The midnight mass is the traditional Messe Catholique S which precedes the day by Christmas, at the time of the Christmas Eve.

This mass of the night is commonly called “midnight mass”, but in the majority of the French parishes it is usually celebrated at the beginning of evening (between 19:00 and 22:00). Each church organizes its midnight mass which is generally a broad popular success and attracts many not-practitioners. The midnight mass of the the Vatican, celebrated by the Pope, is retransmise on television in all the countries with Christian prevalence. The local midnight masses or those of Bethlehem have also a strong televisual success.

In the middle of the night, one celebrates the passage of darkness to the light. The text of Isaïe (9: 1-6) the birth of a child announces “who will make rise a great light on the people”. It will be called “Prince of peace”. The Gospel according to Luc (2: 1-14) tell the birth of Jesus and announces angels with the shepherds. This is why the celebration itself often starts with one taken care in the church, where one puts in scene the Nativité and where a statue of new-born the Jesus Child is brought in procession in the Crèche. The proclamation of the Gospel often ends in the song of the Gloire to God.

A tradition dating from the 7th century made mass of Christmas a succession of three masses: the first mass was called “mass of the Angels”, the second “mass of the Shepherds” and the third “mass of the divine Verb”. These three masses were better known under the name of “midnight mass”, “mass of the Dawn” and “mass of the Day”. It is only at the 19th century that one took the practice to say them after to the moment Christmas Eve.