The Origins of Christmas
2 min read
By: Calia Bennett
Christmas is a well-known holiday that is celebrated all over the world. It occurs on December 25th of each year. While the holiday is meant to be a religious practice, many non-Christians still take part in the celebration.
What is Christmas? Christians celebrate Christmas day as the birth of Jesus, a spiritual being who has formed the basis of their religion. According to the Bible, the story begins when the angel Gabriel was sent to announce the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary. In the Gospel of Luke, Mary is visited by an angel who informs her that she will become pregnant and give birth to a son, Jesus, who will be the Son of God.
The first documented celebration of Christmas dates to December 25, 336, or the day Jesus was born. While no one is sure when exactly this date was picked, many speculate that it may have something to do with the various and unique holidays that many cultures created to celebrate the winter solstice.
Christmas can be celebrated in many ways. During an interview with Dante Bolte, a Lenape Tech student from CIT, said that, “My family gathers at my grandma’s house. There, we have Christmas dinner and exchange gifts.” Another student from LEIT, Jesslyn Bure, she said that “For Christmas, my family usually buys each other gifts. We open them all together and then pick a festive movie to watch with cookies and hot chocolate.” Whether a person spends the holiday religiously or not, there’s no wrong way to celebrate Christmas.
