Nativity

The Nativity of Jesus, or simply the Nativity, is the story of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth.

For Christians, the authoritative accounts are those given in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke that form part of the New Testament of the Bible. More elaborate accounts of the events relating to the birth of Jesus have also been preserved, but they have not been included in the Christian canon of the Bible. The Gospel of Mark, arguably the earliest of the canonical gospels, is silent on the nativity.

The birth narratives of Matthew and Luke relate that the mother of Jesus of Nazareth was Mary, at the time of his conception the betrothed wife of Joseph of the House of David, and that she conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit rather than by Joseph.

The remembrance, representation and re-enactment of the Nativity scene are at the heart of the Christian celebration of Christmas, the name "Christmas" for the festival signifying the Christian belief that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ promised in the Old Testament of the Bible. In the Roman Catholic Church, and among other Christian groups, the main religious celebration of Christmas is the Church service at midnight ("Heilige Nacht", "Midnight Mass") or in the morning of "Christmas Day", which is always kept on the 25 December. During the forty days leading up to Christmas, the Eastern Orthodox Church practices the Nativity Fast, while four Sundays before Christmas, the Roman Catholic Church begins observing the liturgical season of Advent � both are times of spiritual cleansing, recollection and renewal, in order to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

Many modern scholars point out that the two Gospel accounts appear to present two different and conflicting narratives, and consider both stories essentially to be pious fictions E. P. Sanders describes them as "the clearest cases of invention in the Gospels".