The word Christmas is derived from the Old English Cristes maesse, “Christ’s mass.” There is no certain tradition of the date of Christ’s birth. Christian chronographers of the 3rd century believed that the creation of the world took place at the spring equinox, then reckoned as March 25. Hence, the new creation in the Incarnation (i.e., the conception) and death of Christ must therefore have occurred on the same day, with his birth following nine months later at the winter solstice, December 25. The oldest extant notice of a feast of Christ’s Nativity occurs in a Roman almanac (the Chronographer ...(100 of 7998 words)