Thursday, August 28th, 2008
- The universal abbreviation for Christmas to Xmas comes from the Greek alphabet. X is letter Chi, which is the first letter of Christ’s name.
- The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, or “Christ’s Mass.”
- Pope Julius I declared Christ’s birthday as December 25th sometime during the 4th century. There is no set date for his birth in scripture and it wasn’t celebrated on any particular day. However Christmas was first celebrated on the 25th of December in Rome in 336AD with an aim to replacing the popular pagan winter solstice celebrations.
- 26 December was known as St Stephen’s Day, but is now more generally referred to as Boxing Day. This term lends its name to the alms-boxes placed in churches during the festive season for collecting money. This money was then given to the poor and needy after Christmas. Another assumption is that although servants were forced to work on Christmas Day, they were given a day off the day after to visit family. Usually employers would send them off with a box containing gifts and food, hence the term “Boxing Day.”
- Some priests advise you to say “Happy Christmas”, instead of “Merry Christmas”, because Merry has undertone of getting drunk – and is not appropriate at Christmas. One should say “Happy” instead.
- Poet Clark Moore is credited with naming Santa’s reindeer; Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Doneder, Prancer, and the most famous reindeer, Rudolph.
- The twelve days of Christmas are the days between Christmas Day and Epiphany (6th of January) and represent the length of time it took for the wise men from the East to visit the manger of Jesus after his birth.
- The popular Christmas carol Silent Night was written by an Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr in 1818 as a result of a broken church organ.
- Bing Crosby’s Christmas classic “White Christmas” is the best-selling Christmas song of all time.
- Some Christmas traditions are leftovers from pre-Christian celebrations. Hanging gifts on trees is supposed to come from tree worship of the Druids, and the belief that the tree was the giver of all good things.
- The evergreen tree, because it is perpetually green, has been used as a symbol of eternal life since the ancient Egyptians and Hebrews. The Scandinavians believed that the evergreen could even scare away the devil. Decorating an evergreen tree in honor of Xmas became popular in the Middle Ages, especially in Germany. The decorations then consisted of candles and wafers, to symbolize Christ and the Host. Martin Luther is actually said to be the first person to put candles on a tree.
- There are approximately 30-35 million Real Christmas Trees sold in the U.S. every year.
- In earlier times, Christians used to decorate their homes with Saturnalia holly. During Roman pagan festival, this prevented persecution.
- A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.
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