In many Western Christian traditions, Midnight Mass is the first liturgy of Christmastide that is celebrated on the night of Christmas Eve , traditionally beginning at midnight when Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day . This popular Christmas custom is a jubilant celebration of the mass or service of worship in honour of the Nativity of Jesus ; even many of those Christian denominations that do not regularly employ the word mass uniquely use the term "Midnight Mass" for their Christmas Eve liturgy as it includes the celebration of Holy Communion .
7-644: The Proclamation of the Birth of Christ , Kalenda Proclamation , or Christmas Proclamation , is a chant sung before the Midnight Mass for Christmas in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church . The long text is a timeline, in which each verse represents the years from an historical event, either secular or religious, until birth of Jesus Christ , and the number of years – expressed in centuries or years – decreases until
14-757: A Christian woman named Egeria on the night of January 5. The tradition reached the Western world in the year 430 under Pope Sixtus III in the Basilica of St Mary Major . By the twelfth century, the practice of midnight Mass had become more widespread as all priests had been granted the faculty of celebrating three Masses on Christmas Day (previously reserved to the Pope), provided the three different propers were celebrated at their appropriate times of midnight, dawn and day. Roman Catholics have traditionally celebrated Midnight Mass with church services beginning at midnight. Since 2009
21-511: The Form of a Whirlwind, and their Devotees may properly enough be said to be wrapt up in it. Churches of the Anglican Communion also traditionally celebrate Midnight Communion for Christmas at 11 or 11:30 pm. Methodist observations vary as many hold services at 11 p.m. which involve the ringing of church bells when the stroke of midnight is reached. The Church of Scotland observes
28-771: The Lutheran Midnight Mass: In some Lutheran Countries, the People go to Church on the Night of the Nativity of our Blessed Saviour with lighted Candles, or Wax-Tapers in their Hands. The Faithful who are met together in the Church, spend the whole Night there in singing, and saying their Prayers by the Light of them. Sometimes they burn such a large Quantity of Incense, that the Smoke thereof ascends in
35-869: The Proclamation as well. In the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Christmas Proclamation is chanted during Midnight Mass. As the official Latin text of the Roman Martyrology has been updated, the English translation of the Proclamation has changed as well. Midnight Mass The tradition of a midnight Vigil on the eve of Christmas began in the East, and was observed in the late fourth century in Jerusalem by
42-604: The Vatican has conducted a liturgically similar Christmas Eve Mass earlier in the day, first at 10:00 pm, designated a Mass during the Night , then subsequently earlier in the evening. In Splendoribus Sanctorum is used for the Communion chant during traditional Catholic midnight mass. Lutherans often observe Midnight Mass in addition to Christmas Vespers and Matins . In his famous work, Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde , Bernard Picart describes
49-440: The day of the first Christmas. Originating from the Roman Martyrology , traditionally read during the hour of Prime , the proclamation places the birth of Christ "within the context of salvation history ." Prime was suppressed as part of the liturgical reforms following Vatican II , but Pope John Paul II restored the usage of the Proclamation during the 1980 Papal Christmas Midnight Mass. Since then, many parishes re-instituted
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