The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ is a Christian celebration of the circumcision of Jesus in accordance with Jewish tradition, eight days (according to the Semitic and southern European calculation of intervals of days)[1] after his birth, the occasion on which the child was formally given his name.[2][3]
The circumcision of Jesus has traditionally been seen, as in the popular 14th-century work the Golden Legend, as the first time the blood of Christ was shed, and thus the beginning of the process of the redemption of man, and a demonstration that Christ is fully human, and of his (parents') obedience to Biblical law.
The feast day appears on 1 January in the liturgical calendar of Eastern Orthodox churches,[4][5] all Lutheran churches, and some churches of the Anglican Communion (while the Divine Maternity of Mary is observed on 26 December in the Byzantine rite, both in Greek Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches[6]). In the General Roman Calendar, the 1 January feast, which from 1568 to 1960 was called "The Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity", is now the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord. In Western Christianity, the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus Christ marks the eighth day (octave day) of Christmastide.[7]
- ^ In the northern European calculation, which abstracts from the day from which the count begins, the interval was of seven days.
- ^ Luke 2:21 (King James Version): "And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb."
- ^ Catholic Encyclopedia: Feast of the Circumcision
- ^ Greek Orthodox Archdiocese calendar of Holy Days Archived February 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Η Περιτομή του Ιησού Χριστού". www.pemptousia.gr (in Greek). 31 December 2021. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
- ^ "Mother of God Extends Our Christmas Celebration", Ascension Press website
- ^ MacBeth, Sybil (1 November 2014). The Season of the Nativity. Paraclete Press. p. 113. ISBN 9781612616131.
January 1, New Year's Day, is also the eighty day of Christmas. On the eighty day of life Jewish boys have a circumcision ceremony, or bris. January 1 is the Circumcision of Christ and the Feast of the Holy Name.