MVTClass.com

Christmas doesn’t date back as far as Easter does in the Christian Year.  The Epistles, which are generally viewed as pre-dating other parts of the New Testament, make little mention of the birth of Jesus, but focus instead on the central mystery of our faith — his death and resurrection.  The earliest of the Gospels, Mark, gives an account of his baptism, then Matthew and Luke go back further and tell of his birth and ancestry.  You could say that John goes back furthest of all, for that Gospel gives an account of Christ — “the Word” — that pre-exists creation.

As early as the late 2nd century, Christians may have observed Epiphany (literally “manifestation”).  The early church also referred to this holiday as the Theophany (“manifestation of God”).  Initially, this feast day celebrated the baptism of Jesus as well as his birth and his first miracles.

Like Pascha, the festival underwent a split sometime in the 4th century.  The earliest mention of the new feast, Christmas, occurs in a document dating to 354 A.D., and lists December 25th as natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae (“Christ born in Bethlehem of Judea”).  Ephiphany continued to be celebrated in the Eastern Church as commerating Christ’s baptism, while in the West it came to signify the visit of the wise men, who represented the manisfestation of God to the Gentiles.

Christians came to see that Christmas and Epiphany needed a preparatory season comparable to Lent in the Easter cycle.  In 380 A.D., a council in Spain decreed that “from December 17 until the day of Epiphany which is Janurary 6 no one is permitted to be absent from Church”.  This was a precedent for Advent in Spain at a time that Christmas was not yet celebrated there.  By the 5th century a forty-day season of preparation for Epiphany was being observed in Gaul.  Rome eventually adopted a season which began the fourth Sunday prior to December 25.

The dates of Christmas and Epiphany may have coincided with pagan festivals surrounding the Winter Solstice.  The origins of the dates are not clear, but the Church has always placed emphasis on light conquering darkness and it is fitting that we celebrate the hope of “God in us” at this time of the year.