Churches Celebrate Jesus

As is the custom in Christian communities throughout the world, most members of the Roman Catholic Church and followers of Protestantism will celebrate Christmas on December 25, with some holding services from evening of December 24 as well. The official Christmas season, popularly known as either Christmastide or the Twelve Days of Christmas, extends from the anniversary of Christ’s birth on December 25 to the feast of Epiphany on January 6. On the Epiphany, some Catholics and Protestants celebrate the visit of the Magi, while Orthodox Christians, who call the feast Theophany, celebrate the baptism of Christ.

Until a few years ago, midnight Christmas services were held at churches throughout the country. However, concerns about crime have forced many churches to stop those services and instead schedule their activities for the evening of Christmas Eve, or Christmas morning.

One of the few churches that will be sticking to tradition with a midnight Mass is the St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Tobago. The service, which starts at 11 pm, will include blessing of the creche and the Eucharist. There will be another service on Christmas morning at 9 am.

Another church still observing the midnight Mass tradition is Holy Cross RC Church in Santa Cruz. There will also be a service at that church on Christmas morning at 8 am.

On Christmas Eve worshippers at the Uganda Martyrs RC Church in Chaguanas will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ with carolling and parang. There will be a vigil service for an hour starting at 9 pm, followed by Mass at 10 pm.

At the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, in Port-of-Spain, there will be a Christmas Eve mass which starts at 9 pm. For those who prefer to an early morning Christmas service, there will be Mass which begins at 9 am. There will also be a 6 pm service.

Two Masses will be celebrated at Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC in San Fernando at 7 pm and again at 11 pm. On Christmas morning there will be three services at 6 am, at 7:45 am and at 9:30 am.

There will be two Masses at the Santa Rosa RC, Arima, on Sunday at 5 pm and at 7 pm. On Christmas Eve, parishioners have a choice between two early morning Masses starting at 7 am and 9 am, with Masses at the same times on Christmas morning. There is also an evening Mass at 8 pm.On December 28, the church will commemorate the Feast of the Holy Innocents with a children’s Mass at 10 am. This will be followed by celebrations of the Feast of the Holy Family on December 30 at 5 and 7 pm.

Episcopal Archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke, a leader in the Shouter Baptist faith, told Newsday that very few Baptist churches have services on Christmas morning.

“We usually have a worship service on the Sunday before Christmas where we come together to celebrate and have an exchange of gifts. All Shouter Baptist churches will have an Old Year’s night service but usually there are no services on Christmas morning,” she said

At the Curepe Pentecostal Church, there will be a Christmas Cantata a thanksgiving celebration in dance and song featuring members of the choir and drama group. The church service will begin promptly at 8am on Christmas morning.

Victory Christian Outreach Church in Belmont will be celebrating with a thanksgiving service on Sunday morning from 9 am. There will also be a worship service on Christmas morning from 8.30 am.

Local Presbyterian churches will have services on December 24 from 7 am at Wilson Memorial in Marabella, St Andrews in Princes Town, Rio Claro, Arima, Sangre Chiquito, Penal, the Susumachar church in San Fernando and La Romaine.

On Christmas Day, there are various services, some starting as early as 5 am at the Presbyterian churches at Chaguanas, Marabella, Penal and Fyzabad, with later services starting at 9 am in San Fernando, Woodbrook, Curepe and Point Fortin.

St John’s London Baptist on Pembroke Street, Port-of-Spain, will celebrate on Christmas morning with a service at 7 am.

The word Christmas originated as a contraction of “Christ’s mass.” It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes m?sse, a phrase first recorded in 1038.

After the conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain in the very early 7th century, Christmas was referred to as geol, the name of the pre-Christian solstice festival from which the current English word ‘Yule’ is derived.

The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned on Christmas Day in 800. Around the 12th century, the remnants of the former Saturnalian traditions of the Romans were transferred to the Twelve Days of Christmas (26 December — 6 January). Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival, incorporating ivy, holly, and other evergreens, as well as gift-giving.

Modern traditions have come to include the display of Nativity scenes, Holly and Christmas trees, the exchange of gifts and cards, and the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.

Popular Christmas themes include the promotion of goodwill and peace.

Many of these traditions are followed in TT by Christians and non-Christians alike.