The Nativity of Our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ has been celebrated with all solemnity and joy since the very earliest period of the Church. Until the 4th century this Feast was kept on January 6, when the Church also remembers the Baptism of Our Lord in the River Jordan. It was called the Theophany and was dedicated especially to the manifestation of God in the flesh.

The early Church knew that there was a mystical relationship between the first and the Second Adam, between the one that brought death into the world and the One Who brought life and salvation. According to very ancient tradition, Christ, the “Second Adam,” was born on the same day on which Adam, the first-created one, was born–that is, on the “Sixth Day,” which corresponded to the sixth day of the first month (January 6th on the Julian Calendar).

December 25th

In the fourth century many heresies, especially by the followers of Arius. They denied that Jesus was fully God and that He was only the highest of created beings (a false teaching that has again become fashionable in our own days). According to this error, we could not celebrate the birth in flesh of God Himself (which is called the Doctrine of the Incarnation), but only the birth of a very special creature who was not in reality God.

In order to combat this heresy it was agreed that the commemoration of the Birth of the Son of God should be separated from the Feast of His Baptism: the Church intended to make the truth about the incarnation even clearer. Many different dates were suggested for the celebration of Christmas, but in order to remove a temptation from the Christians of that time it was decided to use December 25. The Romans had a pagan festival on this day called dies natalis Solis invicti – ..-a celebration of the return of the sun to summer, as if renewing itself. The Romans used this day as an excuse for unbridled merry-making and immorality (much as it has again become in the 20th century). December 25 was chosen in order to preserve the faithful from the temptation to participate in pagan revels. And to make use of the symbolism of the sun on that day to ennoble or elevate the pagan feast to a Christian understanding because Christ is often spoken of in the New Testament as the “Sun of Justice,” “The Light of the World.”

The True Meaning of Christmas

By establishing the Feast of the Lord’s Birth on December 25, the Church did two things; first, she clearly rejected pagan ideas about life, death, birth; secondly, the Church confessed her undying faith in a great dogma: that God had taken flesh from a woman and come to dwell among and save humankind.

As one writer explains: “Not in glory and magnificence, but in poverty, wretchedness and humiliation does the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth appear in the world; not a luxurious palace, but a humble cave, receives the King of those who reign and the Lord of those who rule. By this we are shown the greatness of humility, poverty, meekness and simplicity.

The Spirit of Christmas

Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas in a manner directly opposed to the way in which it is kept by the world. While western traditions are involved in weeks of partying and eating, from Thanksgiving on, Orthodox Christians are encouraged to keep a fast in preparation for Christmas. This fast period is of very early origin and was universally known at the time of the great Church Councils. We do not break this fast until after receiving Holy Communion for Christmas.