Christmas Eve Midnight MASS | St. Paul's Cathedral Church Kolkata

Christmas Eve Midnight MASS | St. Paul's Cathedral Church Kolkata 2017 Merry Christmas | Winter | 25th December 2017 Mamata Banerjee(CM) attends midnight mass Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on 25 December as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an octave. The traditional Christmas narrative, the Nativity of Jesus, delineated in the New Testament says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies; when Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds who then further disseminated the information. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season. Although the month and date of Jesus' birth are unknown, by the early-to-mid fourth century the Western Christian Church had placed Christmas on December 25, a date that was later adopted in the East. Today, most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world. In many Western Christian traditions Midnight Mass is the first liturgy of Christmastide that is celebrated on the night of Christmas Eve, traditionally beginning at midnight when Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day. This popular Christmas custom is a jubilant celebration of the Mass or Service of Worship in honour of the Nativity of Jesus; even many of those Christian denominations that do not regularly employ the word "Mass" uniquely use the term "Midnight Mass" for their Christmas Eve liturgy. The tradition of a midnight Vigil on the eve of Christmas began in the East, and was observed in the late fourth century in Jerusalem by a Christian woman named Egeria on the night of January 5 (since Christmas was still celebrated on January 6 at the time as the Western date of December 25 had not yet reached the East). The tradition reached the Western world in the year 430 under Pope Sixtus III in the Basilica of St Mary Major. By the twelfth century, the practice of midnight Mass had become more widespread as all priests had been granted the faculty of celebrating three Masses on Christmas Day (previously reserved to the Pope), provided the three different propers were celebrated at their appropriate times of midnight, dawn and day. _______________________________ 📷 Equipments Recommended https://www.amazon.in/shop/sukantapal ____________________________ Let's Connect (Social Profile) Instagram:   / sukanta_pal   X: http://x.com/iSukantapal Facebook:   / iisukantapal   __________________________ A film by Sukanta Pal #SukantaFilms #SukantaPal