On December 25, our holy Church celebrates the great and inexplicable event of the fleshly birth of the Son and Word of God from the Blessed Virgin Mary.
After the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary by the archangel Gabriel and while the nine months from the supernatural conception of Christ in her virginal womb were about to end, Caesar Augustus ordered a census of the population of the Roman state. Then Joseph, together with the Virgin, set out for Bethlehem, to be registered there.
So they set out from Nazareth, and after a wearisome journey they arrived at Bethlehem, where, because a multitude of people had gathered, they could find no lodging, but only a poor cave. There the Theotokos gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ and cradled the Creator of all as a baby. Then He placed Him on the manger of the horses, animals, because “he was to free us from the alogia”, as St. Nicodemus the Saint characteristically writes. Since then, all faithful Christians joyfully sing the hymn of the angels of that night:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, joy among men” (see Luke’s Gospel, II 1-20). In other words, glory be to God, who is in the highest parts of heaven and on the whole earth, which is troubled by sin, let divine peace reign, because God showed His love to people with the incarnation of His Son.
Let us note here that the Christmas holiday was established for the first time on December 25, 397 AD. during the patriarchate of St. John Chrysostom. According to others, the Patriarch of Jerusalem Juvenalios separated the two festivals of Lights and Christmas, which used to be held on the same day, that is, on January 6.
