On the eve of Christmas became Christmas Day around the world, services and celebrations marking the holiday.
On the night of the Vatican, Friday, the Catholic faithful filled the benches inside St. Peter's Basilica to hear Pope Benedict XVI's Midnight Mass, he prayed to God for peace.
"Give us the grace of true brotherhood. Help us to be like you. Help us to recognize your face in other people who need our help," he said. "And we help them live with you as brothers and sisters to become a family -. His family"
Celebrating young and old, so in fear that the choir serenaded the pope at its March ceremony in the church. He was taken to St. Peter for the Christmas Eve services at 30 cardinals, a tradition started by Pope John Paul II.
The bells rang during the Holy Eucharist, with bumps that could be heard inside the church and the entire Vatican.
In 2009, Midnight Mass interrupted while 25 years Susanna Maiolo jumped a fence and bring down the pope. She had tried to get the Pope on Christmas Eve in 2008, but was arrested, the Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said.
Christmas Eve Mass was held 22 years ago, so the Pope, who had 82 years at the time, should be well rested for services on Christmas Day.
Thousands converged on Friday in Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas in the town where Jesus was supposedly born, joining the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, and a Roman Catholic archbishop of midnight mass.
Twal, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, led the procession of priests and faithful in the Church of the Nativity, the traditional service.
The pilgrims, many of whom visit the city every year at this time, full of Manger Square outside the church waiting for the arrival of the patriarch.
"When we come, we say except, yes, Jesus, we're here, we are all Christians, we are all brothers," one of the tourist crowd outside the Church of the Nativity said NNews.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas, Muslim, went to Bethlehem to attend mass.
At least 90,000 tourists expected to visit the city by the end of the Christmas season, such as Bethlehem Mayor Victor Batarseh.
The city is near the high wall that forms a part of Israel's West Bank barrier.
In 1948, Christians accounted for 80% of the population of Bethlehem, that figure is now 35%.
Inside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing, China more than 1,000 worshipers gathered to celebrate Mass on Friday.
The ceremony was greeted with hymns and songs, and was directed by a young priest, who asked the congregation to "pray for the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI and the bishops in China."
This is a significant change in the 1960s and '70s, when religion was repressed in China. Now, images and sounds of Christmas is all about, making it one of the largest commercial holiday periods in Chinese cities.
Although many Chinese take advantage of the lucrative half of the season, while others are searching for the meaning of Christmas.
"My parents are Catholic," said 19 year old Joseph min. He said that many young people have lost the "wave of social change", but many are "looking for a kind of religion or philosophy of life."
China has become home for more than six million Catholics, according to a report adopted at the eighth national congress of Chinese Catholics in early December, told China Daily.
Beijing and the Vatican broke off diplomatic relations in 1951, but efforts are said to reconcile their differences.
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