Christmas Explained
Written by admin on May 9th, 2009 in Christmas.
Christmas is a day when people from all around the world buy decorations and gifts and celebrate the most important day in the life of a Christian. It is the day that Jesus Christ was born and it is on this day each year that Christians in every part of the world celebrate His coming into the world by having a feast that was originally a creation of the Pope who saw in these celebrations a good means of promoting Christianity while also ensuring that they could eliminate pagan festivals once and for all.
Christmas: The Big Day In December
It was only during the fourth century AD that the pope decided that Christmas is to be celebrated on the 25th of December and this tradition has remained unchanged ever since then. It is in fact a day that is celebrated with the exchange of gifts as too with holding of religious ceremonies.
There are certain symbols related to Christmas that need to be understood and among these symbols be Advent that requires that Christians burn a candle for four Sundays prior to Christmas to symbolize rebirth following winter solstice. Then there is the 24th December Christmas Mass that of course celebrates the birth of Christ. The Christmas Crib symbolizes to Christians the birth of Jesus.
The Christmas tree is a ubiquitous symbol that owes its roots in pagan celebrations and is symbolic of life. Santa Claus is really the creation of Americans that found the inspiration for this character from Christian Saint Nicholas and of course Santa Claus is famous for his long white beard, red cape and his red miter as too the golden colored crosier held in his hands.
Saint Nicholas offers rewards to good children while Black Pete, his associate punishes children that are nasty. The elf Yule Goat is a symbol that holds meaning only to Scandinavian people. In the many centuries during which Christmas has been celebrated many changes have taken place and it now involves many more religious ceremonies than ever before.
Exchanging of gifts is common with the rich going overboard in gifting luxurious items to others while the poor people often symbolically exchange an orange. The modern marketing methods have added much more spice to this tradition and the weeks before Christmas see heavy spending by people that go out and buy decorations and food and drinks and a lot more.
Christmas songs are another important part of the Christmas tradition and they have a long history though in the beginning they were not always part of the traditional Christmas Day celebrations. After all, it was once believed to be a pagan custom and so was frowned upon.