Christmas, the festival of celebration, delight, cheerfulness, and worship. People sing carols, go to church, exchange presents, decorate their homes with flowers, lights, holly, decorate their Christmas trees, and host family get-togethers.
Churches all over the globe perform evening rituals. People prepare feasts and cake, express their happiness and joy by singing carols and welcoming Jesus Christ.
Christmas Day is celebrated on December 25th worldwide to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and now it is also seen to epitomize the spirit of giving the warmth that one carries with them for the rest of the year and is also celebrated by people across faiths.
Origin of Christmas
Originally the first known date of Christmas being celebrated was on December 25th in 336 AD, over the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine who was the first Christian Roman Emperor. Later after some time, Pope Julius 1 announced that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on December 25th.
Distinct traditions have distinct theories justifying the reason for Christmas being celebrated on December 25th.
Generally, a Christian custom is supposed that the event when Mary knew that she will give birth to a special child, Jesus, called the Annunciation was on March 25th and thus still celebrated on March 25th.
Later after nine months, March 25th is December 25th.
December 25th may have been named as the Winter Solstice and the early pagan Roman midwinter festivals known as ‘Saturnalia’ and ‘Dies Natalis Solis Invicti’ which happened in December near this date-thus it was a period when individuals were previously celebrating events.
Origin of Santa Claus
The origin of Santa Claus can be drawn back from 280 AD from St Nicholas who was a monk born in Turkey. St Nicholas traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick, giving away all his wealth, gradually getting recognized as the protector of children and sailors.
In the 18th century, St Nicholas first entered American popular culture in New York, when Dutch families collected to honor the anniversary of the death of ‘Sint Nikolaas’(Dutch of Saint Nicholas), or ‘Sinter Klaas’ and that is from where the name ‘Santa Claus’ got recognized.
On the eve of Christmas, it is believed that Santa would come to every house and give gifts to the children. It is an age-old tradition of distributing gifts by Santa Claus. Kids write their wishes and put it in the socks and hang it out in the hopes that Santa would come read their wishes and execute them.
Origin of Christmas Tree
Do you know when and where was the first Christmas Tree placed?
It was in 1510 in Riga, Latvia. The first Christmas tree was made in Germany, decorated with ginger bread, apples, wafers, and sweets.
Christians introduced Roman pagans by combining Christmas with the Saturnalia, so the followers of the Asheira sect and its branch members were elected by the church providing sanctions to ‘Christmas Tree’. Pagans had worshipped trees in the forest for ages, or grown them in their homes and decorated them and this ceremony was known and celebrated with a Christian facade by the Church.
In different countries, different trees are used as Christmas trees. For example in New Zealand, Pohutakawa tree is used and it dwells of red flowers.
In Germany, in the 19th century, the first artificial Christmas tree was developed. The real Christmas Tree helps in removing pollen and dust from the air.
Modern artificial Christmas trees were made up of PVC in China.
