Christmas is celebrated/ Thousands of believers at the "Vigil of Christ" mass

2024-12-25 07:13:00, Aktualitet CNA

Christmas is celebrated/ Thousands of believers at the "Vigil of

Catholic believers filled their churches at midnight celebrating the birth of Christ with prayers and songs, hoping for peace, prosperity and more joys.

Thousands of believers attended the mass of the "Vigil of Christ" which was held in Tirana at St. Paul's Cathedral at 11:00 p.m. and was led by the head of the Tirana-Durres Metropolitan archdiocese, Arjan Dodaj, who also delivered his Christmas message.

"We need to educate the young generations to hope because they are distracted by useless things, they don't know how to see beautiful things. He who has no hope, has no family, does not live on the net, is not online with love, religion and God", he said.

A bit of Christmas history

Christmas, also Kërshandellat or Kshnellat for short among Catholic believers, is a Christian religious holiday. Christians celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ every year on December 25; in Eastern churches it is celebrated on January 7, due to the Julian calendar. After Easter, it is the most important holiday for Christians.

The importance of Christmas Day began to grow slowly after the coronation of Charlemagne in 800 on Christmas Day.

Today, Christmas Day is celebrated with the display of the nativity scene, the Christmas tree, the exchange of gifts and cards, the united family, and the arrival of Santa Claus or the New Year's Eve on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Christmas is the holiday in which Christians wish more than ever for peace and love in the world.

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, who is believed by Christians as the Son of God and God himself incarnate, descended to earth to atone for the sins of mankind, and to return it to the house of God. According to the Gospels of Luke and Matthew, Jesus was born to Mary in Bethlehem, where she and her husband Joseph were resting on their way to their hometown, Nazareth, to take part in the census ordered by the emperor Augustus.

For his students, the birth of Christ was foretold by various prophecies according to which the messiah would be born from the house of David to save the world from sin.

The birthday of Jesus according to Christians is believed to be December 24-25 although there are doubts about the exact birth date as it is not mentioned in the New Testament. This holiday is one of the most beloved and favorite holidays of the entire Christian world, or in other words, the date of peace./ CNA