JANUARY
The Feast of our Lord’s Nativity (a.k.a—Christmas)
In January each year our parish celebrates Christmas, known in church language as the Feast of the Nativity According to the Flesh of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. Nativity as a word comes from a Latin word “Nativitatus” which means birth. This is the Feast in which the Orthodox Church celebrates the birth in the flesh of the very Son of God. This Feast is one of 12 major Feast Days in the Orthodox Church as is celebrated with particular solemnity and great joy. It may seem that these two thoughts (celebrating solemnly and celebrating joyfully) do not “go together”, but in the Feast of the Nativity of Christ they are held together by the nature of the Feast. There is the intense joy felt in the knowledge that God has become man for mankind’s salvation, that He has come down from Heaven to lead us back to Heaven, and yet at the same time it is a solemn joy inasmuch as the Church also sees that the King of All is not born in palace, but in a manger, and that the Lord of All Creation, who has come to save His creatures, is hunted from the beginning by a world that will eventually crucify Him.
One may say that the celebration of this Feast requires a great spiritual sobriety. In these days of office Christmas parties and pre-Christmas celebrations at home, which are so often typically anything but sober for many, the Church and its people must see very clearly with the eyes of faith that this child is the Savior of the world so that it may meet the modern reality of Christmas with the eternal truth of its meaning for all mankind. “God has become man that man might become god,” as one of our Church Fathers says. God has become man that we might be led back to Heaven. God has not become man so that we would get drunk and pretend to be happy for a while. The celebration of our Lord’s Nativity in the Orthodox Church brings an enduring joy and a lasting peace to our lives. We celebrate the birth of our Savior. We celebrate the love of our God who “so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Here in this little child Jesus we see truly the everlasting hope of all mankind: the hope for freedom from sin, sickness, sorrow, pain and death. Here in the Birth of Christ we rejoice with the angels, with the shepherds and with the wise men alike. Joy has come into all the world because God has become man to save us.
Local Parish Practice
How does the Orthodox Church and our local parish celebrate Christmas? First and foremost the celebration is liturgical. That is, the celebration occurs first in church with a variety of special services leading up to, including and following upon the day of Christmas. These special services with their myriad of Scripture readings, prayers and hymns help us enter the Feast as a “feast of faith.” The services reveal to us the content, the meaning, and the substance of what Christmas is and what its meaning is in our lives. These services, at least in modern
In addition to this “feast of faith” in church, there is also the necessary and corresponding “feast of faith” at home. In the home of many of our parishioners the celebration of Christmas includes a Christmas Eve meal prepared in a special way. Christmas Eve is a day of strict fasting. Taken literally this means no eating or drinking at all until after the Christmas Day Divine Liturgy. This practice is commonly mitigated to be a fast from all meat and dairy products on Christmas Eve. The evening meal is prepared according to this rule. In addition, a special candle (only one) is lit and placed in the center of the table reminding us that the Light of the world has come, that, as the Scriptures say, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined” (Isaiah 9:2). In some homes, a small amount of hay is spread on the table reminding us of the Lord’s birth in humble surroundings. Yet another custom among many of our parishioners is the eating of garlic and honey at the beginning of the Christmas Eve meal. This custom reminds us of both the sweetness of the Feast, that God has been born as a man to save us, and the difficulty (bitterness) encountered by God become man as He was born in a manger, as He was hunted by Herod, and as He had to be taken by Joseph and His mother Mary in haste into Egypt to escape Herod. Here in the home, the solemn joy of the Feast expressed so well in the Church’s services is brought home in this beautiful custom.
The Christmas Day meal is served and eaten in the home only after participation in the banquet of the Divine Liturgy in the Church. The Divine Liturgy is the service which “crowns” the Feast for us. During it, the faithful come forward to receive the precious and holy Body and Blood of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ in Communion. After this, and after our local custom of having a Christmas Social in our Church Hall, families return home to enjoy the special Christmas Day Meal at which there is again the one lighted candle, perhaps again the honey and garlic, and any number of delicious foods.
In times past, at our local parish as well as in many of our other Orthodox sister parishes, there would be a group of men (and perhaps also children) who would travel to each parish home singing special Christmas hymns and carols and even performing a skit which told of the birth of Christ. The men would be dressed up in the garb of angels and shepherds. These men would even carry around a model of a church (2’*2’*3’) to each home representing the entrance into the home of the faith of the Church.
It is a challenge in this day and age to keep a meaningful Christmas Feast both in the Church and in the home. The services of Christmas and the special customs at home help ensure the Feast is truly a “feast of faith” filled with all that God Himself has desired for us in this most holy Feast Day.
Two Special Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord
Tropar:
Your Nativity O Christ our God has shown forth the light of knowledge to the world: for through it, those who studied the stars learned from a star to worship You, the Sun of Truth, and to acknowledge You, rising from on high; O Lord, glory to You.
Kondak:
The Virgin today gives birth to the highest Being, and the earth provides the inaccessible One with a cave. The angels with the shepherds glorify Him; the Wise Men journey with the star, because for our sake is born a little Child, the Pre-eternal God.
Comment
Just a brief comment on the Tropar…It is a little child to whom the Wise Men were led by their study of the stars and other heavenly bodies. The Wise Men were the scientists of their day and age and their stores of information, their vast body of knowledge, led them to the Truth, this little child in
Just a brief comment on the Kondak…We see that all of creation rejoices and participates in the adoration of this one little child who is the very Son of God born in the flesh. From the kingdom of men there is Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the wise men. From the heavenly kingdom there is the star and the angels. From the earth a cave. From the animal kingdom the ox and the ass. In other words, each “kingdom” acknowledges the One true King and opens itself up to Him. We too must recognize our true King and so rejoice on this His birth in the flesh.
