25 December - The birth of Jesus, Son of God, Saviour of the world, is celebrated on this day. The Gospels of Saint Matthew and Luke tell of this birth of the Lord. According to the Scriptures, the mother of Jesus is Mary, the daughter of Anne and Joachim of Nazareth and Galilee. And Joseph, a descendant of David, is her foster father.
Mary trusted God and accepted his plan. This day marks the beginning of the fulfilment of God's promise, nine months after the angel announced to the Virgin Mary that she would give birth to a son and that Jesus would be his name.
The Son of God became man, this is what we call the Mystery of the Incarnation. He took our human nature, He is truly God and He is also truly man. The Hebrew word Jesus means "God saves", and this name is enough to make us understand the mission that God entrusted to his Son, which is to save men and bring them to the Father. According to the Gospels, the Son of God was born in the most humble conditions. He was poorer than the poorest; Mary gave birth to him in a stable, and this birth is the centre of the Incarnation.
According to the history of the Church, the celebration of the birth of the Saviour on December 25th dates back to the year 270, in the time of Aurelian. Previously this day was a pagan feast, to celebrate a Roman deity, "Sol Invictus" (Triumphant Sun), which the Christians replaced to celebrate Jesus the Saviour, who came to free the world from sin. This celebration gradually spread throughout the Western Latin Church. In the year 223, in the city of Greccio, Assisi, Italy, Francis of Assisi had the idea of celebrating Christmas by staging the first tableau vivant, in which men, women and live animals played the role. The construction of the cot began to spread throughout Italy. There were those who, like Francis of Assisi, put people and real animals in situations, while others used statues, santons or painted the scene of the cot. This celebration of the birth of the Saviour and the memory of the cave of Bethlehem - where Mary and Joseph, the Child Jesus, the shepherds and their flocks, the donkey and the ox are depicted - has spread throughout the Christian world, right up to the present day.
