The Week of Christmas

Christmas is celebrated on 25 December. On the 24th, exactly at midnight, Christians go to church to commemorate the birth of Jesus, their prophet. This week the religious observe it as religion, and those who are not religious give each other gifts, saying they are gifts from Father Christmas, and decorate a pine branch.

Since always, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere has been 21 December, also called the solstice. In many countries of Europe, on these very cold days, even those who were not very well-off ate meat. Moreover the wine and beer on these days were already well fermented and ready for consumption.

More than 2,000 years ago the Romans celebrated a festival called 'Saturnalia', a festival in honour of the god Saturn, considered the god of agriculture — a festival that lasted almost a month, with dancing and singing, and the slaves were freed for that month. 25 December was the birthday of Mithra, the Sun god of the Persians for more than 5,000 years, and the religion of Mithra was the most prized religion among the Romans before Christianity. In the 4th century, when Pope Julius decided to give Jesus a birthday, 25 December was the most suitable day, as it was already the birthday of Mithra. In this way the festival, instead of a month, lasted only 12 days, ending on 6 January. And 6 January was accepted as the birthday by the Orthodox church of the East.

Let us not forget that festivals, in almost all religions and peoples, serve to open the roads of unification and peace. May the new year bring us good health, happiness and much joy.