Christmas
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Christmas is the Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus, who Christians believe is The Son of God. The name Christmas is the day of the Christ's birth, which is why Christians call it Christmas, though it is pronounced like Chris muhss.
Over the least few decades Christmas has been commercialized more and more.The religious signification was almost lost, and the retail industry has pushed hard to focus the festival on giving (many, preferably expensive) gifts or presents to one another. This is shown in a recent push for the term "X-mas" (X sound resembles Christ) instead of the traditional "Christmas".
Some religious Christians observe a month of fasting (they will eat less during that month, which is probably comparable to Islamic Ramadan). This, however, is not always the case.
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[edit] Christmas time specialties
Many cultures have traditional foods baked around Christmas, like the French "Buche de Noel" or gingerbread men and women which are decorated and hung on the Christmas tree. Many families also prepare egg nog, a sweet drink made of milk, sugar, eggs, nutmeg and sometimes alcohol, or pfeffernüsse (spiced cookies rolled in powdered sugar).
All those pastries are probably a sign of feasting that the fasting is now over (much like the festival after Ramadan is over, and have little to do with Christmas in the first place).
Christians usually find this the holiest day of the year. Others may argue easter to be the greatest day of the year.
[edit] Christmas tree
In most homes when Christmas is celebrated, people either chop down their own Christmas tree down and bring it indoors to decorate, or they buy one from a Christmas tree lot. Evergreen trees are used which began as a custom in Germany. It is said that this particular tree, which is green all year round and never loses its beautiful fragrance, symbolizes the never changing love of Jesus Christ. Young children wait for the arrival of presents from Santa Claus, a name derived from the original St. Nicholas who lived in the 4th century. St. Nicholas would deliver presents in secret to those in need in his small village. Christmas is one of the holiest of calendar days in the church year for Christians, as they celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ,who came to save sinners from a life apart from God. Through the sacrifice of Christ's life, 32 years later, mankind would have the ability to be forgiven by God for sin as well as the promise of receiving ever-lasting life after death. (Probably also to counter other pagan rites that took place at that time of the year. The feast to the god Mithras is said to have been held at that time).
[edit] Date of celebration
Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on the 6th of January (Supposedly Magi came to the birthplace of Christ and left presents at that date, but the Orthodox church still uses the Julian Calendar to do calculations. This calendar is about 10 days off compared to the modern calendar.)
Catholics and Protestants celebrate on the 25th of December (Feast of Mithras, as above).
Mormonism Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints celebrate Christmas on December 25th ; though they believe that Christ's actual birth took place on April 6th. The Church was organized and established in the year of your Lord eighteen hundred and thirty, in the fourth month, and on the sixth day of the month which is called April. This was revealed to Jospeh Smith as Christ's true birthday.
[edit] Other holidays around Christmas
There are other holidays that take place around Christmas time. The Jewish people celebrate Chanukka, although this feast of lights is not their holiest time of the year. Chanukkah is a remembrance of the miracle of Jewish survival against mighty empires (on this occasion, 165 BCE, against the Seleucid Greeks). A popular later legend suggested that one day's worth of oil for the candelabra in the Temple in Jerusalem miraculously lasted for 8 days whilst new oil was prepared, after the Jews had fought off their enemy and rededicated the Temple. African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa, although many African Americans have a deeply rooted Christian faith, so they may celebrate Christmas first and Kwanzaa as a cultural versus spiritual celebration.
Jehovah's Witnesses, although they believe that Jesus Christ is God's Son who was born to Mary in Bethlehem, do not celebrate Christmas as they do not believe that Jesus was born on December 25. Neither do they celebrate Yule as this has its origins in the pagan festivals associated with the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere.
Yule, celebrates the rebirth of the earth during the winter solstice (usually December 20-22). At Yule, the Holly King, God of winter, is taken over by the Oak King, God of Spring or rebirth, also known as the Divine Child. Common shared traditions between Yule and Christmas include: caroling, decorating the Yule tree, kissing under the mistletoe and honoring Kriss Kringle (Santa Claus), the Germanic God of Yule.
