CHRISTMAS DAY
India is a secular country and
every religious festival here is celebrated with equal gusto and enthusiasm.
Christmas Day is celebrated on the twenty fifth day of December. It is an
annual festival which commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ and is celebrated the
world over.
Although there is no clear reason
as to why December 25 is the date of celebration, there are several factors
that may have influenced this choice. December 25 is the date chosen by the
Romans as marking the winter solstice, and Jesus was identified with
the Sun based on an Old Testament verse. The date is exactly nine months
following the ‘Annunciation’ when the birth of Jesus is celebrated. Finally,
the Romans had a series of pagan festivals near the end of the year, so
Christmas may have been scheduled at this time to appropriate these festivals.
The celebration of Christmas,
around the globe is diverse and sundry. It is done across a cross-section of
people. Educational institutions, professional organizations and personal
gaiety symbolize the Christmas time and are evident throughout December and not
just on the twenty-fifth. A religious slant to the celebrations is that
families visit churches and sing traditional Christmas carols. Many canonical
literary texts such as “The Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens have been
written centering on Christmas and the myths around it.
Spanning generations and clusters
of decades, Christmas has come to represent hope, warmth, cheer, affection and
exultation.
We hope that you are blessed with
cheer and happiness and the power to spread it, especially in this disconsolate
and dismal time which is witnessing a rapid dilapidation of core human values.
The Unique Team
wishes you a merry Christmas!