happy christmas 2014 new year articles

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Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, meaning "Christ's Mass") is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ,observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it closes the Advent season and initiates the twelve days of Christmastide, which ends after the twelfth night.[12][13] Christmas is a public holiday in many of the world's nations,[14][15][16] is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Christian people,[1][17][18] and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.In addition to "Christmas", the holiday has been known by various other names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as "midwinter",or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð (from Latin nātīvitās below).[50][52] "Nativity", meaning "birth", is from Latin nātīvitās.The Chronography of 354 AD contains early evidence of the celebration on December 25 of a Christian liturgical feast of the birth of Jesus. This was in Rome, while in Eastern Christianity the birth of Jesus was already celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6.[56][57] The December 25 celebration was imported into the East later: in Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the 4th century, probably in 388, and in Alexandria only in the following century.Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, in contrast to the community-based and church-centered observations, the observance of which had dwindled during the late 18th century and early 19th century.[101] Superimposing his humanitarian vision of the holiday, in what has been termed "Carol Philosophy".