Christmas
Christmas | |
---|---|
Koleda, Xmas | |
Observed by | Christians, many non-Christians[1][2] |
Type | Christian, cultural, international |
Significance | Commemoration of the nativity of Jesus |
Celebrations | Gift-giving, family and other social gatherings, symbolic decoration, feasting |
Observances | Church services |
Date |
|
Related to | St. Stephen's Day, Boxing Day |
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25[a] as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.[2][3][4] A feast central to the liturgical year in Christianity, it follows the season of Advent (which begins four Sundays before) or the Nativity Fast, and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night.[5] Christmas Day is a public holiday in many countries,[6][7][8] is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians,[9] as well as culturally by many non-Christians,[1][10] and forms an integral part of the holiday season surrounding it.
The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in accordance with messianic prophecies.[11] When Joseph and Mary arrived in the city, the inn had no room, and so they were offered a stable where the Christ Child was soon born, with angels proclaiming this news to shepherds, who then spread the word.[12]
There are different hypotheses regarding the date of Jesus's birth, and in the early fourth century, the church fixed the date as December 25.
The customs associated with Christmas in various countries have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins.[21][22] Popular holiday traditions include gift giving; completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath; Christmas music and caroling; watching Christmas movies; viewing a Nativity play; an exchange of Christmas cards; attending church services; a special meal; and displaying various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. Additionally, several related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore.[23] Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. Over the past few centuries, Christmas has had a steadily growing economic effect in many regions of the world.
Etymology
The English word Christmas is a shortened form of 'Christ's
The form Christenmas was also used during some periods, but is now considered archaic and dialectal.[29] The term derives from Middle English Cristenmasse, meaning 'Christian mass'.[30] Xmas is an abbreviation of Christmas found particularly in print, based on the initial letter chi (Χ) in the Greek Χριστός, although some style guides discourage its use.[31] This abbreviation has precedent in Middle English Χρ̄es masse (where Χρ̄ is another abbreviation of the Greek word).[30]
Other names
The holiday has had various other English names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as "midwinter",[32][33] or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð (from the Latin nātīvitās below).[32][34] Nativity, meaning 'birth', is from the Latin nātīvitās.[35] In Old English, Gēola ('Yule') referred to the period corresponding to December and January, which was eventually equated with Christian Christmas.[36] 'Noel' (also 'Nowel' or 'Nowell', as in "The First Nowell") entered English in the late 14th century and is from the Old French noël or naël, itself ultimately from the Latin nātālis (diēs) meaning 'birth (day)'.[37]
Nativity
The gospels of Luke and Matthew describe Jesus as being born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary. In the Gospel of Luke, Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem in order to be counted for a census, and Jesus is born there and placed in a manger.[39] Angels proclaim him a savior for all people, and three shepherds come to adore him. In the Gospel of Matthew, by contrast, three magi follow a star to Bethlehem to bring gifts to Jesus, born the king of the Jews. King Herod orders the massacre of all the boys less than two years old in Bethlehem, but the family flees to Egypt and later returns to Nazareth.[40]
History
Early and medieval era
In the 2nd century, the "earliest church records" indicate that "Christians were remembering and celebrating the birth of the Lord", an "observance [that] sprang up organically from the authentic devotion of ordinary believers"; although "they did not agree upon a set date".[41] The earliest evidence of Christ's birth being marked on December 25 is a sentence in the Chronograph of 354.[42][43][44][45] Liturgical historians generally agree that this part of the text was written in Rome in AD 336.[43] Though Christmas did not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian,[25] the early Church Fathers John Chrysostom, Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome attested to December 25 as the date of Christmas toward the end of the fourth century.[41] December 25 was the traditional date of the winter solstice in the Roman Empire,[46] where most Christians lived, and the Roman festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus, the 'Invincible Sun') had been held on this date since 274 AD.[47]
In the
In the
In 567, the
The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after
By the High Middle Ages, the holiday had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various magnates celebrated Christmas. King Richard II of England hosted a Christmas feast in 1377 at which 28 oxen and 300 sheep were eaten.[53] The Yule boar was a common feature of medieval Christmas feasts. Caroling also became popular, and was originally performed by a group of dancers who sang. The group was composed of a lead singer and a ring of dancers that provided the chorus. Various writers of the time condemned caroling as lewd, indicating that the unruly traditions of Saturnalia and Yule may have continued in this form.[53] "Misrule"—drunkenness, promiscuity, gambling—was also an important aspect of the festival. In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Day, and there was special Christmas ale.[53]
Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that incorporated
17th and 18th centuries
Following the
However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the
Protests followed as pro-Christmas rioting broke out in several cities and for weeks
It was restored as a legal holiday in England with the
As in England, Puritans in
At the same time, Christian residents of
With the atheistic
19th century
In the early 19th century, Christmas festivities and services became widespread with the rise of the Oxford Movement in the Church of England that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor,[88] along with Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, and other authors emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and Santa Claus (for Irving),[88] or Father Christmas (for Dickens).[89]
In the early-19th century, writers imagined Tudor-period Christmas as a time of heartfelt celebration. In 1843, Charles Dickens wrote the novel A Christmas Carol, which helped revive the "spirit" of Christmas and seasonal merriment.[90][91] Its instant popularity played a major role in portraying Christmas as a holiday emphasizing family, goodwill, and compassion.[88]
Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, linking "worship and feasting, within a context of social reconciliation."[92] Superimposing his humanitarian vision of the holiday, in what has been termed "Carol Philosophy",[93] Dickens influenced many aspects of Christmas that are celebrated today in Western culture, such as family gatherings, seasonal food and drink, dancing, games, and a festive generosity of spirit.[94] A prominent phrase from the tale, "Merry Christmas", was popularized following the appearance of the story.[95] This coincided with the appearance of the Oxford Movement and the growth of Anglo-Catholicism, which led a revival in traditional rituals and religious observances.[96]
The term
In Britain, the
An image of the British royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle created a sensation when it was published in the
In America, interest in Christmas had been revived in the 1820s by several short stories by Washington Irving which appear in his The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. and "Old Christmas". Irving's stories depicted harmonious warm-hearted English Christmas festivities he experienced while staying in Aston Hall, Birmingham, England, that had largely been abandoned,[103] and he used the tract Vindication of Christmas (1652) of Old English Christmas traditions, that he had transcribed into his journal as a format for his stories.[61]
In 1822,
While the celebration of Christmas was not yet customary in some regions in the U.S., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow detected "a transition state about Christmas here in New England" in 1856. "The old puritan feeling prevents it from being a cheerful, hearty holiday; though every year makes it more so."[107] In Reading, Pennsylvania, a newspaper remarked in 1861, "Even our presbyterian friends who have hitherto steadfastly ignored Christmas—threw open their church doors and assembled in force to celebrate the anniversary of the Savior's birth."[107]
The First Congregational Church of Rockford, Illinois, "although of genuine Puritan stock", was 'preparing for a grand Christmas jubilee', a news correspondent reported in 1864.[107] By 1860, fourteen states including several from New England had adopted Christmas as a legal holiday.[108] In 1875, Louis Prang introduced the Christmas card to Americans. He has been called the "father of the American Christmas card".[109] On June 28, 1870, Christmas was formally declared a United States federal holiday.[110]
20th and 21st centuries
During the
Up to the 1950s in the UK, many Christmas customs were restricted to the upper and middle classes. Most of the population had not yet adopted many Christmas rituals that later became popular, including Christmas trees. Christmas dinner would normally include beef or goose, not turkey as would later be common. Children would get fruit and sweets in their stocking rather than elaborate gifts. Full celebration of a family Christmas with all the trimmings only became widespread with increased prosperity from the 1950s.[115] National papers were published on Christmas Day until 1912. Post was still delivered on Christmas Day until 1961. League football matches continued in Scotland until the 1970s while in England they ceased at the end of the 1950s.[116][117]
Under the state atheism of the Soviet Union, after its foundation in 1917, Christmas celebrations—along with other Christian holidays—were prohibited in public.[118] During the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the League of Militant Atheists encouraged school pupils to campaign against Christmas traditions, such as the Christmas tree, as well as other Christian holidays, including Easter; the League established an antireligious holiday to be the 31st of each month as a replacement.[119] At the height of this persecution, in 1929, on Christmas Day, children in Moscow were encouraged to spit on crucifixes as a protest against the holiday.[120] Instead, the importance of the holiday and all its trappings, such as the Christmas tree and gift-giving, was transferred to the New Year.[121] It was not until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 that the persecution ended and Orthodox Christmas became a state holiday again for the first time in Russia after seven decades.[122]
European History Professor Joseph Perry wrote that likewise, in Nazi Germany, "because Nazi ideologues saw organized religion as an enemy of the totalitarian state, propagandists sought to deemphasize—or eliminate altogether—the Christian aspects of the holiday" and that "Propagandists tirelessly promoted numerous Nazified Christmas songs, which replaced Christian themes with the regime's racial ideologies."[123]
As Christmas celebrations began to spread globally even outside traditional
Observance and traditions
Christmas Day is celebrated as a major festival and public holiday in countries around the world, including many whose populations are mostly non-Christian. In some non-Christian areas, periods of former colonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong); in others, Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have led populations to observe the holiday. Countries such as Japan, where Christmas is popular despite there being only a small number of Christians, have adopted many of the cultural aspects of Christmas, such as gift-giving, decorations, and Christmas trees. A similar example is in Turkey, being Muslim-majority and with a small number of Christians, where Christmas trees and decorations tend to line public streets during the festival.[127]
Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus's birth, with some claiming that certain elements are Christianized and have origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity; other scholars reject these claims and affirm that Christmas customs largely developed in a Christian context.[128][22] The prevailing atmosphere of Christmas has also continually evolved since the holiday's inception, ranging from a sometimes raucous, drunken, carnival-like state in the Middle Ages,[53] to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century transformation.[90][91] The celebration of Christmas was banned on more than one occasion within certain groups, such as the Puritans and Jehovah's Witnesses (who do not celebrate birthdays in general), due to concerns that it was too unbiblical.[129][68][79]
Prior to and through the
The pre-Christian
Among
Church attendance
Christmas Day (inclusive of its
Decorations
The traditional colors of Christmas decorations are red, green, and gold.[152][153] Red symbolizes the blood of Jesus, which was shed in his crucifixion; green symbolizes eternal life, and in particular the evergreen tree, which does not lose its leaves in the winter; and gold is the first color associated with Christmas, as one of the three gifts of the Magi, symbolizing royalty.[154]
The
Since the 16th century, the
Other traditional decorations include
Christmas lights and banners may be hung along streets, music played from speakers, and Christmas trees placed in prominent places.[176] It is common in many parts of the world for town squares and consumer shopping areas to sponsor and display decorations. Rolls of brightly colored paper with secular or religious Christmas motifs are manufactured for the purpose of wrapping gifts. In some countries, Christmas decorations are traditionally taken down on Twelfth Night.[177]
Nativity play
For the Christian celebration of Christmas, the viewing of the Nativity play is one of the oldest Christmastime traditions, with the first reenactment of the Nativity of Jesus taking place in 1223 AD in the Italian town of Greccio.[178] In that year, Francis of Assisi assembled a Nativity scene outside of his church in Italy and children sung Christmas carols celebrating the birth of Jesus.[178] Each year, this grew larger and people travelled from afar to see Francis's depiction of the Nativity of Jesus that came to feature drama and music.[178] Nativity plays eventually spread throughout all of Europe, where they remain popular. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day church services often came to feature Nativity plays, as did schools and theatres.[178] In France, Germany, Mexico and Spain, Nativity plays are often reenacted outdoors in the streets.[178]
Music and carols
The earliest extant specifically Christmas hymns appear in fourth-century
The songs now known specifically as carols were originally communal folk songs sung during celebrations such as "harvest tide" as well as Christmas. It was only later that carols began to be sung in church. Traditionally, carols have often been based on
The singing of carols increased in popularity after the
Christmas seasonal songs of a secular nature emerged in the late 18th century. The Welsh melody for "
One of the most ubiquitous festive songs is "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", which originates from the West Country of England in the 1930s.[184] Radio has covered Christmas music from variety shows from the 1940s and 1950s, as well as modern-day stations that exclusively play Christmas music from late November through December 25.[185] Hollywood movies have featured new Christmas music, such as "White Christmas" in Holiday Inn and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.[185] Traditional carols have also been included in Hollywood films, such as "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), and "Silent Night" in A Christmas Story.[185]
Traditional cuisine
A special Christmas family meal is traditionally an important part of the holiday's celebration, and the food that is served varies greatly from country to country. Some regions have special meals for Christmas Eve, such as Sicily, where twelve kinds of fish are served. In the United Kingdom and countries influenced by its traditions, a standard Christmas meal includes turkey, goose or other large bird, gravy, potatoes, vegetables, sometimes bread and cider. Special desserts are also prepared, such as Christmas pudding, mince pies, Christmas cake, and latterly Panettone and Yule log.[186][187] A traditional Christmas meal in Central Europe features fried carp or other fish.[188]
Cards
Christmas cards are illustrated messages of greeting exchanged between friends and family members during the weeks preceding Christmas Day. The traditional greeting reads "wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year", much like that of the first commercial Christmas card, produced by Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843.[189] The custom of sending them has become popular among a wide cross-section of people with the emergence of the modern trend towards exchanging E-cards.[190][191]
Christmas cards are purchased in considerable quantities and feature artwork, commercially designed and relevant to the season. The content of the design might relate directly to the
Some prefer cards with a poem, prayer, or
Commemorative stamps
A number of nations have issued commemorative stamps at Christmastide.[194] Postal customers will often use these stamps to mail Christmas cards, and they are popular with philatelists.[195] These stamps are regular postage stamps, unlike Christmas seals, and are valid for postage year-round. They usually go on sale sometime between early October and early December and are printed in considerable quantities.
Christmas seals
Christmas seals were first issued to raise funding to fight and bring awareness to tuberculosis. The first Christmas seal was issued in Denmark in 1904, and since then other countries have issued their own Christmas seals.[196]
Gift giving
The exchanging of gifts is one of the core aspects of the modern Christmas celebration, making it the most profitable time of year for retailers and businesses throughout the world. On Christmas, people exchange gifts based on the Christian tradition associated with Saint Nicholas,[197] and the gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh which were given to the baby Jesus by the Magi.[198][199] The practice of gift giving in the Roman celebration of Saturnalia may have influenced Christian customs, but on the other hand the Christian "core dogma of the Incarnation, however, solidly established the giving and receiving of gifts as the structural principle of that recurrent yet unique event", because it was the Biblical Magi, "together with all their fellow men, who received the gift of God through man's renewed participation in the divine life."[200] However, Thomas J. Talley holds that the Roman Emperor Aurelian placed the alternate festival on December 25 in order to compete with the growing rate of the Christian Church, which had already been celebrating Christmas on that date first.[201]
Gift-bearing figures
A number of figures are associated with Christmas and the seasonal giving of gifts. Among these are
The best known of these figures today is red-dressed Santa Claus, of diverse origins. The name 'Santa Claus' can be traced back to the Dutch Sinterklaas ('Saint Nicholas'). Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek bishop of Myra, a city in the Roman province of Lycia, whose ruins are 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from modern Demre in southwest Turkey.[203][204] Among other saintly attributes, he was noted for the care of children, generosity, and the giving of gifts. His feast day, December 6, came to be celebrated in many countries with the giving of gifts.[62]
Saint Nicholas traditionally appeared in bishop's attire, accompanied by helpers, inquiring about the behaviour of children during the past year before deciding whether they deserved a gift or not. By the 13th century, Saint Nicholas was well known in the Netherlands, and the practice of gift-giving in his name spread to other parts of central and southern Europe. At the Reformation in 16th- and 17th-century Europe, many Protestants changed the gift bringer to the Christ Child or Christkindl, corrupted in English to 'Kris Kringle', and the date of giving gifts changed from December 6 to Christmas Eve.[62]
The modern popular image of Santa Claus, however, was created in the United States, and in particular in New York. The transformation was accomplished with the aid of notable contributors including Washington Irving and the German-American cartoonist Thomas Nast (1840–1902). Following the American Revolutionary War, some of the inhabitants of New York City sought out symbols of the city's non-English past. New York had originally been established as the Dutch colonial town of New Amsterdam and the Dutch Sinterklaas tradition was reinvented as Saint Nicholas.[205]
Current tradition in several Latin American countries (such as Venezuela and Colombia) holds that while Santa makes the toys, he then gives them to the Baby Jesus, who is the one who actually delivers them to the children's homes, a reconciliation between traditional religious beliefs and the iconography of Santa Claus imported from the United States.
In Italy's
Multiple gift-giver figures exist in Poland, varying between regions and individual families. St Nicholas (Święty Mikołaj) dominates Central and North-East areas, the Starman (Gwiazdor) is most common in Greater Poland, Baby Jesus (Dzieciątko) is unique to Upper Silesia, with the Little Star (Gwiazdka) and the Little Angel (Aniołek) being common in the South and the South-East. Grandfather Frost (Dziadek Mróz) is less commonly accepted in some areas of Eastern Poland.[208][209] It is worth noting that across all of Poland, St Nicholas is the gift giver on Saint Nicholas Day on December 6.
Sport
Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival with annual indulgences included the sporting.
More recently, in the United States, both
Choice of date
There are two main theories behind December 25 becoming the traditional date for Christmas, although Theology professor Susan Roll says that "No liturgical historian [...] goes so far as to deny that it has any sort of relation with the sun, the
The 'history of religions' theory suggests the Church chose December 25 as Christ's birthday (dies Natalis Christi)[218] to appropriate the Roman winter solstice festival dies Natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of Sol Invictus, the 'Invincible Sun'), held on this date since 274 AD.[46][47] The early Church linked Jesus Christ to the Sun and referred to him as the 'Sun of Righteousness' (Sol Justitiae) prophesied by Malachi.[219][220] Gary Forsythe, Professor of Ancient History, says that the Natalis Solis Invicti followed "the seven-day period of the Saturnalia (December 17–23), Rome's most joyous holiday season since Republican times, characterized by parties, banquets, and exchanges of gifts".[46]
Another theory, the 'computation hypothesis' or 'calculation theory',[47] notes that December 25 is nine months after March 25, a date chosen as Jesus's conception (the Annunciation) and the date of the spring equinox on the Roman calendar.[47][17]
Date according to Julian calendar
Some jurisdictions of the
However, following the
A further complication is added by the fact that the Armenian Apostolic Church continues the original ancient Eastern Christian practice of celebrating the birth of Christ not as a separate holiday, but on the same day as the celebration of his baptism (Theophany), which is on January 6. This is a public holiday in Armenia, and it is held on the same day that is internationally considered to be January 6, because since 1923 the Armenian Church in Armenia has used the Gregorian calendar.[224]
However, there is also a small Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which maintains the traditional Armenian custom of celebrating the birth of Christ on the same day as Theophany (January 6), but uses the Julian calendar for the determination of that date. As a result, this church celebrates "Christmas" (more properly called Theophany) on the day that is considered January 19 on the Gregorian calendar in use by the majority of the world.[225]
Following the 2022 invasion of its territory by Russia, Ukraine officially moved its Christmas date from January 7 to December 25, to distance itself from the Russian Orthodox Church that had supported Russia's invasion.[226][227] This followed the Orthodox Church of Ukraine formally adopting the Revised Julian calendar for fixed feasts and solemnities.[228]
Table of dates
There are four different dates used by different Christian groups to mark the birth of Christ, given in the table below.
Church or section | Calendar | Date | Gregorian date | Note |
---|---|---|---|---|
Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem | Julian calendar | January 6 | January 19 | Correspondence between Julian January 6 and Gregorian January 19 holds until 2100; in the following century the difference will be one day more. |
Armenian Apostolic Church, Armenian Evangelical Church | Gregorian calendar | January 6 | January 6 | |
Finland, the Orthodox Church in America .
Also, the Ancient Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Indian Orthodox Church. |
Revised Julian calendar | December 25 | December 25 | Revised Julian calendar was agreed at the 1923 Council of Constantinople.[222]
Although it follows the Julian calendar, the Ancient Church of the East decided on 2010 to celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar date. |
Other Eastern Orthodox: Jerusalem .
Also, some Byzantine Rite Lutherans .
|
Julian calendar | December 25 | January 7 | Correspondence between Julian December 25 and Gregorian January 7 of the following year holds until 2100; from 2101 to 2199 the difference will be one day more.[citation needed] |
Coptic Orthodox Church | Coptic calendar | Koiak 29 or 28 (December 25) | January 7 | After the Coptic insertion of a leap day in what for the Julian calendar is August (September in Gregorian), Christmas is celebrated on Koiak 28 in order to maintain the exact interval of nine 30-day months and 5 days of the child's gestation.[citation needed] |
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (sole date), Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church (sole date), and P'ent'ay (Ethiopian-Eritrean Evangelical) Churches (primary date) | Ethiopian calendar | Tahsas 29 or 28 (December 25)
|
January 7 | [230] is celebrated on Tahsas 28 in order to maintain the exact interval of nine 30-day months and 5 days of the child's gestation.[231]
Most Protestants ( Tahsas 29/January 7) or the Gregorian calendar (December 25) for religious holidays, with this option being used when the corresponding eastern celebration is not a public holiday in the western world (with most diaspora Protestants celebrating both days).[citation needed ]
| After the Ethiopian and Eritrean insertion of a leap day in what for the Julian calendar is August (September in Gregorian), Christmas (also called Liddet or Gena, also Ledet or Genna)
Most Eastern Catholic churches and civil calendars; also the Assyrian Church of the East .
|
Gregorian calendar | December 25 | December 25 | The Assyrian Church of the East adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1964. |
Economy
Christmas is typically a peak selling season for retailers in many nations around the world since sales increase dramatically during this time as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate. In the United States, the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October.
In most Western nations, Christmas Day is the least active day of the year for business and commerce; almost all retail, commercial and institutional businesses are closed, and almost all industries cease activity (more than any other day of the year), whether laws require such or not. In England and Wales, the Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 prevents all large shops from trading on Christmas Day. Similar legislation was approved in Scotland in 2007. Film studios release many high-budget movies during the holiday season, including Christmas films, fantasy movies or high-tone dramas with high production values to hopes of maximizing the chance of nominations for the Academy Awards.[241]
One economist's analysis calculates that, despite increased overall spending, Christmas is a
Controversies
Christmas has at times been the subject of controversy and attacks from various sources, both Christian and non-Christian. Historically, it was prohibited by
Some Christians and organizations such as
The government of the People's Republic of China officially espouses state atheism,
See also
- Apollo 8 Genesis reading from lunar orbit, December 24, 1968
- Christmas in July – Second Christmas celebration
- Christmas Peace – Finnish tradition
- Christmas Sunday – Sunday after Christmas
- List of Christmas films
- List of Christmas novels– Christmas as depicted in literature
- Little Christmas – Alternative title for 6 January
- Nochebuena– Evening or entire day before Christmas Day
- Mithraism in comparison with other belief systems#25th of December
- Christmas by medium – Christmas represented in different media
Notes
- ^ Several branches of Eastern Christianity that use the Julian calendar also celebrate on December 25 according to that calendar, which is now January 7 on the Gregorian calendar. Armenian Churches observed the nativity on January 6 even before the Gregorian calendar originated. Most Armenian Christians use the Gregorian calendar, still celebrating Christmas Day on January 6. Some Armenian churches use the Julian calendar, thus celebrating Christmas Day on January 19 on the Gregorian calendar, with January 18 being Christmas Eve. Some regions also celebrate primarily on December 24, rather than December 25.
- ISBN 978-1-4982-3933-2.
According to Luke 1:26, Gabriel's annunciation to Mary took place in the "sixth month" of Elizabeth's pregnancy. That is, Mary conceives sixth months after Elizabeth. Luke repeats the uniqueness of the timing in verse 26. Counting six months from September 24 we arrive at March 25, the most likely date for the annunciation and conception of Mary. Nine months hence takes us to December 25, which turns out to be a surprisingly reasonable date for the birthday [of Jesus]. Someone might object that the birth could not have occurred in midwinter because it would have been too cold for shepherds in the fields keeping watch by night (Luke 2:8). Not so. In Palestine, the months of November through February mark the rainy season, the only time of the year sheep might find fresh green grass to graze. During the other ten months of the year, animals must content themselves on dry straw. So, the suggestion that shepherds might have stayed out in the fields with their flocks in late December, at the peak of the rainy season, is not only reasonable, it is most certain. [...] And so, besides considering the timing of the conception, we must take note of the earliest church records. We have evidence from the second century, less than fifty years after the close of the New Testament, that Christians were remembering and celebrating the birth of the Lord. It is not true to say that the observance of the nativity was imposed on Christians hundreds of years later by imperial decree or by a magisterial church ruling. The observance sprang up organically from the authentic devotion of ordinary believers. This in itself is important. But, besides the fact that early Christians did celebrate the incarnation of the Lord, we should make note that they did not agree upon a set date for the observance. There was no one day on which all Christians celebrated Christmas in the early church. Churches in different regions celebrated the nativity on different days. The late second-century Egyptian instructor of Christian disciples, Clement of Alexandria, reported that some believers in his area observed the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth day of the Egyptian month of Parmuthi (the month that corresponds to the Hebrew month of Nisan—approximately May 20). The Basilidian Christians held to the eleventh or fifteen of Tubi (January 6 and 10). Clement made his own computations by counting backward from the death of Emperor Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius. By this method he deduced a birthdate of November 18. Other Alexandrian and Egyptian Christians adopted January 4 or 5. In so doing, they replaced the Alexandrian celebration of the birth of Aion, Time, with the birth of Christ. The regions of Nicomedia, Syria, and Caesarea celebrated Christ's birthday on Epiphany, January 6. [...] According to researcher Susan Roll, the Chronograph or Philocalian Calendar is the earliest authentic document to place the birth of Jesus on December 25. [...] And we should remember that although the Chronograph provides the first record of December 25, the custom of venerating the Lord's birth on that day was most likely established well before its publication. That is to say, December 25 didn't originate with the Chronograph. It must have counted as common knowledge, at least in Rome, to warrant its inclusion in the Chronograph. Soon after this time, we find other church fathers such John Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome, and Leo confirming the twenty-fifth as the traditional date of celebration.
References
- ^ a b "Christmas as a Multi-Faith Festival" (PDF). BBC Learning English. December 29, 2005. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 1, 2008. Retrieved September 30, 2008.
- ^ a b "In the U.S., Christmas Not Just for Christians". Gallup, Inc. December 24, 2008. Archived from the original on November 16, 2012. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
- ^ "The Global Religious Landscape | Christians". Pew Research Center. December 18, 2012. Archived from the original on March 10, 2015. Retrieved May 23, 2014.
- ^ "Christmas Strongly Religious For Half in U.S. Who Celebrate It". Gallup, Inc. December 24, 2010. Archived from the original on December 7, 2012. Retrieved December 16, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-520-25802-0.
In 567 the Council of Tours proclaimed that the entire period between Christmas and Epiphany should be considered part of the celebration, creating what became known as the twelve days of Christmas, or what the English called Christmastide.
On the last of the twelve days, called Twelfth Night, various cultures developed a wide range of additional special festivities. The variation extends even to the issue of how to count the days. If Christmas Day is the first of the twelve days, then Twelfth Night would be on January 5, the eve of Epiphany. If December 26, the day after Christmas, is the first day, then Twelfth Night falls on January 6, the evening of Epiphany itself.
After Christmas and Epiphany were in place, on December 25 and January 6, with the twelve days of Christmas in between, Christians slowly adopted a period called Advent, as a time of spiritual preparation leading up to Christmas. - ^ Canadian Heritage – Public holidaysArchived November 24, 2009, at the Wayback Machine – Government of Canada. Retrieved November 27, 2009.
- ^ 2009 Federal Holidays Archived January 16, 2013, at the Wayback Machine – U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Retrieved November 27, 2009.
- ^ Bank holidays and British Summer time Archived May 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine – HM Government. Retrieved November 27, 2009.
- ISBN 978-1-4291-0896-6.
- ^ Nick Hytrek, "Non-Christians focus on secular side of Christmas" Archived November 14, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, Sioux City Journal, November 10, 2009. Retrieved November 18, 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-7864-6827-0.
Christians believe that a number of passages in the Bible are prophecies about future events in the life of the promised Messiah or Jesus Christ. Most, but not all, of those prophecies are found in the Old Testament [...] Born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2): "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Juda, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."
- ISBN 978-0-310-20638-5.
According to gospel accounts, Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great, thus sometime before 4 BCE. The birth narrative in Luke's gospel is one of the most familiar passages in the Bible. Leaving their hometown of Nazareth, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem to pay taxes. Arriving late, they find no vacancy at the inn. They are, however, offered a stable, most likely a second room attached to a family dwelling where animals were sheltered—a room that would offer some privacy from the main family room for cooking, eating, and sleeping. This "city of David" is the little town of Bethlehem of Christmas-carol fame, a starlit silhouette indelibly etched on Christmas cards. No sooner was the baby born than angels announced the news to shepherds who spread the word.
- ^ Corinna Laughlin, Michael R. Prendergast, Robert C. Rabe, Corinna Laughlin, Jill Maria Murdy, Therese Brown, Mary Patricia Storms, Ann E. Degenhard, Jill Maria Murdy, Ann E. Degenhard, Therese Brown, Robert C. Rabe, Mary Patricia Storms, Michael R. Prendergast, Sourcebook for Sundays, Seasons, and Weekdays 2011: The Almanac for Pastoral Liturgy Archived April 7, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, LiturgyTrainingPublications, 2010, p. 29.
- ^ "The Chronography of 354 AD. Part 12: Commemorations of the Martyrs" Archived November 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, The Tertullian Project. 2006. Retrieved November 24, 2011.
- ISBN 978-90-390-0531-6.
- ^ Hale Bradt (2004). Astronomy Methods (PDF). p. 69. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2018..
- ^ ISBN 978-1-59884-206-7.
The March 25 date, which tied together the beginning of Mary's pregnancy and the incarnation of God in Jesus as occurring nine months before Christmas (December 25), supplied the rationale for setting the beginning of the ecclesiastical and legal year. [...] Both the Anglicans and the Lutherans have continued to observe the March 25 date for celebrating the Annunciation.
- Hebrews 4:15) and who humbled Himself "to the point of death-even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8). Christmas is a pinnacle feast, yes, but it is not the beginning of the liturgical year. It is a memorial, a remembrance, of the birth of Jesus, not really a celebration of the day itself. We remember that because the Jesus of history was born, the Resurrection of the Christ of faith could happen.
- ^ "The Christmas Season". CRI / Voice, Institute. Archived from the original on April 7, 2009. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
The origins of the celebrations of Christmas and Epiphany, as well as the dates on which they are observed, are rooted deeply in the history of the early church. There has been much scholarly debate concerning the exact time of the year when Jesus was born, and even in what year he was born. Actually, we do not know either. The best estimate is that Jesus was probably born in the springtime, somewhere between the years of 6 and 4 BC, as December is in the middle of the cold rainy season in Bethlehem, when the sheep are kept inside and not on pasture as told in the Bible. The lack of a consistent system of timekeeping in the first century, mistakes in later calendars and calculations, and lack of historical details to cross-reference events have led to this imprecision in fixing Jesus' birth. This suggests that the Christmas celebration is not an observance of a historical date, but a commemoration of the event in terms of worship.
- ^ The School Journal, Volume 49. Harvard University. 1894. Retrieved April 2, 2009.
Throughout the Christian world the 25th of December is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ. There was a time when the churches were not united regarding the date of the joyous event. Many Christians kept their Christmas in April, others in May, and still others at the close of September, till finally December 25 was agreed upon as the most appropriate date. The choice of that day was, of course, wholly arbitrary, for neither the exact date not the period of the year at which the birth of Christ occurred is known. For purposes of commemoration, however, it is unimportant whether the celebration shall fall or not at the precise anniversary of the joyous event.
- West Publishing Company. 1990.
While the Washington and King birthdays are exclusively secular holidays, Christmas has both secular and religious aspects.
- ^ a b Huckabee, Tyler (December 9, 2021). "No, Christmas Trees Don't Have 'Pagan' Roots". Relevant Magazine. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
- ^ "Poll: In a changing nation, Santa endures". Associated Press. December 22, 2006. Archived from the original on December 26, 2018. Retrieved December 24, 2018.
- ^ "Christmas". www.etymonline.com. Online Etymology Dictionary.
- ^ The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
- ISBN 978-0-89870-514-0.
- ISBN 978-977-424-118-5.
- ^ "Christmas | Origin, Definition, Traditions, History, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved December 22, 2021.
- ^ Christenmas, n., Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved December 12.
- ^ a b "Christmas" in the Middle English Dictionary. Archived January 5, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Griffiths, Emma (December 22, 2004). "Why get cross about Xmas?". BBC News. Archived from the original on November 11, 2011. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-285448-3.
- ^ "Midwinter" in Bosworth & Toller. Archived January 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Serjeantson, Mary Sidney (1968). A History of Foreign Words in English.
- ^ "Online Etymology Dictionary". Archived from the original on January 13, 2012. Retrieved December 13, 2011.
- ^ Yule Archived January 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved December 12.
- ^ Online Etymology Dictionary, Noel Archived January 13, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, accessed January 3, 2022
- ^ "Толковый словарь Даля онлайн". slovardalja.net. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
- ^ Rees, Neil (December 10, 2023). "Christmas – the original story". Christian Today. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ Piñero, Antonio (December 16, 2021). "Biblical stories of Jesus' birth reveal intriguing clues about his times". National Geographic. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4982-3933-2.
- ^ The manuscript reads, VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae. ("The Chronography of 354 AD. Part 12: Commemorations of the Martyrs Archived November 22, 2011, at the Wayback Machine", The Tertullian Project. 2006.)
- ^ a b Bradshaw, Paul (2020). "The Dating of Christmas". In Larsen, Timothy (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Christmas. Oxford University Press. pp. 7–10.
- ^ "Christmas and its cycle". New Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3 (2nd ed.). Catholic University of America Press. 2002. pp. 550–557.
- ^ Hyden, Marc (December 20, 2021). "Merry Christmas, Saturnalia or festival of Sol Invictus?". Newnan Times-Herald. Archived from the original on December 26, 2022. Retrieved February 17, 2023.
Around AD 274ᵃ, Emperor Aurelian set December 25—the winter solstice at the time—for the celebration of Sol Invictus who was the 'Unconquered Sun' god. 'A marginal note on a manuscript of the writings of the Syriac biblical commentator Dionysius bar-Salibi states that in ancient times the Christmas holiday was actually shifted from January 6 to December 25 so that it fell on the same date as the pagan Sol Invictus holiday,' reads an excerpt from Biblical Archaeology. / Could early Christians have chosen December 25 to coincide with this holiday? 'The first celebration of Christmas observed by the Roman church in the West is presumed to date to [336 AD],' per the Encyclopedia Romanaᵃ, long after Aurelian established Sol Invictus' festival.
(a) "Sol Invictus and Christmas". Encyclopaedia Romana. - ^ a b c d Forsythe, Gary (2012). Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History. Routledge. pp. 113, 123, 141.
- ^ a b c d e Bradshaw, Paul (2020). "The Dating of Christmas". In Larsen, Timothy (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Christmas. Oxford University Press. pp. 4–10.
- ISBN 978-0-19-513886-3. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-57607-089-5. Archivedfrom the original on January 11, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
- ^ Pokhilko, Hieromonk Nicholas. "History of Epiphany". Archived from the original on September 23, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2017.
- ISBN 978-0-7661-3676-2. Archivedfrom the original on November 22, 2018. Retrieved February 3, 2012.
- ^ Frøyshov, Stig Simeon. "[Hymnography of the] Rite of Jerusalem". Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology.
- ^ a b c d e f g Murray, Alexander, "Medieval Christmas" Archived December 13, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, History Today, December 1986, 36 (12), pp. 31–39.
- ISBN 9781568540115.
In the year 567 the church council of Tours called the 13 days between December 25 and January 6 a festival season.
- ISBN 9780835608107.
This arrangement became an administrative problem for the Roman Empire as it tried to coordinate the solar Julian calendar with the lunar calendars of its provinces in the east. While the Romans could roughly match the months in the two systems, the four cardinal points of the solar year—the two equinoxes and solstices—still fell on different dates. By the time of the first century, the calendar date of the winter solstice in Egypt and Palestine was eleven to twelve days later than the date in Rome. As a result the Incarnation came to be celebrated on different days in different parts of the Empire. The Western Church, in its desire to be universal, eventually took them both—one became Christmas, one Epiphany—with a resulting twelve days in between. Over time this hiatus became invested with specific Christian meaning. The Church gradually filled these days with saints, some connected to the birth narratives in Gospels (Holy Innocents' Day, December 28, in honor of the infants slaughtered by Herod; St. John the Evangelist, "the Beloved," December 27; St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, December 26; the Holy Family, December 31; the Virgin Mary, January 1). In 567, the Council of Tours declared the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany to become one unified festal cycle.
- ^ Federer, William J. (January 6, 2014). "On the 12th Day of Christmas". American Minute. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
In 567 AD, the Council of Tours ended a dispute. Western Europe celebrated Christmas, December 25, as the holiest day of the season... but Eastern Europe celebrated Epiphany, January 6, recalling the Wise Men's visit and Jesus' baptism. It could not be decided which day was holier, so the Council made all 12 days from December 25 to January 6 "holy days" or "holidays," These became known as "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
- ^ Kirk Cameron, William Federer (November 6, 2014). Praise the Lord. Trinity Broadcasting Network. Event occurs at 01:15:14. Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Retrieved December 25, 2014.
Western Europe celebrated Christmas December 25 as the holiest day. Eastern Europe celebrated January 6 the Epiphany, the visit of the Wise Men, as the holiest day... and so they had this council and they decided to make all twelve days from December 25 to January 6 the Twelve Days of Christmas.
- ^ "Who was Charlemagne? The unlikely king who became an emperor". National Geographic. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
- ^ "William the Conqueror: Crowned at Christmas". The History Press. Retrieved November 30, 2023.
- ^ a b McGreevy, Patrick. "Place in the American Christmas", (JSTOR Archived December 15, 2018, at the Wayback Machine), Geographical Review, Vol. 80, No. 1. January 1990, pp. 32–42. Retrieved September 10, 2007.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-19-510980-1.
- ^ ISBN 0-520-25104-0, pp. 68–79.
- ISBN 978-1-4443-4145-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-7014-5.
Milton was raised an Anglican, trained to become an Anglican minister, and remained an Anglican through the signing of the subscription books of Cambridge University in both 1629 and 1632, which demanded an allegiance to the state church and its Thirty-nine Articles.
- ISBN 978-1-105-70569-4.
His father had wanted him to practice law but Milton considered writing poetry his life's work. At 21 years old, he wrote a poem, "On the morning of Christ's Nativity," a work that is still widely read during Christmas.
- ISBN 978-1-4514-0695-5.
- ISBN 978-0-664-22579-7.
Within a few years the Reformed church calendar was fairly well established. The heart of it was the weekly observance of the resurrection on the Lord's Day. Instead of liturgical seasons being observed, "the five evangelical feast days" were observed: Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost. They were chosen because they were understood to mark the essential stages in the history of salvation.
- ^ a b c d Durston, Chris (December 1985). "Lords of Misrule: The Puritan War on Christmas 1642–60". History Today. Vol. 35, no. 12. pp. 7–14. Archived from the original on March 10, 2007.
- ISBN 978-0-664-22579-7.
- JSTOR 41337151.
However, when Thomas Mocket, rector of Gilston in Hertfordshire, decried such vices in a pamphlet to justify the parliamentary 'ban' of Christmas, effective since June 1647...
- ^ a b "Historian Reveals that Cromwellian Christmas Football Rebels Ran Riot" (Press release). University of Warwick. December 17, 2003. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved August 25, 2023.
- ^ Sandys, William (1852). Christmastide: its history, festivities and carols. London: John Russell Smith. pp. 119–120.
- ^ a b "When Christmas carols were banned". BBC. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
- ^ Chambers, Robert (1885). Domestic Annals of Scotland, p. 211.
- The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707. (in Middle Scots). St Andrews: University of St Andrews and National Archives of Scotland. Archived from the originalon May 19, 2012. Retrieved February 29, 2012.
- ^ a b Anon (May 22, 2007). "Bank Holiday Fact File" (PDF). TUC press release. TUC. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 3, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-460-12039-5.
- ISBN 978-0-19-281241-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-405-07671-8.
- ^ Mather, Cotton (December 25, 1712). Grace defended. A censure on the ungodliness, by which the glorious grace of God, is too commonly abused. A sermon preached on the twenty fifth day of December, 1712. Containing some seasonable admonitions of piety. And concluded, with a brief dissertation on that case, whether the penitent thief on the cross, be an example of one repenting at the last hour, and on such a repentance received unto mercy? (Speech). Boston, Massachusetts: B. Green, for Samuel Gerrish. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
- ^ Stephen W. Nissenbaum, "Christmas in Early New England, 1620–1820: Puritanism, Popular Culture, and the Printed Word", Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 106:1: p79-164 (January 1, 1996). Retrieved December 25, 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-393-03584-1.
- ISBN 978-0-674-00318-7.
- ISBN 978-0-8078-3181-6.
- ISBN 978-0-7166-2001-3.
- ISBN 978-0-7166-0876-9.
Carols were altered by substituting names of prominent political leaders for royal characters in the lyrics, such as the Three Kings. Church bells were melted down for their bronze to increase the national treasury, and religious services were banned on Christmas Day. The cake of kings, too, came under attack as a symbol of royalty. It survived, however, for a while with a new name—the cake of equality.
- ^ Mason, Julia (December 21, 2015). "Why Was Christmas Renamed 'Dog Day' During the French Revolution?". HistoryBuff. Archived from the original on November 1, 2016. Retrieved November 18, 2016.
How did people celebrate the Christmas during the French Revolution? In white-knuckled terror behind closed doors. Anti-clericalism reached its apex on 10 November 1793, when a Fête de la Raison was held in honor of the Cult of Reason. Churches across France were renamed "Temples of Reason" and the Notre Dame was "de-baptized" for the occasion. The Commune spared no expense: "The first festival of reason, which took place in Notre Dame, featured a fabricated mountain, with a temple of philosophy at its summit and a script borrowed from an opera libretto. At the sound of Marie-Joseph Chénier's Hymne à la Liberté, two rows of young women, dressed in white, descended the mountain, crossing each other before the 'altar of reason' before ascending once more to greet the goddess of Liberty." As you can probably gather from the above description, 1793 was not a great time to celebrate Christmas in the capital.
- ^ a b c Rowell, Geoffrey (December 1993). "Dickens and the Construction of Christmas". History Today. 43 (12). Archived from the original on December 29, 2016. Retrieved December 28, 2016.
There is no doubt that A Christmas Carol is first and foremost a story concerned with the Christian gospel of liberation by the grace of God, and with incarnational religion which refuses to drive a wedge between the world of spirit and the world of matter. Both the Christmas dinners and the Christmas dinner-carriers are blessed; the cornucopia of Christmas food and feasting reflects both the goodness of creation and the joy of heaven. It is a significant sign of a shift in theological emphasis in the nineteenth century from a stress on the Atonement to a stress on the Incarnation, a stress which found outward and visible form in the sacramentalism of the Oxford Movement, the development of richer and more symbolic forms of worship, the building of neo-Gothic churches, and the revival and increasing centrality of the keeping of Christmas itself as a Christian festival. [...] In the course of the century, under the influence of the Oxford Movement's concern for the better observance of Christian festivals, Christmas became more and more prominent. By the later part of the century cathedrals provided special services and musical events, and might have revived ancient special charities for the poor – though we must not forget the problems for large: parish-church cathedrals like Manchester, which on one Christmas Day had no less than eighty couples coming to be married (the signing of the registers lasted until four in the afternoon). The popularity of Dickens' A Christmas Carol played a significant part in the changing consciousness of Christmas and the way in which it was celebrated. The popularity of his public readings of the story is an indication of how much it resonated with the contemporary mood, and contributed to the increasing place of the Christmas celebration in both secular and religious ways that was firmly established by the end of the nineteenth century.
- ISBN 978-0-19-513886-3. Retrieved December 25, 2020.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-307-40578-4.
- ^ a b Minzesheimer, Bob (December 22, 2008). "Dickens' classic 'Christmas Carol' still sings to us". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 6, 2009. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-19-157842-7.
- ISBN 978-0-520-25802-0.
What Dickens did advocate in his story was "the spirit of Christmas". Sociologist James Barnett has described it as Dickens's "Carol Philosophy", which "combined religious and secular attitudes toward to celebration into a humanitarian pattern. It excoriated individual selfishness and extolled the virtues of brotherhood, kindness, and generosity at Christmas. [...] Dickens preached that at Christmas men should forget self and think of others, especially the poor and the unfortunate." The message was one that both religious and secular people could endorse.
- ISBN 978-1-55111-476-7.
- ISBN 0-8020-7752-8.
- ISBN 0-19-285448-8.
- ISBN 0-8280-1622-4.
- ^ Earnshaw, Iris (November 2003). "The History of Christmas Cards". Inverloch Historical Society Inc. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved July 25, 2008.
- ^ The Girlhood of Queen Victoria: a selection from Her Majesty's diaries, p. 61. Longmans, Green & Co., 1912. University of Wisconsin. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
- ISBN 90-77135-04-9.
- ^ ISBN 0-8117-0328-2.
- ^ Godey's Lady's Book, 1850. Godey's copied it exactly, except he removed the Queen's tiara, and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene.
- ISBN 1-55111-476-3.
- ^ Moore's poem transferred the genuine old Dutch traditions celebrated at New Year in New York, including the exchange of gifts, family feasting, and tales of "sinterklass" (a derivation in Dutch from "Saint Nicholas", from whence comes the modern "Santa Claus") to Christmas.The history of Christmas: Christmas history in America Archived April 19, 2018, at the Wayback Machine, 2006.
- ^ "Americans Celebrate Christmas in Diverse Ways" Archived December 10, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Usinfo.state.gov, November 26, 2006.
- ^ First Presbyterian Church of Watertown "Oh ... and one more thing" December 11, 2005 Archived February 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ ISBN 0-19-510980-5.
- ^ "Christian church of God – history of Christmas". Christianchurchofgod.com. Archived from the original on December 19, 2010. Retrieved February 24, 2011.
- ISBN 0-471-29198-6.
- ^ Jacob R. Straus (November 16, 2012). "Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved January 2, 2014.
- ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
- ^ Baxter, Keven (December 24, 2021). "Peace for a day: How soccer brought a brief truce to World War I on Christmas Day 1914". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
- ^ "The Real Story of the Christmas Truce". Imperial War Museums. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
- ^ "Christmas Truce 1914". BBC School Radio. Retrieved December 24, 2021.
- ISBN 978-0-283-99531-6.
- ^ Harding, Patrick (2003). The Xmas Files: Facts Behind the Myths and Magic of Christmas. London: Metro Publishing.
- ^ "When was the last time football matches in Britain were played on Christmas Day?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 23, 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-86064-397-2.
A chapter on representations of Christmas in Soviet cinema could, in fact be the shortest in this collection: suffice it to say that there were, at least officially, no Christmas celebrations in the atheist socialist state after its foundation in 1917.
- ISBN 978-0-521-02230-9.
The League sallied forth to save the day from this putative religious revival. Antireligioznik obliged with so many articles that it devoted an entire section of its annual index for 1928 to anti-religious training in the schools. More such material followed in 1929, and a flood of it the next year. It recommended what Lenin and others earlier had explicitly condemned—carnivals, farces, and games to intimidate and purge the youth of religious belief. It suggested that pupils campaign against customs associated with Christmas (including Christmas trees) and Easter. Some schools, the League approvingly reported, staged an anti-religious day on the 31st of each month. Not teachers but the League's local set the programme for this special occasion.
- ISBN 978-0-8156-0679-6.
As observed by Nicholas Brianchaninov, writing in 1929–1930, after the NEP and just as the worst of collectivization was beginning, the Soviets deemed it necessary to drive into the heads of the people the axiom that religion was the synthesis of everything most harmful to humanity. It must be presented as the enemy of man and society, of life and learning, of progress. [...] In caricatures, articles, Bezbozhnik, Antireligioznik, League of Militant Atheists propaganda and films. School courses [were give] on conducting the struggle against religion (how to profane a church, break windows, objects of piety). The young, always eager to be with the latest trend, often responded to such propaganda. In Moscow in 1929 children were brought to spit on the crucifixes at Christmas. Priests in Tiraspol diocese were sometimes betrayed by their own young parishioners, leading to their imprisonment and even death, and tearing their families apart.
- ^ Tamkin, Emily (December 30, 2016). "How Soviets Came to Celebrate New Year's Like Christmas (and Why Russians Still Do)". Foreign Policy. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
- ^ Goldberg, Carey (January 7, 1991). "A Russian Christmas—Better Late Than Never: Soviet Union: Orthodox Church celebration is the first under Communists. But, as with most of Yeltsin's pronouncements, the holiday stirs a controversy". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved November 22, 2014.
For the first time in more than seven decades, Christmas—celebrated today by Russian Orthodox Christians—is a full state holiday across Russia's vast and snowy expanse. As part of Russian Federation President Boris N. Yeltsin's ambitious plan to revive the traditions of Old Russia, the republic's legislature declared last month that Christmas, long ignored under atheist Communist ideology, should be written back into the public calendar. "The Bolsheviks replaced crosses with hammers and sickles," said Vyacheslav S. Polosin, head of the Russian legislature's committee on religion. "Now they are being changed back."
- ^ Perry, Joseph (December 24, 2015). "How the Nazis co-opted Christmas: A history of propaganda". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2016.
- ^ "Somalia joins Brunei by banning Christmas celebrations 'to protect Islam'". The Daily Telegraph. December 24, 2015. Archived from the original on May 29, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
- ^ Neuman, Scott (December 16, 2023). "There's no Christmas in Bethlehem this year. With war in Gaza, festivities are off". NPR. Retrieved December 23, 2023.
- ISBN 978-0-230-34417-4.
It is quite normal to go to church on Christmas Eve, and many people like to celebrate a christening or wedding in church. The Church is especially important at the end of a life; by far the majority of funerals are still conducted in a church by a minister.
- ^ Alkan, Sena (December 19, 2015). "The history behind Christmas and Turkey". Daily Sabah. Retrieved November 30, 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-118-46565-3.
- ^ Neal, Daniel (1822). The History of the Puritans. William Baynes and Son. p. 193. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
They disapproved of the observation of sundry of the church-festivals or holidays, as having no foundation in Scripture, or primitive antiquity.
(page 133 in the link above) - History Channel, 2007.
- ^ NEWS, SA (December 24, 2022). "Christmas Day 2022: Facts, Story & Quotes About Merry Christmas". SA News Channel. Retrieved December 26, 2022.
- ^ a b Simek (2007:379).
- ^ Coffman, Elesha. "Why December 25?" Archived September 19, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Christian History & Biography, Christianity Today, 2000.
- ^ Simek (2010:180, 379–380).
- ^ Weiser, Franz Xaver (1958). Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs. Harcourt.
- ^ "Koliada". Encyclopediaofukraine.com. Retrieved November 19, 2012.
- The United Methodist Church. 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
- ^ Stetzer, Ed (December 14, 2015). "What Is Church Attendance Like During Christmastime? New Data From LifeWay Research". Christianity Today. Archived from the original on January 29, 2018. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
- ^ Bingham, John (October 27, 2016). "British families only attend church at Christmas, new figures suggest". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on December 27, 2017. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
- ISBN 0-310-24880-9p.47.
- ^ Internet Archive Susan Topp Weber, Nativities of the World, Gibbs Smith, 2013
- ^ "Alla scoperta dei cinque presepi più belli di Bologna | Nuok". Nuok.it. January 24, 2013. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
- ^ "Presepi in Liguria: provincia di Genova, Tigullio -sito di Paolino". Digilander.libero.it. Archived from the original on December 27, 2013. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
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- ^ Bershad, David; Carolina Mangone, The Christian Travelers Guide to Italy Archived December 25, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, Zondervan, 2001.
- ^ "The Provençal Nativity Scene". Simplytreasures.com. Archived from the original on September 14, 2012. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
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- ^ Carol King (December 24, 2012). "A Christmas Living Nativity Scene in Sicily". Italy Magazine. Archived from the original on December 26, 2013. Retrieved December 25, 2013.
- ^ Collins p. 83.
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- ^ Nowak, Claire (December 23, 2019). "The Real Reason Why Christmas Colors Are Green and Red". Reader's Digest. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
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The Christmas tree as we know it seemed to emerge in Lutheran lands in Germany in the sixteenth century. Although no specific city or town has been identified as the first to have a Christmas tree, records for the Cathedral of Strassburg indicate that a Christmas tree was set up in that church in 1539 during Martin Bucer's superintendency.
- ^ "The Christmas Tree". Lutheran Spokesman. 29–32. 1936.
The Christmas tree became a widespread custom among German Lutherans by the eighteenth century.
- ISBN 978-0-8146-3932-0.
German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees.
- ISBN 978-1-4422-2590-9.
Many Lutherans continued to set up a small fir tree as their Christmas tree, and it must have been a seasonal sight in Bach's Leipzig at a time when it was virtually unknown in England, and little known in those farmlands of North America where Lutheran immigrants congregated.
- ISBN 978-1-55439-098-4.
The eight-pointed star became a popular manufactured Christmas ornament around the 1840s and many people place a star on the top of their Christmas tree to represent the Star of Bethlehem.
- ^ Wells, Dorothy (1897). "Christmas in Other Lands". The School Journal. 55: 697–8.
Christmas is the occasional of family reunions. Grandmother always has the place of honor. As the time approaches for enjoying the tree, she gathers her grandchildren about her, to tell them the story of the Christ child, with the meaning of the Christ child, with the meaning of the Christmas tree; how the evergreen is meant to represent the life everlasting, the candle lights to recall the light of the world, and the star at the top of the tree is to remind them of the star of Bethlehem.
- ISBN 978-0-19-161491-0.
The same ambiguity is seen in that most familiar of angels, the angel on top of the Christmas tree. This decoration, popularized in the nineteenth century, recalls the place of the angels in the Christmas story (Luke 2.9–18).
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In Christianity, the Christmas tree is a symbol of Christ as the true tree of life; the candles symbolize the "light of the world" that was born in Bethlehem; the apples often used as decorations set up a symbolic relation to the paradisal apple of knowledge and thus to the original sin that Christ took away so that the return to Eden—symbolized by the Christmas tree—is again possible for humanity.
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the evergreen tree (itself symbolic of eternal life through Christ)
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His biographer, Eddius Stephanus, relates that while Boniface was serving as a missionary near Geismar, Germany, he had enough of the locals' reverence for the old gods. Taking an axe to an oak tree dedicated to Norse god Thor, Boniface chopped the tree down and dared Thor to zap him for it. When nothing happened, Boniface pointed out a young fir tree amid the roots of the oak and explained how this tree was a more fitting object of reverence as it pointed towards the Christian heaven and its triangular shape was reminiscent of the Christian trinity.
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It is said to resemble the star of Bethlehem. The Mexicans call it the flower of the Holy Night, but usually it is called poinsettia after the man who introduced it to America, Dr Joel Poinsett.
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Luther sought reforms in music, as he sought change in theology, ethics, ritual, and art. He loved polyphony and wanted music that moved people by fusing faith and song. He encouraged a greater participation by the congregation in singing, and he simplified the music from choir plainsong to easy harmony [...] Luther published hundreds of hymn texts to be sung to popular melodies and simple chants. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Reformation extended the range of religious choral music beyond the liturgy, and the informal group singing of songs was highly encouraged, leading to a greater familiarity with Christmas hymns.
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The legend of St. Nicholas, who became the bishop of Myra in the beginning of the fourth century, is the next link in the Christmas-gift chain. Legend has it that during his life the priest rode across Asia Minor bestowing gifts upon poor children.
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This exchange network of ceremonial welcome was mirrored in a second reciprocity allowing early Christians to imagine their own magi: the phenomenon of giving gifts.
- ISBN 978-0-310-87388-4. Retrieved April 10, 2012.
Most people today trace the practice of giving gifts on Christmas Day to the three gifts that the Magi gave to Jesus.
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For the Enlightenment educationalist, gift-giving turned out to be a relic of a pagan custom, namely, the Roman Saturnalia. After the introduction of the Julian calendar in Rome, the 25th of December became the day of Sol invictus when people greeted the winter solstice. It was the day of the Sun's rebirth, and it was the day of the Christmas festivities – although it was only in the year 336 AD that it appears to have become established as the day of Jesus's birth (see Pannenberg 1989: 57). The Eastern Church adopted this date even later, towards the end of the 4th century, having previously regarded the 6th of January as the day of gift-giving, as it still is in the Italian community of Befana. The winter solstice was a time of festivity in every traditional culture, and the Christian Christmas probably took its place within this mythical context of the solar cult. Its core dogma of the Incarnation, however, solidly established the giving and receiving of gifts as the structural principle of that recurrent yet unique event. 'Children were given presents as the Jesus child received gifts from the magi or kings who came from afar to adore him. But in reality it was they, together with all their fellow men, who received the gift of God through man's renewed participation in the divine life' (ibid.: 61).
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Until quite recently, the celebrations focused solely on Saint Nicholas, or Sinterklaas (SIN-ter-klahs), as the Dutch call him. [...] Interestingly, the American Santa Claus was born out of the Dutch Sinterklaas.
- ISBN 978-0-313-30733-1.
Saint Nicholas (Bishop of Myra) replaced Sabino as the patron saint of the city... A Greek from what is now Turkey, he lived in the early fourth century.
- ISBN 978-0-310-56456-0. Retrieved June 20, 2015.
Nicholas was born in the Greek city of Patara around 270 AD. The son of a businessman named Theophanes and his wife, Nonna, the child's earliest years were spent in Myra... As a port on the Mediterranean Sea, in the middle of the sea lanes that linked Egypt, Greece and Rome, Myra was a destination for traders, fishermen, and merchant sailors. Spawned by the spirit of both the city's Greek heritage and the ruling Roman government, cultural endeavors such as art, drama, and music were mainstays of everyday life.
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- ^ "The sports games that don't stop for Christmas Day". December 22, 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- ^ Kelly, Joseph F., The Origins of Christmas, Liturgical Press, 2004, pp. 67–69.
- ^ Roll, p.107
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- ^ Malachi 4:2
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Puritans mandated other purifications of what they considered corrupt English practices. They refused to celebrate Christmas or Easter because the Bible did not mention either one.
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Those who adhere to the Regulative Principle by singing exclusively the psalms, refusing to use musical instruments, and rejecting "Christmas", "Easter" and the rest, are often accused of causing disunity among the people of God. The truth is the opposite. The right way to move towards more unity is to move to exclusively Scriptural worship. Each departure from the worship instituted in Scripture creates a new division among the people of God. Returning to Scripture alone to guide worship is the only remedy.
- ^ Minutes of Session of 1905. Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. 1905. p. 130. Retrieved December 25, 2023.
WHEREAS, There is a growing tendency in Protestant Churches, and to some extent in our own, to observe days and ceremonies, as Christmas and Easter, that are without divine authority; we urge our people to abstain from all such customs as are popish in their origin and injurious as lending sacredness to rites that come from paganism; that ministers keep before the minds of the people that only institutions that are Scriptural and of Divine appointment should be used in the worship of God.
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Subsequently, a new China was found on the basis of Communist ideology, i.e. atheism. Within the framework of this ideology, religion was treated as a 'contorted' world-view and people believed that religion would necessarily disappear at the end, along with the development of human society. A series of anti-religious campaigns was implemented by the Chinese Communist Party from the early 1950s to the late 1970s. As a result, in nearly 30 years between the beginning of the 1950s and the end of the 1970s, mosques (as well as churches and Chinese temples) were shut down and Imams involved in forced 're-education'.
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Among those arrested are a prominent pastor and his wife, of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan. Both have been charged with state subversion. And on Saturday morning, dozens of police raided a children's Bible class at Rongguili Church in Guangzhou. One Christian in Chengdu told the BBC: "I'm lucky they haven't found me yet." China is officially atheist, though says it allows religious freedom.
- ^ "Santa Claus won't be coming to this town, as Chinese officials ban Christmas". South China Morning Post. December 18, 2018. Archived from the original on January 12, 2019. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
Christmas is not a recognised holiday in mainland China – where the ruling party is officially atheist – and for many years authorities have taken a tough stance on anyone who celebrates it in public. [...] The statement by Langfang officials said that anyone caught selling Christmas trees, wreaths, stockings or Santa Claus figures in the city would be punished. [...] While the ban on the sale of Christmas goods might appear to be directed at retailers, it also comes amid a crackdown on Christians practising their religion across the country. On Saturday morning, more than 60 police officers and officials stormed a children's Bible class in Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong province. The incident came after authorities shut down the 1,500-member Zion Church in Beijing in September and Chengdu's 500-member Early Rain Covenant Church last week. In the case of the latter, about 100 worshippers were snatched from their homes or from the streets in coordinated raids.
Further reading
- Bowler, Gerry, The World Encyclopedia of Christmas (October 2004: McClelland & Stewart). ISBN 978-0-7710-1535-9
- Bowler, Gerry, Santa Claus: A Biography (November 2007: McClelland & Stewart). ISBN 978-0-7710-1668-4
- Comfort, David, Just Say Noel: A History of Christmas from the Nativity to the Nineties (November 1995: Fireside). ISBN 978-0-684-80057-8
- Count, Earl W., 4000 Years of Christmas: A Gift from the Ages (November 1997: Ulysses Press). ISBN 978-1-56975-087-2
- Federer, William J., There Really Is a Santa Claus: The History of St. Nicholas & Christmas Holiday Traditions Archived December 25, 2022, at the ISBN 978-0-9653557-4-2
- Kelly, Joseph F., The Origins of Christmas Archived December 25, 2022, at the ISBN 978-0-8146-2984-0
- Miles, Clement A., Christmas Customs and Traditions Archived December 25, 2022, at the ISBN 978-0-486-23354-3
- Nissenbaum, Stephen, The Battle for Christmas (1996; New York: Vintage Books, 1997). ISBN 0-679-74038-4
- Restad, Penne L. (1995). Christmas in America: A History. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-509300-1.
- Rosenthal, Jim, St. Nicholas: A Closer Look at Christmas (July 2006: Nelson Reference). ISBN 1-4185-0407-6
- Sammons, Peter (May 2006). The Birth of Christ. Glory to Glory Publications (UK). ISBN 978-0-9551790-1-3.
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 293–294. .
- Martindale, Cyril (1908). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
External links
- Christmas: Its Origin and Associations, by William Francis Dawson, 1902, from Project Gutenberg