Christmas

Christmas (literally, the Mass of Christ ) is a traditional holiday in the Christian calendar which takes place around the end of December and celebrates the nativity of Jesus Christ . Christmas is also celebrated as a secular holidaythroughout much of the world, including countries with small Christian populations, such as Japan . The precise date of the birth and historicity of Jesus are much debated (see Jesus ).

The word Christmas is often abbreviated to Xmas , possibly because theletter X resembles the Greek letter Χ , which is the first letter of Christ's name as spelled in Greek.

Dates of celebration

Christmas is celebrated on December 25 in all Christian churches ( Eastern Rite , Roman & Protestant ). Since most Eastern Orthodox churches have not accepted either the Gregorian calendar or the Revised JulianCalendar reforms, the Ecclesiastic December 25 will fall on the civil date of January 7 for the years from 1900 to 2099.

Traditionally in the United Kingdom the Christmas season ran fortwelve days following Christmas Day. These twelve daysof Christmas , a period of feasting and merrymaking end on Twelfth Night , the Feast of the Epiphany . This periodcorresponds with the liturgical season of Christmas.

The Christmas period in some countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, in practice now begins many weeksbefore Christmas, which allows for shopping and get-togethers, and extends beyond Christmas Day up to New Year's Day . This later holiday has its own parties, and in Scotland, Hogmanay —which occurs at the New Year— is celebrated more thanChristmas.

Countries that celebrate Christmas on December 25th recognize the previous day as Christmas Eve , and some of them follow Christmas day with Boxing Day . In the Netherlands , Germany , and Scandinavia , Christmas Day and Boxing Dayare called First and Second Christmas Day.

Customs and celebrations

An enormous number of customs surround Christmas, and vary from country to country. Many aspects, such as the Christmas tree , the Yule Log , andthe giving of presents , were taken from the earlier pagan holiday of Yule and the traditional celebrations of the Winter solstice . A few Christian churches, most notably the Jehovah's Witnesses and some Puritan groups, thus view Christmas as a pagan holiday not sanctioned by the Bible and do not celebrate it.

In most Western countries, Christmas celebrations have both religious and secular aspects.

Secular customs

Some of the more popular customs of British, North American, and Japanese Christmas are Santa Claus (or Father Christmas), who brings gifts to children on a sleigh pulled by reindeer ; the giving of gifts to friends and family;decorating a Christmas tree with lights and ornaments; and the decoration of the interior (and sometimes exterior) of the homewith evergreen foliage, particularly holly and mistletoe . In North America and to a lesser extent theUnited Kingdom, it is traditional to decorate the outside of houses with large numbers of lights.

In many countries, children leave empty containers on Christmas Eve for Santa to fill with small gifts such as toys, candy, or fruit. In the United States , the tradition is to hang a Christmas stocking by the fireplace, because Santa is said to come down the chimney the night beforeChristmas to fill them. In other countries, children place their empty shoes out for Santa's visit.

Christmas is also often used as an opportunity to catch up with one's extended family. In many countries it is a time forgiving gifts, exchanging Christmas cards , and having Christmas parties and dances inschools or workplaces. These often take place during the several weeks before Christmas Day.

In the United Kingdom, another aspect of the Christmas season popular with young families is the pantomime .

Timing of Christmas gifts

For most of the world, Christmas gifts are given at night on ChristmasEve ( 24 December ) or alternatively in the morning on Christmas Day .

For those countries who recognize Saint Nicholas as the bearer ofgifts, presents are given on 5 December or 6 December . In Spain , and in countries with a similar tradition, giftsare brought by the three Kings ( Magi or Wise Men) at Epiphany on 6 January . In the UK, it was traditional to give giftsto non-family members on Boxing Day , 26 December , but this is less common now. Some families choose to give presents more than once during thewinter season.

The song The Twelve Days of Christmas suggests an old tradition of gifts each day from Christmas to Epiphany.

Symbols and images

The traditional Christmas flower is the poinsettia .

Since Christmas has become associated with the Northern Hemisphere winter, motifs of this season are prominent in Christmasdecorations and in the Santa Claus myth.

Food

On Christmas Day, a special meal of Christmas dishes is usuallyserved, for which there are traditional menus in each country. In the United Kingdom, the traditional meal consists of roastturkey or goose, served with roast potatoes and other vegetables, followed by Christmas pudding , a heavy boiled pudding made with dried fruit (traditionally plums) and flour.

Religious customs and celebrations

The religious celebrations begin with Advent , the anticipation of Christ's birth,around the start of December, and are marked by special church services. Advent services often include Advent carols , and the period is alsocelebrated with Advent calendars , sometimes containing sweets andchocolate for children. Immediately before Christmas, there are many Christmas services at churchesat which Christmas hymns and Christmas carols are sung. There also are special services, typifiedby the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at Cambridge . On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, special services often include a Midnight Mass , or a Mass of the Nativity . Thechurch's season of Christmas ends on the feast of the Epiphany , also known asTwelfth Night, the traditional date of the visit of the Three Kings to thechild Jesus.

The holiday's popularity is so pronounced that other faiths have emphasized their own winter holidays to serve as a Christmassurrogate. The most obvious example is Judaism 's Chanukah , which in the 20th century has evolved a similar family gift-giving tradition.

International customs and celebrations

The Striezelmarkt , Germany's oldest Christmas market, boasting thespecialities of the Dresden region, is arguably a worldwide Christmas gift productioncenter which continues for nearly one month. This is the time when Dresden Stollen fruitcake, Puslnitzer gingerbread ,wood carvings from the Erzgebirge Mountains, Dresden Pflaumentoffel, Lusatian indigo print, Silesian ceramics , Bohemian glass, and Meissen porcelain dominate thelives of visitors who come from all over to thoroughly immerse themselves in Christmas.

Encouraged by the commercial sector, the non-religious celebration of Christmas is also popular in Japan , where gift giving is done between family members and between close friends. The Japanese also adopt thecharacter of Santa Claus in their celebration. However, Christmas is not as important as New Year's Day , and is not an official holiday. Reverse to the western customs, Christmas is a day ofpartying in Japan, while New Year's Day is a day of family celebration.

In the Republic of China and Taiwan , Christmas is not officially celebrated. However, coincidentially, December 25 is the date of the signing of the Constitution of the Republic of China in 1947 . Hence there is already an official holiday on that date, which is largely treated as if it wereChristmas.

In commonwealth countries in the southern hemisphere , Christmas is still celebrated on December 25 , despite the fact that this is the height of their summer season. This rather clashes with thetraditional winter based iconography, resulting in anachronisms such as a red fur-coated Santa Claus surfing in for a turkey barbecue on Bondi Beach .

See also :

• List of winter festivals
• Christmas customs in Poland

Christmas in the arts

A large number of fictional Christmas stories have beenwritten, usually involving heart-touching tales that involve a Christmas miracle .Several of these stories have passed into popular culture and been accepted as part of the tradition of Christmas.

Perhaps the most popular is Charles Dickens ' A Christmas Carol , the tale of curmudgeonly miser Ebenezer Scrooge . Scrooge rejects compassion and philanthropy, andChristmas as a symbol of both, until he is visited by the "Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future", who show him theconsequences of his ways. Through this tale and other Christmas-related stories, Dickens is sometimes credited with shaping themodern celebration of Christmas (tree, plum pudding, carols).

If Dickens shaped the wider traditions of Christmas, Thomas Nast and Clement Moore provided us with the popular images of SantaClaus. Nash's 19th century cartoons gave Santa his familiar form, while Moore's poem A Visit from Saint Nicholas (popularly known as The Night BeforeChristmas) gave us the image of a rotund Santa and his sleigh landing on rooftops on Christmas Eve.

Another Christmas story is the acclaimed film, It'sa Wonderful Life whose theme mirrors A ChristmasCarol . Its hero, George Bailey, is a businessman who sacrificed his dreams to help his community. On Christmas Eve, aguardian angel finds him in despair, and prevents him from committing suicide, by magically showing him how much he meant to theworld around him.

Christmas in the media

Radio and TV stations popularise Christmas by broadcasting Christmascarols and Christmas songs .

Many TV shows celebrate the holiday with a 'Christmas Special' episode. In the United Kingdom this is usually of extendedlength, allowing some popular shows to gain high ratings and essentially become Christmas institutions (for example, Morecambe and Wise , The Two Ronnies , Only Fools andHorses , Top of the Pops ). HM Queen Elizabeth II annually broadcasts a 10-minute speech on Christmas Day at 3 p.m., charting her views ofthe past year and giving her own reflections and advice. Also, the popular animated tale The Snowman is screened every Christmas on Channel 4, and a new story, The Bear , by the same artist and company, isusually broadcast around the same time.

In the United States, most family-oriented TV series also produce a Christmas special. Stand-alone Christmas specials are alsopopular, from newly created animated shorts and movies to repeats of those that were popular in previous years, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas . Also, some local affiliatesprovide the "Yule Log," a block of time on Christmas morning devoted to nothing but a footage of a fireplace coupled with popularChristmas music.

In the United Kingdom, the music industry features the battle of bands and artists to make it to the 'Christmas No. 1' spot,which is always recognised on the first Sunday before, or on, Christmas Day. Many of these songs are extremely festive (forexample, Slade 's "Merry Xmas Everybody" from 1973), while others are novelty songs thatremain at the top of the chart for one week only (such as Mr. Blobby's "Mr. Blobby" from 1993). Gospel singer Cliff Richard has been recognised as a fixture of Christmas charts, appearingnearly every year in the run-up to Christmas and subsequently being mocked for doing so.

Economics of Christmas

Christmas is typically the largest annual economic stimulus for the economies of celebrating Christian nations. Sales increasedramatically in almost all retail areas, as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies for parties and for visiting guests.Shops introduce new products that are sold at premium prices, as customers take advantage of the many marketing opportunities. Inthe United States, the day after Thanksgiving (beginning the Christmas shopping season) is the biggest shopping day of the year,with Christmas Eve close behind.

For some shops and other businesses, Christmas Day is the only day in the year that they are closed.

The economic aspects of Christmas continue after the holiday, with Christmas sales and New Year's sales , when storessell off goods that were not sold before Christmas. They also use this opportunity to clear out goods, or to take advantage ofthe many shoppers who go to these events, to increase their sales.

Because of the focus on celebration, friends, and family, people who are without these, or who have recently suffered losses,are more likely to suffer from depression during theholidays. This increases the pressure on counseling services during the period.

Theories regarding the origin of the date of Christmas

Related article: Chronology of Jesus' birth and death

Many different dates have been suggested for the celebration of Christmas throughout the years. No explanation of why it iscelebrated on December 25 is universally accepted. Theories include the following:

• It is an appropriation by early Christians of a day on which the birth of several pagan gods, Osiris , Jupiter , and Plutus , or the ancient deified leader Nimrod , was celebrated.

• It is an appropriation of the Roman festival of the birth of Unconquered Sun , celebrated on the day after the winter solstice , or the Roman festival of Saturnalia .

• It derives from the tradition that Jesus was born during the Jewish Festival of Lights ( Hanukkah , the 25th of Kislev and the beginning of Tevet ). Kislev isgenerally accepted as corresponding with our December. Under the Old Julian calendar, the popular choice of 5 BC for the year ofJesus's birth would place the 25th of Kislev on the 25th of November.

• The date of Christmas is based on the date of Good Friday , the day Jesusdied. Since the exact date of Jesus' death is not stated in the Gospels, early Christians sought to calculate it, and arrived ateither March 25 or April 6. Then, wishing to to calculate Jesus' birthday, they followed the ancient idea that Old Testamentprophets died at an " integralage "—either an anniversary of their birth or of their conception. In Jesus' case, they reasoned that he died on ananniversary of the Incarnation (his conception) so the date of his birthwould have been nine months after the date of Good Friday—either December 25 or January 6. Thus, rather than the date ofChristmas being appropriated from pagans by Christians, the opposite is held to have occurred. [See Duchesne (1902) and Talley(1986).]

See also

Christmas season , Christmas carol , Christmas song , Christmas dishes .

References

• 1908Catholic Encyclopedia article on Christmas
• Duchesne, Louis (1902), Les origines du culte chrétien
• Talley, Thomas J. (1986). The Origins of the Liturgical Year

External links

• Christmas and Santa
• ChristmasOrigins
• Christmas News
• A Christmas Story Movie
• Christmas -Bible Answer (an anti-Christmas web sitethat attacks the holiday from a strict fundamentalist interpretation.)
• TheHistory of Christmas
• The custom of celebrating withChristmas Lights
• "Calculating Christmas" by William J. Tighe