Midnight Mass

[citation needed] 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 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.

In his famous work, Cérémonies et coutumes religieuses de tous les peuples du monde, Bernard Picart describes 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.

Sometimes they burn such a large Quantity of Incense, that the Smoke thereof ascends in the Form of a Whirlwind, and their Devotees may properly enough be said to be wrapt up in it.

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.