Feasts
The Nativity of Christ
The feast of the Incarnation: history, traditions, worship.
The event
The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary is described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Celebration on 25 December is known in Rome from the 4th century; in the East it was at first kept together with Theophany on 6 January.
Old Style
Churches on the Julian calendar celebrate on 25 December Old Style, which in the 20th–21st centuries falls on 7 January of the civil calendar.
Traditions
The Nativity is preceded by a forty-day fast and a strict eve. After the feast comes Christmastide, a fast-free period until the eve of Theophany.