The Season of Christmas - Christmas
We celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus, our Savior.
"Christ Mass" is really the language from which the word "Christmas" comes. The Mass is a pattern of worship comprised of a sacred choral composition with five sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. The Christ Mass is a worship service focusing on the birth of the Christ, meaning "the Anointed One". The Christ is the promised Savior:
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
John 3:16
God foretold the Savior's birth through the prophets of the Old Testament, and God kept His promise in the New Testament through the birth of Jesus. The first book of the New Testament, Matthew, tells of the angel of the Lord appearing unto Joseph in a dream, saying:
But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’
Matthew 1:20-21
Notice the word "for" which indicates the whole reason that Jesus was born - that He shall save his people from their sins. Jesus said that He didn't come into this world to condemn the world (we already stood condemned because of our sinfulness), but that He came as a ransom for many. We are no longer "kidnapped" by death and the devil. Jesus' perfect life and His death, which He didn't deserve, paid the ransom to free us so that we are declared right with God.
We formally celebrate Christmas until the arrival of Epiphany, which remembers the visit of the Magi, the Wise Men.
Did You Know....?
... that there exist many festivals of the liturgical calendar that are not formally celebrated unless Christmas Day falls on Sunday?
Along with the events that happened with Jesus' birth, the Holy Innocents (boy children of Bethlehem under two years of age who were slaughtered by order of King Herod who wanted to destroy the newborn King of the Jews in order to retain his throne), the Circumcision, and Epiphany are remembered on December 28th, January 1st, and January 6th respectively.
