The dawn of our Noble Jesus Christ by the Perpetually Virgin Mary (Mt. 1:18-25, 2:1-12; Lk. 2:1-20) in Bethlehem is substantial on the form day. The beginning of the dealing of this carnival belongs to the to begin with time of the Religious. In the normal remark, the carnival of the Nativity of Christ is older in the Western Religious than in the Eastern; but this penury moral be hidden about the time of celebrating the carnival on December 25. In the Eastern Churches it was substantial on January 6 until the 4th century and was communal by the name of Theophany. This carnival had a special peculiar and was devoted not moral precisely to the storage area of the dawn or first use of Christ, but in current to the bring into being of God in the flesh, to the image in Christ and unequivocal Christ of divine variability. This is why the carnival is called Theophany or, condescending punctually, the sign - "epifaneia". The chief core to honor the Nativity of Christ on January 6 served not the over and done border with the dawn of the Noble to this assembly point, who even for antiquity remained an foreign being, but the mystical understanding of the empathy between the apex and insignificant Adam, between the originator of sin and death and the Playwright of life and helping hand. The insignificant Adam, according to the mystical understanding of the ancient Religious, was untrained and died on the especially day on which the apex Adam was formed and died, - on the sixth correspondence to January 6, the apex month of year. So the unity between the Eastern and Western Churches taking part in the time of celebrating the dawn on December 25 is geared up moral since the 4th century. From this view point the carnival was entered inside the ConstantinopolitanChurch for the apex time about the year 377 under the dominion of Emperor Arcadius according to the custom of the Roman Religious and due to the energy and the power of the clarity of St. John Chrysostom, and from grant it materialize to all the Set East.
Formerly the very fatality of the carnival also points out the concept of its establishment: the remembrance and high regard of the dawn of our Noble Jesus Christ in the flesh by the All Spiritual Virgin Mary. This is the apex and basic concept of the dealing of the carnival. Fount archaic out of the ordinary outlook was allied to it: in this stringent dealing of the carnival by money of disclosing true doctrines about the alternative and the dawn of the Knight in shining armor counters the errors of the heretics: the Ebionites, Docetists and Basilidians. Due to these untrue doctrines and that on the very carnival on January 6 the ancient Religious useful its major special treatment to the remembrance of the contest of the dawn of Christ as the very bring into being of God in the flesh. In the 4th century with the incident and materialize of Arianism, the new and strongest give rise to appeared to praise the contest of the dawn of Christ for theOrthodox Religious. In the last part, with mention to carnival on December 25 the Religious imaginary to flick a counteract to the pagan cult and to protect believers from participating in it. It is communal, that connecting the Romans the carnival of the supposed, d"ies natalis Solis invicti" [day of the nativity of the unassailable Sun] torrent on December 25, present the speech of the outlook of the unbroken return of the year and as if the sun is changed and of the historical day of unrestricted amusements of the family tree, with the day of willing for slaves and children and so forth. So in itself this day was condescending consider for the remembrance of the contest of the dawn of Jesus Christ, Who in the New Testament unceasingly is referred to as the sun of the truth, light of the world, helping hand of the family tree and champion of life and death, but the immoral pagan remembrance was sufficiently give rise to for the Religious to come it according to the meaning of its fantastic Christian remembrance. Fittingly the ancient Religious, previously denying the cooperation of the two match feasts, the pagan and Christian, mood derive the carnival of the Nativity of Christ of the observed meaning and the moving harmful also of pagan superstitions and customs.
Asserting our dependence in the preeminent mystery of the alternative of our Noble Jesus Christ and condemning all heretics, who deformed this teaching by sophism, the Spiritual Religious, celebrating the Nativity of Christ, in its hymns describes this carnival as a day of all-pervading joy, "for today is untrained a Knight in shining armor, Who is Christ the Noble" (Lk. 2:10-11). "Let illusion and earth", exclaims the Spiritual Religious, "today be gladdened in the idea"; "all creation leaps for joy for the Knight in shining armor Noble was untrained for its sake in Bethlehem: for every idolatrous ploy ceased, and Christ reigns for all time". At the especially time the Spiritual Religious celebrating the Nativity of Christ civilly teaches us the holy life of the One Who was skilled to be untrained the Noble. "For us today is untrained a Knight in shining armor, Who is Christ the Noble", "for the sake of kindheartedness and for our helping hand", and we, now celebrating this dawn of Christ the Noble, as usual, penury ignite in ourselves the fundraiser to be reborn from a naughty life to a life holy and agreeable to God. Our Noble Jesus Christ having come down to earth entered inside a empathy of variability with us and "was not penitent to muster us brethren" (Heb. 2:11); but, in order for us to be skilled of this fantastic spoken communication and of society, in order not to turn ourselves apart from the Noble Who came down from the sky, it is necessary for us to relinquish the dimness of sin and to come closer to light of dependence, commitment and good actions. The Draftswoman and Master of illusion and earth appeared in the world not in glory and magnificence, but in chauffeur, penury and humiliation; the Ruler Who reigns and the Noble Who dominates accepts not complete chambers, but a basic hiding place. By this the affirm of shyness, penury, unassuming nature, severity and the perniciousness of pride, possessions, self-importance and intensity is pass to us. Critical to be the apex to gather round the good communication of the angels about the dawn of the Knight in shining armor of the world and the apex to dearest Him were simple Bethlehem shepherds (about them see below), and in the rear them the tender Persian magi (about them see below), and fittingly at the manger of the Knight in shining armor we see two sorts of family tree - shepherds and magi, i.e. the simplest family tree and the maximum civilized family tree. By this we are romantic that the Noble accepts each and all: populace agreeable to Him and the simple too expensive, when they are allied to the true fulfillment of their art, with the purity of conscience and life; whatsoever wisdom is not rejected by Him when it is controlling to crony itself to the plan from additional and uses its knowledge to the glory of God and for the use of national. This teaches each one to be happy with his reveal and at the especially time demonstrates that no art and division interferes with their coming closer to God, that orderly and crude perform, romantic by dependence and desire in God is the assiduous fulfillment of the duties interminably agreeable to God and attracts His blessing that in the eyes of God the artificial bits and pieces are not outer advantages in the light, but purity of heart and of conscience, unassuming nature and shyness of spirit, humbleness and control to the law of God, leniency and agreement, desire and exactness to mood of God, obedience and facilitate to national, going irreproachably before God in all the commandments and precepts, that these artificial being do not belong distinctively to any assets, that in all callings and positions the being may be agreeable to God, if he mood be well agreeable to Him in word, anticipate and mind. In current the contest of the bring into being of God in the flesh unusually described in the festal services with all the mess rotund it represents by itself an immeasurable properly for our schooling.
The carnival of the Nativity of Christ is one of the twelve central feasts. It has 5 days of Forefeast (from Dec. 20 to 24) and six days of Afterfeast; its Transitory is Dec. 31. The liturgical books muster it "a three day Pascha". According to the affirm of commemorated actions this carnival is substantial as the maximum festive of all feasts, forbid for Pascha. St. John Chrysostom calls the day of the Nativity of Christ the maximum demure and basic of all feasts", "the mother of all feasts".
Worship OF THE MAGI
Three Magi, Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar, having erudite about the dawn of the Messiah according to the conjuring star which appeared to them in the sky and led them to the institution of the world's Knight in shining armor and they unfilled to Christ gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh (Mt. 2:1-12). They expend that these magi (i.e. eastern tender men) came from Persia. Boldly, they knew the Jewish hope of the Messiah. According to the remark of some, these magi were family tree of the Babylonian tender men, who put a bet on were under the leadership of Daniel (Acts 2:48), who even has sown connecting his subordinates the kernel of the true dependence and hope of the Messiah (Num. 24:17; Dan. 9:24-27). For instance skilled to bow to the untrained Knight in shining armor, the magi, without a doubt, were noble with fantastic spiritual being. Obviously, in the use of their point and in their get of whatsoever knowledge they were romantic by commitment and dependence in the promised Knight in shining armor and with all their lighting state was the glory of God and their own helping hand. Their very trip for the fancy of the Knight in shining armor bears view to their dependence, love and single-mindedness. According to some tales, the magi, having returned to their native land, were turned to preoccupied life and prayer. Subsequent to the Apostle Thomas met them in Parthia, and they, having identified first use from him, themselves became preachers of Christ. Just the once their death, their residue, found by St. Helen, were apex placed in Constantinople, but from state were transferred to Mediolanum (Milan), and next to Toilet water. In the Toilet water minster they even now engage in recreation theater company the skulls of these three tender men, opened by the Bishop of Toilet water Reynold in the 12th century. In medal of the magi the West geared up the special carnival called "the carnival of the three kings", which superseded the carnival of Theophany on Jan. 6. Together with simple family tree in the West the magi were venerated as the protectors of travelers.
Celebration OF THE SHEPHERDS WHO SAW THE Noble
Surely, the shepherds were family tree who were precisely devout, true Israelites, who were wholeheartedly pending and desiring the coming of the promised Messiah, unceasingly, especially in the silence of the night, under the light of the peaceful bodies, turned to committed reflections and conversations on the holy fatality of their requests and coming. Major all their severity they were powerful in dependence, unequivocal their seeming ferociousness they had cleansed and softened their hearts with the pressure of God, unequivocal all their scarcity of as you think fit possessed artificial valuables in the world, with orderly conscience before God and the family tree, they in one piece pleased their muted service and did not hope out of the ordinary determination, forbid for their reality before God and before the family tree. For their enthusiastic coming of the Messiah, for their fair and crude perform, for their assiduous discharge of the duties of their service romantic by dependence and desire in God, for their commitment and their fantastic spiritual being, the insinuate Bethlehem shepherds standard the preeminent kindness from the Lord: they were the apex to whom the angels revealed the dawn of the Knight in shining armor and they were the apex to convene seen Him, they were the apex on behalf of all the whatsoever score to convene shrunken down to Him (Lk. 2:8-20).
APOLYTIKION IN THE FOURTH Lowlight
Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, has shone to the world the light of wisdom, for by it populace who worshipped the stars, were taught by a star, to exalt Thee the Sun of validity, and to know Thee the Familiarize from on high: O Noble glory to Thee.
KONTAKION IN THE THIRD Lowlight
At the moment the Virgin gives dawn to the heavenly One and the earth offers a hiding place to the snobbish One, angels and shepherds praise Him, tender men chief with the star: since for our sake the eternal God was untrained as a midstream child.
Augmentation (MEGALYNARIA)
We magnify Thee, O Lifegiver Christ, who for our sake is now untrained in the flesh from the unwedded and faultless Virgin Mary.
