Facts Behind Christmas

7/29/2019 Facts Behind Christmas

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Facts Behind

Christmas

LECTURER : MS. AHIRAH

STUDENT UEL ID : Chong Jian Hui (U1159482)

CAMPUS : STAMFORD COLLEGE MALACCA

ENG 1002 A

ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS 2 A

JANUARY 2013 SEMESTER


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Who is it about? Christmas (Noel, Nativity, Xmas) is an annual

commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ and a widely

observed holiday, celebrated generally on December 25

by millions of people around the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas


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What happened duringChristmas?

Send Christmas cards to family and friends.

Set up a live or artificial Christmas tree in your home.

Hang mistletoe in a doorway.


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What happened duringChristmas?

Buy gifts pile them under the tree.

Hang stockings from your mantel.

Ask your children to write down a wish list of the toys

they would like to receive.


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What happened duringChristmas? Share the list with Santa Claus.

Prepare a huge Christmas feast with foods such as turkey,

ham, stuffing and vegetables; serve mince pie for dessert.Include other favourite recipes from your childhood

holiday meals.

Attend church on Christmas Eve.


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When did it take place? Popular myth puts his birth on December 25th in the year

1 C.E.


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Where did it celebrate? Christmas Day is celebrated as a major festival and public

holiday in countries around the world

In some non-Christian countries, periods of formercolonial rule introduced the celebration (e.g. Hong Kong)

Christian minorities or foreign cultural influences have

led populations to observe the holiday.


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Whats the real

stories behind

Christmas?


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How did Xmas BeCelebrated on December25?

Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia

A week long period of lawlessness celebrated between

December 17-25.

During this period, Roman courts were closed, and

Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for

damaging property or injuring people during the

weeklong celebration.


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The Truths In the 4th century CE, Christian leaders succeeded in

converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans bypromising them that they could continue to celebrate theSaturnalia as Christians.

The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christianabout Saturnalia.

The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking,

sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor ofmodern caroling), etc.


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Ugly Facts Some depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were

intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466

For the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to

race naked through the streets of the city.

When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in

1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the

annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he

responded, It is not opportune to make any innovation.


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The Origins ofChristmasCustoms


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The Origin of ChristmasTree Pagans had long worshipped trees in the forest, or

brought them into their homes and decorated them, and

this observance was adopted and painted with a Christian

veneer by the Church.


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The Origin of Mistletoe

Druid rituals use mistletoe to poison their human

sacrificial victim. The Christian custom ofkissing under

the mistletoe is a later synthesis of the sexual license of

Saturnalia with the Druidic sacrificial cult.


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The Origin of Christmas

Presents In pre-Christian Rome, the emperors compelled their

most despised citizens to bring offerings and gifts during

the Saturnalia (in December) and Kalends (in January). Later, this ritual expanded to include gift-giving among

the general populace.

The Catholic Church gave this custom a Christian flavor

by re-rooting it in the supposed gift-giving of SaintNicholas


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The Origin of Santa Claus

Nicholas was born in Parara, Turkey in 270 CE and laterbecame Bishop of Myra. He died in 345 CE on

December 6th. He was only named a saint in the 19th

century.

Nicholas was among the most senior bishops whoconvened the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE and created

the New Testament.


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In 1087, a group of sailors who idolized Nicholas moved his bonesfrom Turkey to a sanctuary in Bari, Italy.

There Nicholas supplanted a female boon-giving deity called TheGrandmother, or Pasqua Epiphania,.

The Nicholas cult spread north until it was adopted by German andCeltic pagans.

In a bid for pagan adherents in Northern Europe, the Catholic Church

adopted the Nicholas cult and taught that he did (and they should)distribute gifts on December 25thinstead of December 6th.


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In 1809, the novelist Washington Irving wrote a satire of

Dutch culture entitledKnickerbocker History. The satire

refers several times to the white bearded, flying-horse

riding Saint Nicholas using his Dutch name, Santa Claus.

Dr. Clement Moore, a professor at Union Seminary,

read Knickerbocker History, and in 1822 he published a

poem based on the character Santa Claus

The Bavarian illustrator Thomas Nast almost completed

the modern picture of Santa Claus.


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In 1931, the Coca Cola Corporation contracted theSwedish commercial artist Haddon Sundblom to create a

coke-drinking Santa.

Sundblom modeled his Santa on his friend Lou Prentice,

chosen for his cheerful, chubby face. The corporation

insisted that Santas fur-trimmed suit be bright, Coca

Cola red.

And Santa was born.


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Documents

Facts Behind Christmas