It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Christmas is coming and we are all so excited!
Presents, celebrations, drinks, music and Christmas carols are some of the things we are waiting for and a lot of us feel like we are becoming children again. How happy are you for Christmas?
These are some facts you should about Christmas:
- Christmas is an annual festival, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ,observed primarily on December 25] as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.
- “Christmas” is a shortened form of “Christ’s mass”.
- Τhe holiday has been known by various other names throughout its history. The Anglo-Saxons referred to the feast as “midwinter,] or, more rarely, as Nātiuiteð .”Nativity”, meaning “birth”, is from Latin nātīvitās.
- As Christmas was known to the early Christian writers, it must have been introduced from apostolic times. Irenaeus mention it in his list of feasts even says the exact date of birth was December 25.
- In the 3rd century, the date of birth of Jesus was the subject of both great interest. It is of general acknowledgement that the birth of Christ was celebrated not taking into consideration the historical date of birth, but a conventional one.
- Christmas Day (inclusive of its vigil, Christmas Eve), is a Festival in the Lutheran Churches, a holy day of obligation in the Roman Catholic Church, and a Principal Feast of the Anglican Communion. Other Christian denominations do not rank their feast days but nevertheless place importance on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, as with other Christian feasts like Easter, Ascension Day, Pentecost.
- A special Christmas family meal is traditionally an important part of the holiday’s celebration, and the food that is served varies greatly from country to country. Some regions have special meals for Christmas Eve, such as Sicily, where 12 kinds of fish are served. In the United Kingdom and countries influenced by its traditions, a standard Christmas meal includes turkey, goose or other large bird, gravy, potatoes, vegetables, sometimes bread and cider. Special desserts are also prepared, such as Christmas pudding, mince pies, fruit cake and Yule log cake.
- 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 2018, 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.
- Οther Orthodox Christians, such as those belonging to the jurisdictions of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Constantinople, 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.
- Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, completing an Advent calendar or Advent wreath, Christmas music and caroling, lighting a Christingle, viewing a Nativity play, an exchange of Christmas cards, church services, a special meal, pulling Christmas crackers and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly.
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