Do you know? Origin of Chdstmas

Christmas is a religious festival. It is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. There are special christmas services in christian churches all over the world. but many of the festivities of christmas do not have anything to do with religion. exchanging gifts and sending christmas cards are the modern ways of celebrating the christmas in the world.

To people all over the world, Christmas is just a festival of giving and receiving presents.But in some European countries, Father Christmas, or Saint Claus, comes into houses in the night and leaves gifts for the children. Saint Nicholas is represented as a kindly man with a red cloak and long white beard.

Christmas gifts

Most children believe that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole. All year he lists the names of children, both those who have been good and those who have been bad. He decides what presents to give to the good children. Each child hung a stocking, or sock, over the fireplace. Santa entered down the chimney and left candy and presents inside the socks for the children. On the morning of Christmas day. Each child can't wait to open his or her eyes to see what Santa has left in the stocking.

Christmas Cards

Another important custom of Christmas is to send and receive Christmas cards, which are meant to help express the sentiment of the season. Americans begin sending Christmas cards early in December to friends, acquaintances, and co-workers. The post office advises customers to mail early in the season and avoid the Christmas rush. Some people heed the advice; others wait until the last minute and then are upset when their loved ones have not received the greeting card or the present which they sent 。

The Origins of Christmas Customs

A. Christmas Trees

Just as early Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, so too worshippers of the Asheira cult and its offshoots were recruited by the Church sanctioning “Christmas Trees”.[7] Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or brought them into their homes and decorated them, and this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian veneer by the Church.

B. Mistletoe

Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was killed using a mistletoe arrow by his rival god Hoder while fighting for the female Nanna. Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human sacrificial victim.[8] The Christian custom of “kissing under the mistletoe” is a later synthesis of the sexual license of Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.[9]

C. Christmas Presents

In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among the general populace. The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of Saint Nicholas (see below).[10]

Christmas (Christmas) is a traditional church calendar of festivals, it is the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas, most of the first Christian church in the city on December 24 at the Christmas Eve worship, and then on December 25 to celebrate Christmas, while another major branch of the Christian Orthodox Christmas celebrations in the annual January 7. According to the Christian Gospel, Jesus is the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem by the Holy Spirit flu pregnant after giving birth, Mary and her husband Joseph to Rome was being registered on the census. Jesus was born in the Jewish prophecy appears to be believers in the Messiah will come to the realization of plans, because Bethlehem is David Joseph ancestral family home. Christmas is also the Western world, as well as many other areas of public holidays, for example: in Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Singapore. However, the exact date of birth of Jesus there is a dispute.

Christmas Central
Western countries pegged at home during Christmas with decorations, usually green foliage or rattan (松毛, pine needles, etc.) and silver metals and gold bell supported red ribbon formed. The colors green, white, yellow, red representatives joyful, reading MERRY CHRISMAS or initials X'mas

关于圣诞节的英文介绍