This Feast is a Double Major, Second Class, which marks it high in rank; a number of Marian Feasts are of this class. Only Feasts of Our Lord are higher.
Early in the history of the Church the day dedicate to our Blessed Lady, under her great title---Mother of God---was January 1. Now The Feast of the Circumcision of Our Lord is kept on that day, although traces of Our Lady's Maternal Heart are to be found there as well. Many parishes had petitioned for a special festival in honor of Our Lady's Divine Maternity a day, usually in the month of October, was granted by the Holy See for its celebration. By a decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, April 24, 1914, the eleventh of October was assigned. Pope Pius XI raised it to a double of the second class and extended it to the Universal Church.
Catholics believe that Mary is the Mother of God. This does not mean that she is not a creature of God, nor that God did not exist before she was created.
It means that He Who was her Son was a Divine Person. Our Savior has two natures---the nature of God [Divine] and the nature of man [human]; but in Him there is only one Person, a Divine Person, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
Hence all that may be predicated of either nature may with propriety be said of the Savior as He actually was and seen, without distinguishing the two natures. So we may say that God was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We then refer to the Person of the Son of God, Who is both God and Man. Christ, Who is God, was born according to His human nature of the Blessed Virgin. She is, therefore, truly the Mother of God.
This Mass anticipates the Nativity of Our Lord and an event following. Mary's intercession on our behalf to her Divine Son is a repeated oration.
Source: Catholic Saint of the Day
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