Kalendas

Another monastic custom - sometimes kept in regular parishes as well -- was the Christmas Proclamation. This announced the birth of Christ in the context (largely speculative, of course,) of the events of world history from the beginning of time and in the secular context of the Roman Empire. In the monastery it is sung in Latin from a beautifully illuminated manuscript, and is a lovely piece that builds to a crescendo of joy. We used to have it sung while the chapel was dark, and then turn up the lights with the final line.

• The twenty-fifth day of December.
  
• In the five thousand one hundred and ninety-ninth year of the creation of the world
  from the time when God in the beginning created the heavens and the earth;
  
• the two thousand nine hundred and fifty-seventh year after the flood;
  
• the two thousand and fifteenth year from the birth of Abraham;
  
• the one thousand five hundred and tenth year from Moses
  and the going forth of the people of Israel from Egypt;
  
• the one thousand and thirty-second year from David's being anointed king;
  
• in the sixty-fifth week according to the prophecy of Daniel;
  
• in the one hundred and ninety-fourth Olympiad;
  
• the seven hundred and fifty-second year from the foundation of the city of Rome;
  
• the forty second year of the reign of Octavian Augustus;
  
• the whole world being at peace,
  
• in the sixth age of the world,
  
• Jesus Christ the eternal God and Son of the eternal Father,
  desiring to sanctify the world by his most merciful coming,
  being conceived by the Holy Spirit,
  and nine months having passed since his conception,
  
• was born in Bethlehem of Judea of the Virgin Mary,
  being made flesh.
  
• The Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

BTW, that picture is not from the Proclamation, but I like it and that's reason enough to put it up there.