On Christmas Eve, the Midnight Mass is held, which is a very well-liked holiday tradition. The celebration of Holy Communion is part of it. The first liturgy of Christmastide that starts at midnight is known as Midnight Mass. The Mass or service of worship is being held in remembrance of Jesus’ birth.
In the beginning, Egeria, a Galician woman who made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land between 381-384, wrote about this custom of midnight mass. Egeria had seen how the early Jerusalem Catholics commemorated the Christmas mystery in Bethlehem by holding a vigil at midnight.
Pope Sixtus III introduced this all-night vigil custom to the Western world in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in 430.
This Christmas Eve liturgical tradition is followed by the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Communion, and the Lutheran Churches.
The popularity of this Midnight Mass grew more by the 12th century when the permission to celebrate 3 Masses on Christmas Day was granted to all the priests. The rule was that the three different prospers must be celebrated at their predetermined timings – at midnight, dawn and day.
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