Sukumar Sarkar
Commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ all the Christian communities around the world will celebrate the Christmas Day today. December 25th is a public holiday for Christmas in Bangladesh even though only about 0.3% of the population, are Christians! Christmas, the biggest religious festival of the Christians, is the celebration of rebirth, new beginning, forgiveness and peace, and renewing relationship with God and human beings.
Of course, Christmas in our country has great spiritual meaning and is not as commercialised as in the developed countries of Europe or Northern America – this is probably a reason why in every country there are so many interesting local traditions and cultural differences. Christmas is usually an official public holiday in our country, so people use the opportunity to spend time with their friends and family.
This auspicious occasion is a prime festival of Christian community and hence, is celebrated zestfully around the world including Bangladesh. Christmas conveys his message of love, tolerance and brotherhood. Though, it is a religious festival of Christians, it has a special significance in everyone's life of the Christian community in Bangladesh.
On this day the Son of God (Jesus Christ) came in the world to preach the glory of God and to show the way of truth and justice to mankind. He was born in Bethlehem, Jerusalem, about two thousand years ago to the womb of a virgin mother. According to Christians, Jesus is considered the incarnation of God and his teachings are followed as an example for living a more spiritual life. Christians believe he died for the sins of all people and rose from the dead.
His mother, Mary, was a virgin who was betrothed to Joseph, a carpenter. Christians believe Jesus was born through Immaculate Conception. His lineage can be traced back to the house of David. According to the Gospel of Matthew (2:1), Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, who upon hearing of his birth felt threatened and tried to kill Jesus by ordering all of Bethlehem’s male children under age two to be killed. But Joseph was warned by an angel and took Mary and the child to Egypt until Herod’s death, where upon he brought the family back and settled in the town of Nazareth, in Galilee.