Although the way to celebrating Christmas has an intricate history, Christian faith communities, Catholic, Protestant, and non-denominational alike, today cannot imagine anything other than December 25 as the feast day of the nativity of Jesus. It was not always so. The early churches regarded January 6, Epiphany, as the major liturgical gathering of the season. But by the third decade of the fourth century CE, references to Christmas worship on December 25 begin to appear. The date was arrived at either to coopt existing Roman winter festivals or by way of calculating forward from Mary’s miraculous conception during Passover, a moving date based on the lunar calendar. Once settled upon however, 12 centuries later the Reformation introduced freedoms in worship and devotional practices, and the…
