While the name Christmas comes from the fact that the Church celebrates the day with a special Christ Mass, the event itself is recounted in the Infancy Narratives of the Gospel of Matthew, esp. 1:18-25, and the Gospel of Luke, esp. 2:1-20. Each account is unique in its details. Matthew, whom scholars believe was a Jew writing for Jews, provides his readers with the prophetic preparation for Christ. Whereas, Luke, a Greek physician, writes to give an accurate account (Lk. 1:1). The many details of the angelic announcement, visitation to Elizabeth, birth and early years are believed to have been obtained by interviewing the Blessed Virgin. ONLINE BIBLE   The greatest feasts, like Christmas and Easter, have liturgical seasons dedicated to them. Christmas is preceded by the Season of Advent, a time of preparation, and the celebration of the Nativity itself is extended in the Christmas Season. This season begins on Christmas Eve, as Catholics rejoice in the Lord’s Birth on December 25th, and extends to the Baptism of the Lord, on the Sunday after the Epiphany. Beginning on Christmas Day, eight days are dedicated to an Octave of Christmas, after the Jewish pattern for the greatest feasts. During this octave the Feast of the Holy Family is celebrated, and it culminates in the honoring of Mary as the Mother of God on January 1st. This title was first given to her by the early Councils, as a defense of her Son’s divinity against those who argued He was not God, or not eternally so. The cost of salvation and discipleship is never out of sight, however, during the Octave. The Church recalls the Holy Innocents, killed by Herod in a frantic search for the Messiah, and the proto-martyr Stephen, killed as Saul, later St. Paul, encouraged it. Finally, the Christmas Season concludes by looking forward to the Public Life and Ministry of Jesus, with the Solemnity of the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord. These events, which mark “manifestations” of Christ’s divinity, serve as bookends to His hidden life from infancy to the inauguration of His public ministry. Both the Old Testament prophet Micah (5:2) and the Gospels (Mt. 2 & Lk. 2) point to Bethlehem. The knowledge of the place was, as well, passed down among the Christians of Judea. In the third century AD, Origen of Alexandria wrote, In Bethlehem the cave is pointed out where He was born, and the manger in the cave where He was wrapped in swaddling clothes. And the rumor is in those places, and among foreigners of the Faith, that indeed Jesus was born in this cave who is worshiped and reverenced by the Christians. In the 4th century, St. Helena, the mother of the Roman Emperor Constantine, went on a Holy Land pilgrimage to locate the important sites in Christianity. With the help of locals in the Holy Land, St. Helena located the spots of Jesus’ Birth, Crucifixion, and Resurrection. Today, the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre mark these locations. The Catholic Church does not have a specific teaching on when Jesus was born. There may be a “memory” of the early Christians being preserved in this date, or its significance is only symbolic. After Christianization of the empire, the Church often replaced pagan things (e.g. temples) with Christian ones (churches). Scholars disagree on the merit of such arguments in this particular case, however. For example, in his book, The Spirit of the Liturgy, writing as a theologian and not as pope, Pope Benedict XVI wrote, The claim used to be made that December 25 developed in opposition to the Mithras myth, or as a Christian response to the cult of the unconquered sun promoted by Roman emperors in the third century in their efforts to establish a new imperial religion. However, these old theories can no longer be sustained. SUMMARY OF THE QUESTION