The True Meaning of Christmas

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The True Meaning of Christmas

The birth of Christ

Since about 400 AD, Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus.

'Christ' means 'Messiah' or 'Anointed One' - the title given to Jesus

- and 'Mass' was a religious festival.

In the West today, the real meaning of Christmas is often forgotten.

It has become a non-religious holiday! More children believe in Father

Christmas than in Jesus. Christmas Day is a time for eating and

drinking too much and watching television.

But the real Christmas story is found in the Christian Bible. It is

told in two different books: Matthew and Luke chapters 1 and 2. You

may think that the story of the birth of Jesus, and the way that the

West celebrates Christmas today, do not seem to have many connections

.These chapters tell how Jesus was born as a baby to Mary. This was no

ordinary birth! She was not married, she was a virgin, (yes, really!)

and an angel had told her she would bear a special baby. Her

husband-to-be, Joseph, did not believe her at first. Who would? Then

an angel told him in a dream that it was true! Probably no one else

believed it. So when they had to travel from their home in Nazareth to

Bethlehem (near Jerusalem), to register their names with the ruling

Roman government, they probably escaped many hard words from other

people.

Arrival in Bethlehem brought worry and upset: there was no room for

them to stay at the hotel. There was only space in the stable - the

animal house for travellers' donkeys and horses. Jesus was born that

night, and as they had no bed for him, they used an animal feeding box

filled with the dry grass the animals ate. Christmas cards and

pictures today make it all seem very nice. In truth, it must have been

dirty and frightening for a young couple, far from their home and

families. Possibly the birth was premature after the stress of the

journey. This was a very poor place for Jesus to start his life on

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