit, they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, but to use a different route home and to avoid Jerusalem.
An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and warned him to escape to Egypt with Jesus and Mary as Herod was going to be looking for the child to kill him. So during the night, they left Israel and started out on the journey to Egypt where they remained until after Herod's death. Meanwhile Herod was furious that the wise men had not returned to him with news of Jesus's whereabouts. As a last attempt to kill Jesus, he ordered that all the boys in Bethlehem under two years old should be killed. The Old Testament of the Bible (e.g. Isaiah Chapter 9, verses 2-7 and Chapter 11, verses 1-3) are believed to foretell many of the events surrounding Jesus' birth.
Where does the word Christmas come from? It does not seem to be mentioned in the Bible.
Why did King Herod want to kill Jesus?