The Christmas Holiday
Christmas is one of the biggest holidays of the year and is
celebrated around the world with a variety of traditions and folklore. Every
culture has its own history of Christmas that signifies the beginning of the
holiday in various countries. What seems universal is that Christmas is a
special time of the year for the joy and intangible magic that fills the
season. It comes through in the delightful decorations, glorious get-togethers
with family and friends and the sheer feeling of joy one gets from giving and
receiving gifts.
The United States was one of the last places to adopt
the Christmas holidays, but this country has done much in a short period of
time to create a rich history of the holiday. The Christmas holiday season in
many countries refers to the period of the year approaching Christmas when
businesses (particularly those who sell and manufacture things that could be
given as gifts) prepare for the massive buying rush that the holiday generates.
Although there is no official beginning to the Christmas holiday season, some
people consider this period to last between the day after Thanksgiving (Black
Friday) and the Sunday after New Year's Day. In some countries it is marked by
annual Christmas parades and the arrival of Santa Claus such as at the end of the Macy's
Thanksgiving Day Parade in the U.S.
In North America, the Christmas
holiday season is also punctuated by continued screenings of theme-based
movies (such as It's a Wonderful Life and
Miracle on 34th Street) and television specials (such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed
Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas). The season continues through the New
Year's weekend, with its college football bowl games and more
parades.
Christmas season is also known as Christmastide, one of six
seasons of the year in the liturgical year of some Christian churches; namely,
the period which runs from Christmas Day to January 6, the start of the octave
of Epiphany. This period is also commonly known as the Twelve days of
Christmas, as referred to in the Christmas carol "Twelve Days of Christmas".
During the season various festivites are traditionally enjoyed and buildings
decorated.
American Sunday schools
began to hold Christmas parties in the first half of the nineteenth century,
and the rituals of Christmas trees, gift giving and Santa Clause were very much
a part of the culture by the late 1800’s. In 1836, Alabama was the first
state in the country to make Christmas a legal holiday. Washington D.C.
followed suit in 1870, and by 1893 every state and territory had done the
same.
An enormous number of customs,
with either secular, religious, or national aspects, surround Christmas, and
vary from country to country. Most of the familiar traditional practices and
symbols of Christmas, such as the Christmas tree,
the Christmas ham, the Yule Log, holly, mistletoe, and the giving of
gifts, were adapted or appropriated by Christian
missionaries from the earlier pagan midwinter holiday of Yule.
But when
did the history of Christmas begin? The very first Christmas was celebrated in
a town called Bethlehem, more than 2000 years ago, and this is the history of
Christmas that most people are familiar with. The history of Christmas begins
with the Roman Catholic Church in celebrating the birth of the Christ child.
Eventually the holiday of Christmas was celebrated by others as well, and other
stories and folklore came into play with the history of Christmas and the
traditions that go along with it. As each country and culture hopped on the
Christmas bandwagon, they all brought with them many traditions and rituals
that were unique to their own cultures. All of these aspects of the history of
Christmas have come together in a sort of melting pot that makes up our
Christmas holiday of today.
Although some complain that Christmas has
become a highly commercialized holiday, which has stripped some of the original
meaning of the history of Christmas away, most still recognize this day as the
day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Churches see a rise in attendance during
the Christmas holiday season, and many families place crèches and
nativity scenes in their home to commemorate the first Christmas. For believers
in the Christian faith, the history of Christmas signifies one of the holiest
times of the year, when a Messiah was born to bring salvation to the world.
The Christmas Story
The story of Christ's birth has been handed down for centuries,
based primarily on the Christian gospels of Matthew and Luke. The gospels of
Mark and John do not address the childhood of Jesus, and those of Matthew and
Luke give somewhat differing accounts, Luke's being closest to the public
impression of the Christmas story and the version most often read in Christmas
services.
According to Luke, Mary
learned from an angel that she was
with child, by virtue of impregnation by the Holy Spirit without intercourse.
Shortly thereafter, she and her husband Joseph left their home in Nazareth to
travel to Joseph's ancestral home, Bethlehem, to enroll in the census ordered
by the Roman emperor, Augustus. Finding no room in inns in the town, they set
up primitive lodgings in a stable. There Mary gave birth to Jesus in a manger
or stall. Christ's birth in Bethlehem of Judea, the home of the house of David
from which Joseph was descended, fulfilled the prophecy of
Isaiah.
Matthew's gospel begins by recounting the genealogy and virgin
birth of Jesus, and then moves to the coming of the Wise Men from the East to
where Christ was staying after his birth in Bethlehem. The wise men, or Magi,
first arrived in Jerusalem and reported to the king of Judea, Herod the Great,
that they had seen a star heralding the birth of a king. Further inquiry led
them to Bethlehem of Judea and the home of Mary and Joseph. They presented
Jesus with treasures of "gold, frankincense, and myrrh". While staying the
night, each Wise Man had a dream that contained a divine warning that King
Herod had murderous designs on the child. Resolving to hinder the ruler, they
returned home without notifying Herod of the success of their mission. Matthew
then reports that the family next fled to Egypt to escape the murderous rampage
of Herod, who had decided to have the children of Bethlehem killed in order to
eliminate any local rivals to his power. When Jesus and his family returned, it
was then that they settled in Nazareth.
Recent Christmas Articles
The First Christmas
Lights
The history of when the first strands of colored blinking lights
decorating our trees and houses were used.
Types of Real Christmas
Trees
There are several types of real Christmas trees, all of which are
a cheap choice over artificial. The most common types of Christmas trees are
the six-foot Scotch pines, which fit nicely into the average home living
room.
French Christmas
Traditions
Christmas, always called 'Noël in France, is largely
characterized by exchanging gifts within families, and by gifts brought by
Father Christmas, or Père Noël, as he's called in France.
12 Days of
Christmas
There have even been many versions of the song that have come
out, since the structure lends itself well to variation and even humor. But did
you ever stop to think what this seemingly nonsensical song really is about?
