There is more to Christmas than the date. Here’s a look at what you need to know about the most popular Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
1. The real date of Jesus’ birth is not known.
2. Christmas is celebrated December 25th in Nigeria and many other countries.
3. Christmas is celebrated on January 7 in some Eastern Orthodox countries, such as Russia.
4. The Christmas story is told primarily in the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew in the New Testament.
5. Considered the most popular Christian observance, Christmas is also celebrated as a secular family holiday.
6. Christmas is a contraction of “Christ’s Mass,” which is derived from the Old EnglishCristes mæsse(first recorded in 1038). The letter “X” in Greek is the first letter of Christ, and “Xmas” has been used as an abbreviation for Christmas since the mid 1500s.c
7. The tradition of substituting X-mas for Christmas has its origins in the early Christian church. The first letter of Jesus Christ’s name is X in the Greek language.
8. Many of the customs and symbols traditionally associated with Christmas originated with ancient pagan festivals and winter solstice rituals.
9. St. Nicholas, the real person on whom Santa Claus is based, lived in the 4th century AD in the province of Lycia on the southwest coast of Asia Minor.
10. Cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with creating the current image of Santa Claus based on his illustrations that began appearing in Harpers Weekly in 1863.
11. All the gifts in the Twelve Days of Christmas would equal 364 gifts
12. The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers
13. The “true love” mentioned in the song “Twelve Days of Christmas” does not refer to a romantic couple, but the Catholic Church’s code for God. The person who receives the gifts represents someone who has accepted that code. For example, the “partridge in a pear tree” represents Christ. The “two turtledoves” represent the Old and New Testaments.
14. In A.D. 350, Pope Julius I, bishop of Rome, proclaimed December 25 the official celebration date for the birthday of Christ
15. According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington.
16. The traditional three colours of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolizes the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty
17. According to data analysed from Facebook posts, two weeks before Christmas is one of the two most popular times for couples to break up. However, Christmas Day is the least favourite day for breakups.
18. Christmas has its roots in pagan festivals such as Saturnalia (December 17-December 23), the Kalends (January 1 -5, the precursor to the Twelve Days of Christmas), andDeus Sol Invictusor Birthday of the Unconquerable Sun (December 25). The Christian church heartily disapproved of such celebrations and co-opted the pagans by declaring December 25 as Christ’s day of birth, though there is no evidence Christ was born on that day.
19. Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nikolas of Myra (also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker, Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna, and Nikolaos of Bari), who lived during the fourth century. Born in Patara (in modern-day Turkey), he is the world’s most popular non-Biblical saint, and artists have portrayed him more often than any other saint except Mary. He is the patron saint of banking, pawnbroking, pirating, butchery, sailing, thievery, orphans, royalty, and New York City
20. The first printed reference to a Christmas tree was in 1531 in Germany
References: Wikipedia.org; Guinness Book of World Record
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