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Christmas

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Christmas

Christmas | A depiction of the Nativity with a Christmas tree backdrop. | Also called | Noel
Nativity
Yule
Xmas | Observed by | Christians
Many non-Christians[1] | Type | Christian, cultural | Significance | Traditional birthday of Jesus | Date | December 25 (alternatively, January 6, 7 or 19) | Observances | Church services, gift giving, family and other social gatherings, symbolic decorating | Related to | Christmastide, Christmas Eve, Advent, Annunciation, Epiphany, Baptism of the Lord, Yule |
Christmas is an annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated generally on December 25 as a religious and cultural holiday by 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. Christmas is a civil holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated by an increasing number of non-Christians, and is an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season.
The precise date of Jesus' birth, which some historians place between 7 and 2 BC, is unknown. By the early-to-mid 4th century, the Western Christian Church had placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted in the East. The date of Christmas may have initially been chosen to correspond with the day exactly nine months after early Christians believed Jesus to have been conceived, as well as the date of the southern solstice (i.e., the Roman winter solstice), with a sun connection being possible because Christians consider Jesus to be the "Sun of righteousness" prophesied in Malachi 4:2.
The original date of the celebration in Eastern Christianity was January 6, in connection with Epiphany, and that is still the date of the celebration for the Armenian Apostolic Church and in Armenia, where it is a public holiday. As of 2012, there is a difference of 13

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