Throughout the Christian world the 25th of December is celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ. We remember that because the Jesus of history was born, free christian dating services, the Resurrection of the Christ of faith could happen. Stories Behind Men of Faith. Main article: Economics of Christmas. The United Methodist Church.
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Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christobserved primarily on December 25 [a] as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. The traditional Christmas narrative, the Nativity of Jesus, delineated in the New Testament says that Jesus was born in Bethlehemfree christian dating services, in accordance with messianic prophecies.
Although the month and date of Jesus' birth are unknown, free christian dating services, the church in the early fourth century fixed the date as December Most Christians celebrate on December 25 in the Gregorian calendarwhich has been adopted almost universally in the civil calendars used in countries throughout the world, free christian dating services.
However, part of the Eastern Christian Churches celebrate Christmas on December 25 of the older Julian calendarwhich currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar. For Christians, believing that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity, rather than knowing Jesus' exact birth date, is considered to be the primary purpose in celebrating Christmas.
The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-ChristianChristian, and secular themes and origins. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa ClausFather ChristmasSaint Nicholasand Christkindfree christian dating services, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore.
Over the past few centuries, Christmas has had a steadily growing economic effect in many regions of the world.
The word is recorded as Crīstesmæsse in and Cristes-messe in The form Christenmas was also historically used, but is now considered archaic and dialectal. In addition to "Christmas", the holiday has been known by various other names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as "midwinter", [28] [29] or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð from Latin nātīvitās below.
The gospels of Luke and Matthew describe Jesus as being born in Bethlehem to the Virgin Mary. In Luke, Joseph and Mary travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, and Jesus is born there and laid free christian dating services a manger.
Matthew adds that the 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 free christian dating services Nazareth, free christian dating services.
The nativity sequences included in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke prompted early Christian writers to suggest various dates for the anniversary. Around ADClement of Alexandria wrote:. There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord's birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [May 20] Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [April 20 or 21].
Various factors contributed to the selection of December 25 as a date of celebration: it was the date of the winter solstice on the Roman calendar and it was nine months after March 25, the date of the vernal equinox and a date linked to the conception of Jesus celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation.
Christmas played a role in the Arian controversy of the fourth century. After this controversy ran its course, the prominence of the holiday declined for a few centuries.
The feast regained prominence after when Charlemagne was crowned emperor on Christmas Day. In Puritan England, Christmas was banned as it was associated with drunkenness and other misbehaviour. In the early 19th century, Christmas festivities and services became widespread with the rise of the Oxford Movement in free christian dating services Church of England that emphasized the centrality of Christmas in Christianity and charity to the poor, [43] along with Washington IrvingCharles Dickensand other authors emphasizing family, children, kind-heartedness, gift-giving, and Santa Claus for Irving[44] or Father Christmas for Dickens.
Christmas does not appear on the lists of festivals given by the early Christian writers Irenaeus and Tertullian. The Chronograph of records that a Christmas celebration took place in Rome in free christian dating services, eight days before the calends of January.
In the Eastthe birth of Jesus was celebrated in connection with the Epiphany on January 6. The feast was introduced in Constantinople inin Antioch by John Chrysostom towards the end of the fourth century, [49] probably infree christian dating services, and in Alexandria in the following century. December 25 was the date of the winter solstice free christian dating services the Roman calendar.
He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase. Linking Jesus to the Sun was supported by various Biblical passages. Jesus was considered to be the "Sun of righteousness" prophesied by Malachi : "Unto you shall the sun of righteousness arise, and healing is in his wings.
Such solar symbolism could support more than one date of birth. An anonymous work known as De Pascha Computus linked the idea that creation began at the spring equinox, on March 25, with the conception or birth the word nascor can mean either of Jesus on March 28, free christian dating services, the day of the creation of the sun in the Genesis account.
One translation reads: "O the splendid and divine providence of the Lord, that on that day, the very day, on which the sun was made, March 28, a Wednesday, Christ should be born". In the 17th century, Isaac Newtonwho, coincidentally, was born on December 25, argued that the date of Christmas may have been selected to correspond with the solstice.
Conversely, according to Steven Hijmans of the University of Alberta, "It is cosmic symbolism which inspired the Church leadership in Rome to elect the southern solsticeDecember 25, as the birthday of Christ, and the northern solstice as that of John the Baptist, supplemented by the equinoxes as their respective dates of conception. The calculation hypothesis suggests that an earlier holiday held on March 25 became associated with the Incarnation.
The calculation hypothesis was proposed by French writer Louis Duchesne in This holiday was created in the seventh century and was assigned to a date that is nine months before Christmas, in addition to being the traditional date of the equinox. It is unrelated to the Quartodecimanwhich had been forgotten by this time, free christian dating services. Early Christians celebrated the life of Jesus on a date considered equivalent to 14 Nisan Passover on the local calendar.
Because Passover was held on the 14th of the month, this feast is referred to as the Quartodeciman. All the major events of Christ's life, especially the passion, were celebrated on this date.
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul mentions Passover, presumably celebrated according free christian dating services the local calendar in Corinth. According to the calculation hypothesis, the celebration of the Quartodeciman continued in some areas and the feast became associated with Incarnation, free christian dating services. The calculation hypothesis is considered academically to be "a thoroughly viable hypothesis", though not certain.
This passage is generally free christian dating services a late interpellation. But the manuscript includes another passage, one that is more likely to be authentic, that gives the passion as March InSextus Julius Africanus c.
This conclusion was based on solar symbolism, with March 25 the date of the equinox. As this implies a birth in December, it is sometimes claimed to be the earliest identification of December 25 as the nativity. However, Africanus was not such an influential writer that it is likely he determined the date of Christmas.
The tractate De solstitia et aequinoctia conceptionis et nativitatis Domini nostri Iesu Christi et Iohannis Baptistae, pseudepigraphically attributed to John Chrysostom and dating to the early fourth century, [68] [69] also argued that Jesus free christian dating services conceived and crucified on the same day of the year and calculated this as March the eight before the calends of January [25 December] Who indeed is so unconquered as Our Lord?
Or, if they say that it is the birthday of the Sun, He is the Sun of Justice. The rival "History of Religions" hypothesis suggests that the Church selected December 25 date to appropriate festivities held by the Romans in honor of the Sun god Sol Invictus. An explicit expression of this theory appears in an annotation of uncertain date added to a manuscript of a work by 12th-century Syrian bishop Jacob Bar-Salibi. The scribe who added it wrote:.
It was a custom of the Pagans to celebrate on the same 25 December the birthday of the Sun, at which they kindled lights in token of festivity. In these solemnities and revelries, the Christians also took part. Accordingly, when the doctors of the Church perceived that the Christians had a free christian dating services to this festival, they took counsel and resolved that the true Nativity should be solemnised on that day.
InGerman Protestant Paul Ernst Jablonski argued Christmas was placed on December 25 to correspond with the Roman solar holiday Dies Natalis Solis Invicti and was therefore a "paganization" that debased the true church.
Hermann Usener [75] and others [22] proposed that the Christians chose this day because it was the Roman feast celebrating the birthday of Sol Invictus. Modern scholar S. Hijmans, however, states that "While they were aware that pagans called this day the 'birthday' of Sol Invictus, this did not concern them and it did not play any role in their choice of date for Christmas.
Free christian dating services holds that the Roman Emperor Aurelian placed a festival of Sol Invictus 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. With regard to a December religious feast of the deified Sun Solas distinct from a solstice feast of the birth or rebirth of the astronomical sun, Hijmans has commented that "while the winter solstice on or around December 25 was well established in the Roman imperial calendar, there is no evidence that a religious celebration of Sol on that day antedated the celebration of Christmas".
Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus' birth, with some claiming that certain elements have origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity. 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[81] to a tamer family-oriented and children-centered theme introduced in a 19th-century transformation.
Prior to and through the early Christian centuries, winter festivals were the most popular of the year in many European pagan cultures. Reasons included the fact that less agricultural work needed to be done during the winter, free christian dating services, as well as an expectation of better weather as spring approached.
The pre-Christian Germanic peoples —including the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse—celebrated a winter festival called Yuleheld in the late December to early January period, yielding modern English yulefree christian dating services, today used as a synonym for Christmas. In eastern Europe also, old pagan traditions were incorporated into Christmas celebrations, an example being the Koleda[91] which was incorporated into the Christmas carol.
In the Early Middle AgesChristmas Day was overshadowed by Epiphany, which in western Christianity focused on the visit of the magi. But the medieval calendar was dominated by Christmas-related holidays. The forty days before Christmas became the "forty days of St.
Martin" which began on November 11, the feast of St. Martin of Toursfree christian dating services, now known as Advent. The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor on Christmas Day in King Edmund the Martyr was anointed on Christmas in and King William Free christian dating services of England was crowned on Christmas Day By the High Middle Agesthe holiday had become so prominent that chroniclers routinely noted where various magnates celebrated Christmas.
King Richard II of England hosted a Christmas feast in at which twenty-eight oxen and three hundred sheep were eaten. 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.
In England, gifts were exchanged on New Year's Dayand there was special Christmas ale. Christmas during the Middle Ages was a public festival that incorporated ivyhollyand other evergreens.
InKing James I insisted that a play be acted on Christmas night and that the court indulge in games. Associating it with drunkenness and other misbehaviour, the Puritans banned Christmas in England in the 17th century. In the early 19th century, the Oxford Movement in the Anglican Church ushered in "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" as well as "special charities for the poor" in addition to "special services and musical events".
Following the Protestant Reformationfree christian dating services, many of the new denominations, including the Anglican Church and Lutheran Churchcontinued to celebrate Christmas.
However, in 17th century England, some groups such as the Puritans strongly condemned the celebration of Christmas, considering it a Catholic invention and the "trappings of popery " or the "rags of the Beast ". The calendar reform became a major point of tension between the Anglican party and the Puritan party.
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Nikolaus wears a bishop 's dress and still brings small gifts usually candies, nuts, and fruits on December 6 and is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht. Although many parents around the world routinely teach their children about Santa Claus and other gift bringers, some have come to reject this practice, considering it deceptive. 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. Some jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church , including those of Russia , Georgia , Ukraine , Macedonia , Montenegro , Serbia , and Jerusalem , mark feasts using the older Julian calendar.
As of , there is a difference of 13 days between the Julian calendar and the modern Gregorian calendar , which is used internationally for most secular purposes. As a result, December 25 on the Julian calendar currently corresponds to January 7 on the calendar used by most governments and people in everyday life.
Therefore, the aforementioned Orthodox Christians mark December 25 and thus Christmas on the day that is internationally considered to be January 7.
However, other Orthodox Christians, such as those belonging to the jurisdictions of Constantinople , Bulgaria , Greece , Romania , Antioch , Alexandria , Albania , Cyprus , Finland , and the Orthodox Church in America , among others, began using the Revised Julian calendar in the early 20th century, which at present corresponds exactly to the Gregorian calendar.
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 the Armenian Church in Armenia uses the Gregorian calendar. 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. In summary, there are four different dates used by different Christian groups to mark the birth of Christ, given in the table below. Also, the Ancient Church of the East. Although it follows the Julian calendar, the Ancient Church of the East decided on to celebrate Christmas according to the Gregorian calendar date.
Also, some Byzantine Rite Catholics and Byzantine Rite Lutherans. and P'ent'ay Ethiopian-Eritrean Evangelical Churches primary date. Also, the Assyrian Church of the East. Christmas is typically a peak selling season for retailers in many nations around the world. Sales increase dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate.
In the United States, the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October. In the UK and Ireland, the Christmas shopping season starts from mid-November, around the time when high street Christmas lights are turned on. In other sectors, the pre-Christmas increase in spending was even greater, there being a November—December buying surge of percent in bookstores and percent in jewelry stores. In the same year employment in American retail stores rose from 1.
in 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 prevents all large shops from trading on Christmas Day. Similar legislation was approved in Scotland with the Christmas Day and New Year's Day Trading Scotland Act 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.
One economist 's analysis calculates that, despite increased overall spending, Christmas is a deadweight loss under orthodox microeconomic theory , because of the effect of gift-giving. This loss is calculated as the difference between what the gift giver spent on the item and what the gift receiver would have paid for the item. Other deadweight losses include the effects of Christmas on the environment and the fact that material gifts are often perceived as white elephants , imposing cost for upkeep and storage and contributing to clutter.
Christmas has at times been the subject of controversy and attacks from various sources. Historically it was prohibited by Puritans when they briefly held power in England — , and in Colonial America where the Puritans outlawed the celebration of Christmas in Some Christians and organizations such as Pat Robertson 's American Center for Law and Justice cite alleged attacks on Christmas dubbing them a "war on Christmas".
One controversy is the occurrence of Christmas trees being renamed Holiday trees. there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays , which is considered inclusive at the time of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah , [] Kwanzaa , and Humanlight.
In the U. and Canada, where the use of the term "Holidays" is most prevalent, opponents have denounced its usage and avoidance of using the term "Christmas" as being politically correct. Supreme Court ruled in Lynch v.
Donnelly that a Christmas display which included a Nativity scene owned and displayed by the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island , did not violate the First Amendment.
The government of the People's Republic of China officially espouses state atheism, [] and has conducted antireligious campaigns to this end.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Holiday originating in Christianity, usually December For other uses, see Christmas disambiguation and Christmas Day disambiguation. Nativity scene depicted using Christmas lights. December 25 Western Christianity and part of the Eastern churches January 7 O.
Main article: Nativity of Jesus. See also: Date of birth of Jesus. Further information: Chronology of Jesus. See also: Saturnalia. Further information: Christmas traditions and Observance of Christmas by country. Main article: Christmas decoration. Main article: Nativity play. Main article: Christmas music. The Herald Angels Sing 1 : Main article: Christmas card. Main article: Christmas stamp.
Main article: Christmas gift. Main articles: Santa Claus , Father Christmas , and Christkind. Main article: Economics of Christmas. Main article: Christmas controversies. Further information: Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union , Kirchenkampf , Antireligious campaigns in China , and Christmas in Puritan New England.
Christianity portal Holidays portal. 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 BBC Learning English. December 29, Archived PDF from the original on October 1, Retrieved September 30, Gallup, Inc. December 24, Archived from the original on November 16, Retrieved December 16, Pew Research Center. December 18, Archived from the original on March 10, Retrieved May 23, Who Celebrate It". Archived from the original on December 7, Christmas: A Candid History.
University of California Press. ISBN In 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. Retrieved November 27, Office of Personnel Management. September 1, December Holiday Customs. Lorenz Educational Press. Retrieved November 18, September 15, The Christmas Encyclopedia 3 ed.
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 : "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.
Parade of Faith: A Biographical History of the Christian Church. 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. 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 The Almanac for Pastoral Liturgy Archived April 7, , at the Wayback Machine , LiturgyTrainingPublications, , p.
Part Commemorations of the Martyrs" Archived November 22, , at the Wayback Machine , The Tertullian Project. Retrieved November 24, Toward the Origins of Christmas. Peeters Publishers. Roll, p. Thomas Nelson. November 3, Retrieved April 2, Christmas is not really about the celebration of a birth date at all.
It is about the celebration of a birth. The fact of the date and the fact of the birth are two different things. The calendrical verification of the feast itself is not really that important What is important to the understanding of a life-changing moment is that it happened, not necessarily where or when it happened.
The message is clear: Christmas is not about marking the actual birth date of Jesus. It is about the Incarnation of the One who became like us in all things but sin Hebrews and who humbled Himself "to the point of death-even death on a cross" Phil.
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. Archived from the original on April 7, 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. Harvard University. 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. While the Washington and King birthdays are exclusively secular holidays, Christmas has both secular and religious aspects. Associated Press. December 22, Archived from the original on December 26, Retrieved December 24, The Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company. God's human face: the Christ-icon. Sinai and the Monastery of St. Retrieved December BBC News. Archived from the original on November 11, Retrieved December 12, The Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain. Oxford University Press. A History of Foreign Words in English. Archived from the original on January 13, Retrieved December 13, January 22, Enduring Word.
December 8, Retrieved December 25, New Catholic Encyclopedia. Catholic University of America Press. Part Commemorations of the Martyrs. Archived February 21, , at the Wayback Machine. See the first entry. Gordon Religious Celebrations: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Holidays, Festivals, Solemn Observances, and Spiritual Commemorations.
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. History Today. Archived from the original on December 29, Retrieved December 28, 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.
Charles Dickens in Context. Cambridge University Press. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae. Part Commemorations of the Martyrs Archived November 22, , at the Wayback Machine ," The Tertullian Project. The Oxford History of Christian Worship. Retrieved February 3, Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. Archived from the original on January 11, Archived from the original on September 23, Retrieved December 27, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.
Kessinger Publishing Company. Archived from the original on November 22, Towards the Origin of Christmas. Kok Pharos Publishing. note Archived from the original on December 31, John Archived September 18, , at the Wayback Machine A sun connection is possible because Christians considered Jesus to be the "Sun of righteousness" prophesied in Malachi "But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.
You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. Duchesne, Louis, Les Origines du Culte Chrétien, Paris, , ff. Biblical Archaeology Society. Archived from the original on December 14, Retrieved February 24, Therefore let us celebrate the festival Historical Dictionary of Catholicism. Retrieved December 23, The Origins of Christmas. Liturgical Press. Online here [1] Archived February 19, , at the Wayback Machine. Roger Pearse. Retrieved April 9, Archived from the original on April 9, Introduction to Christian Liturgy.
Yale, p. Roll, Susan K. Archived from the original on November 2, Retrieved June 20, Archived from the original on December 11, Retrieved November 17, In: Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen , part 1.
Second edition. Note that the first edition, , doesn't have the discussion of Natalis Solis Invicti ; also Sol Invictus The Origins of the Liturgical Year. The Sun in the Art and Religions of Rome. Archived from the original on May 10, Westerfield In Hastings, Adrian ; Mason, Alistair; Pyper, Hugh eds.
The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought. The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits. USA Today. Archived from the original on November 6, Retrieved April 30, The History of the Puritans. William Baynes and Son. They disapproved of the observation of sundry of the church-festivals or holidays, as having no foundation in Scripture, or primitive antiquity.
The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture. Ayer Publishing. Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs. Retrieved November 19, January , pp.
Retrieved September 10, Christmas in America: a History. Oxford: Oxford University Press. January 11, January 1, John Milton.
University Press of Kentucky. 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 and , which demanded an allegiance to the state church and its Thirty-nine Articles.
A Brief Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1. 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. Christmas: Festival of Incarnation. Fortress Press. Worship: Reformed According to Scripture.
Westminster John Knox Press. 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. Journal of the History of Ideas. JSTOR 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 Christmastide: its history, festivities and carols.
London: John Russell Smith. Domestic Annals of Scotland , p. The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to in Middle Scots. St Andrews: University of St Andrews and National Archives of Scotland. Archived from the original on May 19, Retrieved February 29, Scotland: a very short introduction. Very short introductions.
The Victorian Christmas Book. The Diary of a Country Parson — Creating the Commonwealth: The Economic Culture of Puritan New England. Merry Christmas! Harvard University Press. Moravian Christmas in the South. Christmas in Colonial and Early America. United States: World Book Encyclopedia, Inc. World Book Encyclopedia. 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. Archived from the original on November 1, 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 , 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. TUC press release. Archived from the original PDF on June 3, Retrieved January 12, 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.
A Christmas Carol. Broadview Press. Wordplay: origins, meanings, and usage of the English language. University of Toronto Press, , p. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. Christmas in My Heart , Volume 10, p. Review and Herald Pub Assoc, Inverloch Historical Society Inc. Archived from the original on May 26, Retrieved July 25, University of Wisconsin. Compendium of symbolic and ritual plants in Europe , p. University of Michigan ISBN Edition Stackpole Books 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.
Broadview Literary Texts, New York: Broadview Press, ISBN The history of Christmas: Christmas history in America Archived April 19, , at the Wayback Machine , gov, November 26, Archived from the original on December 19, A History of Graphic Design. p ISBN Straus November 16, Congressional Research Service. Archived PDF from the original on January 3, Retrieved January 2, Christmas Past. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. The Xmas Files: Facts Behind the Myths and Magic of Christmas.
London: Metro Publishing. The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 6, Retrieved October 23, Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema. 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 Religious Policy in the Soviet Union.
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 to anti-religious training in the schools. More such material followed in , 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.
Catholics of the Soviet Empire from Lenin Through Stalin. Syracuse University Press. As observed by Nicholas Brianchaninov, writing in —, 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 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.
But, as with most of Yeltsin's pronouncements, the holiday stirs a controversy". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 22, Retrieved November 22, 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. Polosin, head of the Russian legislature's committee on religion. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 6, Retrieved March 11, The Daily Telegraph.
Archived from the original on May 29, Retrieved April 4, June 21, A History of Denmark. Macmillan International Higher Education. 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. The United Methodist Church. Retrieved December 9, New Data From LifeWay Research". Christianity Today. Archived from the original on January 29, Archived from the original on December 27, January 24, November 26, Archived from the original on September 14, Italy Magazine.
Reader's Digest. Retrieved December 18, Country Living. Stories Behind the Great Traditions of Christmas. Retrieved December 2, 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 during Martin Bucer's superintendency.
Lutheran Spokesman. The Christmas tree became a widespread custom among German Lutherans by the eighteenth century. The Feast of Christmas. German Lutherans brought the decorated Christmas tree with them; the Moravians put lighted candles on those trees. A Short History of Christianity.
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. Canadian Christmas Traditions. The eight-pointed star became a popular manufactured Christmas ornament around the s and many people place a star on the top of their Christmas tree to represent the Star of Bethlehem.
The School Journal. 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.
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.
When Santa was a shaman. Paul: Llewellyn Publications , ISBN X. Lowe 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. The Christmas Archives. Archived from the original on December 21, Fashion Era. Archived from the original on December 18, 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.
Archived from the original on January 22, Retrieved February 17, Stripes Europe. November 21, Catholic Culture. Retrieved December 10, January 6, A Flame of Love. Grove Music Online. doi : December 9, Retrieved October 28, The New York Times. ISSN Retrieved November 13, NBC News. Retrieved April 10, 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.
The Journey of the Magi: Meanings in History of a Christian Story. Princeton University Press. 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.
Most people today trace the practice of giving gifts on Christmas Day to the three gifts that the Magi gave to Jesus. Sociology of Giving. SAGE Publications.
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 AD that it appears to have become established as the day of Jesus's birth see Pannenberg 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.
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.
Marshall Cavendish. 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. The regions of Italy: a reference guide to history and culture. Greenwood Publishing Group. 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.
Stories Behind Men of Faith. Nicholas was born in the Greek city of Patara around 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.
Archived from the original on May 13, Basil — ". Archived from the original on January 12, Mikołaj, Gwiazdor, Aniołek, Dzieciątko czy może Dziadek Mróz? Bezprawnik in Polish. Archived from the original on December 24, pl in Polish. So rather than focusing on the 'type' of relationship you want, use your credit background to do the actual work, like choosing your profile picture. Show off your successes online and enjoy the potential of dating with confidence, knowing that you know your credit score.
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