Feast of the Circumcision of Christ

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.

At an early stage the Church in Rome celebrated on 1 January a feast that it called the anniversary (Natale) of the Mother of God.

In the 13th or 14th century 1 January began to be celebrated in Rome, as already in Spain and Gaul, as the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the Octave of the Nativity, while still oriented towards Mary and Christmas.

Pope John XXIII's General Roman Calendar of 1960 calls 1 January simply the Octave of the Nativity.

The Anglican Communion's Book of Common Prayer liturgy celebrates this day as the Circumcision of Christ.