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Kalimera Father, you must be getting ready for a real busy period at church, and on the subject of Christmas, I have never really attended church during Christmas because of the fact that it’s a pagan holiday, is this bad of me and should i see it as an anniversary instead of a made up date
Answer to Question 529 The actual date of Christ's birth has been lost to us, but the date doesn't really matter. What is important is that Christ was born and that we celebrate this very special and wonderful event. Originally the Church celebrated Christ's birth on the 6th January together with the feast of Theophany and in the 4th century separated the two feasts placing Christ's birth exactly nine months after the feast of the Annunciation celebrated on 25th March. This is the true explanation of why we celebrate Christmas on 25th December although it has also been wrongly suggested that the date was chosen to replace the pagan festival of the sun.
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