Christmas
Who wrote the Christmas carol "Silent Night"?
A group of historians, commissioned by the German government in 1854, discovered proof that the original German words were written in 1818, by a Catholic priest, Fr. Joseph Mohr, in the village of Oberndorf in Augustria, and the music was composed by a layman in the same village, whose name was Franz Gruber.
Reprinted from December 24, 1997
Is it true that Christmas was outlawed at one time in our country?
During the time of the Calvinists and Puritans, celebrating Christmas was made a crime in England. Christmas was considered a "relic of popery" and, in their hatred for the Catholic faith, they punished anyone who observed the day. This carried over into many Protestant settlements into our land. In Massachusetts, for example, until the 1830's, anyone who missed work or school on Dec. 25 was subject to a fine. Earlier, the colony, like the English Puritans, employed "mince smellers" who were paid to roam the streets to detected anyone baking mince pies on or near Dec. 25. Such housewives or bakers were fined if detected. The celebration of Thanksgiving in New England was a sort of substitute for Christmas. Some Protestants, such as the Lutherans and Anglicans (Episcopalians), still observed Christmas, however, despite its Catholic origins, from their earliest settlements in America.
Reprinted from January 3, 1997
Was Jesus
born in the year 0 or in the year 1?
Neither. St. Matthew situates the birth of Christ in the reign of King Herod the Great, a satellite king, under the general rule of the Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus. Scientists have shown that Herod reigned from 37 to 4 B.C. The monk, Dionysius Exiguus, who made up our present day calendar, miscalculated the year of Christ's nativity when he tried to put the birth of Jesus at the center of all history. It seems impossible to know the exact year of Christ's birth, but it was definitely sometime before the death of Herod the Great.
Reprinted from December 20, 1996
How do we know that Jesus was born on Dec. 25?
We don't know. The exact day of Christ's birth is un known. The date of Dec. 25 was chosen by the Church to "supplant, baptize, and Christianize" the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. The pagan ancient Romans held a series of festivities in honor of the "sol invictusti," the unconquered sun, right after they noticed the days, in the northern hemisphere, beginning to lengthen again with the sun appearing for a longer time in the heavens. Thus, the early Church used the heathen holiday to proclaim that Jesus Christ is the true "Sun of Justice," Who vanquishes the power and darkness of hell. So, the Church of Rome as signed Dec. 25, the highest pagan festival of the "sol invictus," as the day to celebrate the solemnity of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.
Reprinted from December 17, 1999
Why do we celebrate the Immaculate Conception only a few
weeks before Christmas rather than nine months before Christ's birth?
Nine months before Christmas on March 25 each year, the Church celebrates the Annunciation, that is, the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary and thus the beginning of the miraculous conception of Jesus in her womb, without intervention of a human father. On December 8 each year, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we celebrate another doctrine of our faith. This is nine months before the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, September 8. The Immaculate Conception means that Mary, conceived in the womb of her mother, Saint Ann, in the normal way that children are conceived, by the action of Saint Ann and Mary's father Saint Joachim, was preserved, by a special act of God and of Christ's future redemption, from every stain of original sin. The two distinct doctrines of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Virginal Conception of Jesus are often confused in the minds of non-Catholics and even in the thoughts of some Catholics who are poorly catechized.
Reprinted from January 22, 1999