At the stroke of midnight or in the afternoon, depending on the parishes, thousands of faithful will attend today one of the largest masses of the Catholic confession. Popularly known as Midnight Mass, believers commemorate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in a unique climate and atmosphere, created by the spirituality of Christmas. “On this night Love is born, the Prince of Peace is born who chooses the humility and poverty of a stable to enter our World,” explains the religious Fra Valentí Serra de Manresa, archivist of the Capuchins of Sarrià, in Barcelona.

A rite that Pope Sixtus III introduced in Rome in the 5th century, in the image and likeness of the liturgy that was celebrated at night in a grotto in Bethlehem, according to the vice president of the Institute of Liturgy of Barcelona and parish priest of Cornellà del Terri, Jordi Font. “This mass was witnessed by a woman named Egeria who took note of the ritual that was celebrated in Jerusalem; The pilgrimages of the time between Rome and Jerusalem and vice versa spread this celebration that, by imitation, was held at night,” he explains. The liturgy in Rome took place in a small oratory, in front of a replica of the manger, located behind the main altar of the basilica of Santa María Maggiore. Regarding the celebration at midnight, Font explains that some authors point out that this reference may come from the Book of Wisdom, of the Old Testament, in which it can be read in chapter 18: “When a calm silence enveloped everything and the night “He was in the middle of his career, your omnipotent Word, like an implacable warrior, jumped from heaven, from the royal throne, in the middle of a land condemned to extermination.”

However, the first references to this religious celebration came long before this tradition was established in the 5th century. The Capuchin religious explains that since the exact date of the birth of the Messiah was not known exactly, in the second century the different theophanies of Christ began to be celebrated liturgically in a single festival: his birth, the manifestation of the Magi and the baptism in the Jordan River during the first days of January, when the day was beginning to get longer.

“Rome divided the festival into three different celebrations, anticipating the festival of the birth of Christ on December 25 since it coincided with the winter solstice and thus they wanted to replace the pagan festival of Sol invictus with the Christian festival of Natalis invicti,” he explains. the religious, who is also a collaborator of Edicions Morera. The first documentary reference is found, according to the Capuchin archivist, in the Philócalo Calendar of the year 336, a Roman manuscript from the 4th century that contains a collection of documents of a chronological and historical nature in which it reads VIII Kalendas Ianuarii Natus Christus in Betleem .

Regarding the nickname that this mass receives, ‘of the rooster’, there are also several versions. Fra Valentí explains that in the Roman liturgical rite, the celebration of Christmas includes three masses. The first is celebrated ‘ad galli cantum’ early in the day, still at night. According to Fra Valentí, it is nicknamed ‘the rooster’ because according to popular tradition, the roosters on Christmas night were associated with the songs of the angels to announce the birth of the Savior. “That is why the Catalan and Provençal nativity scene has so many figures of standing roosters announcing the birth of the Redeemer,” he says. However, the folklorist Amadeu Carbó explains in the book ‘Celebrem el Nadal’ (Col·lecció de l’Ermità), that the name comes from the “extraordinary duration” of that mass, which began at midnight and lasted until that the rooster crowed, first thing in the morning.

Be that as it may, the Midnight Mass is widely rooted in countries with a Catholic tradition, especially in Spain, Latin America and also in the Philippines. A celebration that started in cathedrals, convents and monasteries in Europe and later moved to parishes. In Catalonia it was very popular from the 18th century onwards to the point that during the 19th century, for some years it had to be banned by the authorities to avoid the commotion due to an excess of faithful, according to the archivist of the Capuchins of Sarrià.

A celebration that has undergone changes throughout its history. The Council of Trent (1563) prohibited the Cant de el Sibil•la, one of the most anticipated moments of Christmas night, which survived in some temples in Mallorca and S’Alguer. The Capuchins’ archivist explains that the Second Vatican Council led to the elimination of songs in the churches of carols that were “too popular or not very liturgical” and the caged birds that were taken to the church to be made to sing during the interpretation of the popular carol have also disappeared. Cant dels Ocells, at the end of the mass. Since the covid, some parishes have moved forward with their celebration, in which, according to priest Jordi Font, “many unusual people” participate in going to mass. For some time now, the Pollito mass has also been celebrated, aimed at families with children, which is usually celebrated on the afternoon of December 24.