Birth of Jesus
Date: 25. December 2025 – 1. January 1970Time: All Day
According to Christian belief, Jesus of Nazareth is not just an ordinary man but the Son of God, who was born from Mary in human form. Except for the Armenian traditional churches, Christians around the world therefore celebrate the Feast of the Nativity on December 25, which serves to remind them of the Incarnation on the one hand and to call for constant vigilance on the other, as Christ will return to the world at the end of times. However, there is a temporal shift between those churches that celebrate December 25 according to the now predominantly used "Gregorian" calendar and those Christian traditions that still follow the "Julian" calendar—which is why believers from several Orthodox churches of the Byzantine tradition will celebrate the Feast of the Nativity on January 7, 2025, according to the Gregorian calendar.
The Feast of the Nativity was first documented around the year 335 in Rome, where it was intended to Christianize a pagan festival of the sun god that was celebrated at the time of the winter solstice. For this reason, the symbolism of light plays a special role in Christian liturgy on the days around December 25th. From a religious historical perspective, a certain closeness to the Jewish Hanukkah festival has therefore been established, with the lighting of the seven-branched candelabrum commemorating the second dedication of the Jerusalem Temple in 164 B.C.
Since, according to Jewish custom, a religious festival lasts from the evening of the previous day until the evening of the actual day, the Advent preparation period for the celebration of the birth of the Lord ends on the evening of December 24th. If the gifts are exchanged only on the morning of December 25th in the Anglo-Saxon cultural sphere, then this custom reflects the original religious practice. Since Islam also knows the biblical narrative of the virgin birth of Jesus, it happens that Muslim women and men celebrate this festival together with Christian women and men or congratulate Christian families on the feast of the birth of the Lord.