Bah humbug?

Katy1 · Post by **Katy1** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:31 am

If anyone's interested here's the history of Christmas......

Traditions

Christmas has always been a strange combination of Christian, Pagan and folk traditions. As far back as 389 AD, St Gregory Nazianzen (one of the Four Fathers of the Greek Church) warned against 'feasting in excess, dancing and crowning the doors'. The Church was already finding it hard to bury the Pagan remnants of the midwinter festival.

Medieval

During the medieval period (c.400AD - c.1400AD) Christmas was a time for feasting and merrymaking. It was a predominantly secular festival but contained some religious elements.

Medieval Christmas lasted 12 days from Christmas Eve on 24th December, until the Epiphany (Twelfth Night) on 6th January. Epiphany comes from a Greek word that means 'to show', meaning the time when Jesus was revealed to the world. Even up until the 1800s the Epiphany was at least as big a celebration as Christmas day.

Many Pagan traditions had been brought to Britain by the invading Roman soldiers. These included covering houses in greenery and bawdy partying that had its roots in the unruly festival of Saturnalia.

The Church attempted to curb Pagan practices and popular customs were given Christian meaning. Carols that had started as Pagan songs for celebrations such as midsummer and harvest were taken up by the Church. By the late medieval period the singing of Christmas carols had become a tradition.

The Church also injected Christian meaning into the use of holly, making it a symbol for Jesus' crown of thorns. According to one legend, the holly's branches were woven into a painful crown and placed on Christ's head by Roman soldiers who mocked him, chanting: "Hail King of the Jews." Holly berries used to be white but Christ's blood left them with a permanent crimson stain.

Another legend is about a little orphan boy who was living with shepherds when the angels came to announce Jesus' birth. The child wove a crown of holly for the newborn baby's head. But when he presented it, he became ashamed of his gift and started to cry. Miraculously the baby Jesus reached out and touched the crown. It began to sparkle and the orphan's tears turned into beautiful scarlet berries.

Ban on Christmas

From the middle of the 17th century until the early 18th century the Christian Puritans suppressed Christmas celebrations in Europe and America.

The Puritan movement began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in England (1558-1603). They believed in strict moral codes, plenty of prayer and close following of New Testament scripture.

As the date of Christ's birth is not in the Gospels the Puritans thought that Christmas was too strongly linked to the Pagan Roman festival and were opposed to all celebration of it, particularly the lively, boozy celebrations inherited from Saturnalia. In 1644 all Christmas activities were banned in England. This included decorating houses with evergreens and eating mince pies.

The crib and the nativity play

The telling of the Christmas story has been an important part of the Christianisation of Christmas. One way that the Christmas story has been maintained is through the crib, a model of the manger that Jesus was born in.

The tradition of crib making dates back to at least 400 AD when Pope Sixtus III had one built in Rome. In many parts of Europe in the 18th century crib making was an important craft form. This was not the case in England until much later, suggesting that British Christmases were less Christian than those in other parts of Europe.

The tradition of Nativity plays began in churches where they were used to illustrate the Christmas story as told in the Bible.

Victorian Christmas

After a lull in Christmas celebrations the festival returned with a bang in the Victorian Era (1837-1901). The Victorian Christmas was based on nostalgia for Christmases past. Dickens' A Christmas Carol (1843) inspired ideals of what Christmas should be, capturing the imagination of the British and American middle classes. This group had money to spend and made Christmas a special time for the family.

The Victorians gave us the kind of Christmas we know today, reviving the tradition of carol singing, borrowing the practice of card giving from St. Valentine's day and popularising the Christmas tree.

Although the Victorians attempted to revive the Christmas of medieval Britain, many of the new traditions were Anglo-American inventions. From the 1950s, carol singing was revived by ministers, particularly in America, who incorporated them into Christmas celebrations in the Church. Christmas cards were first sent by the British but the Americans, many of whom were on the move and away from their families, picked up the practice because of a cheap postal service and because it was a good way of keeping in contact with people at home.

Christmas trees were a German tradition, brought to Britain and popularised by the royal family. Prince Albert first introduced the Christmas tree into the royal household in Britain in 1834. He was given a tree as a gift by the Queen of Norway which was displayed in Trafalgar Square.

:yh_party

zinkyusa · Post by **zinkyusa** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:39 am

SnoozeControl wrote: Pagan partying sounds particularly pleasant.

revised to: Pagan partying provides particularly pleasant play..

Thus keeping the illiteration in tact

Imladris · Post by **Imladris** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:33 am

I love Christmas but I hate the pressure that we all feel that it has to be a fantastic day and then it can be a bit of a let down.

I usually have to cook for about 13 people which in itself is fine, I love preparing Christmas food and enjoy seeing everyone sat round the table eating it.

I find the problems start with the relatives!! My husband's elderly (but not as old as she makes out) aunt lives down the road from my shop and finds an excuse to pop in two or three times a day, so now she's moaning 'I hate Christmas, is so miserable when you're on your own' .......aargh! for the last 8 years or so she's been at ours so where she get's the idea she's alone from I don't know.

Then when the house is full and the ages range from nearly 90 to babies it's hard work trying to entertain everyone. So I've worked out the best thing is to stay in the kitchen with the sherry, pretend you can't possibly leave the dinner at this crucial point (i.e. pouring another drink) and let hubby play at being the host:wah:

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 6:45 am

Imladris wrote: So I've worked out the best thing is to stay in the kitchen with the sherry, pretend you can't possibly leave the dinner at this crucial point (i.e. pouring another drink) and let hubby play at being the host:wah:

Sounds like a good plan to me

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:15 am

Wendy, why don't you and your husband come to my house on that day? I usually rent movies and cook something I especially love and avoid all other forms of media. :wah:

Katy1 · Post by **Katy1** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:39 am

Imladris wrote: I love Christmas but I hate the pressure that we all feel that it has to be a fantastic day and then it can be a bit of a let down.

I usually have to cook for about 13 people which in itself is fine, I love preparing Christmas food and enjoy seeing everyone sat round the table eating it.

I find the problems start with the relatives!! My husband's elderly (but not as old as she makes out) aunt lives down the road from my shop and finds an excuse to pop in two or three times a day, so now she's moaning 'I hate Christmas, is so miserable when you're on your own' .......aargh! for the last 8 years or so she's been at ours so where she get's the idea she's alone from I don't know.

Then when the house is full and the ages range from nearly 90 to babies it's hard work trying to entertain everyone. So I've worked out the best thing is to stay in the kitchen with the sherry, pretend you can't possibly leave the dinner at this crucial point (i.e. pouring another drink) and let hubby play at being the host:wah:

Oh yes, if it wasn't for relatives Christmas would go smoothly!

I think I've got this fake memory of a fantastic Victorian Christmas that never was. Home made decorations, snow, robins, carols around a giant tree with chestnuts roasting......

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 7:47 am

Champagne? Lobster? The sincere wish to ignore all that whoop-de-doo-doo outside?

cherandbuster · Post by **cherandbuster** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:20 am

Katy1 wrote: I think I've got this fake memory of a fantastic Victorian Christmas that never was. Home made decorations, snow, robins, carols around a giant tree with chestnuts roasting......

Rose-colored glasses come in handy, don't they? :-6

Katy1 · Post by **Katy1** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:31 am

cherandbuster wrote: Rose-colored glasses come in handy, don't they? :-6

Could be a coping mechanism? Who knows but they work for me lol.

Anyway, while Lulu and Wendy eat their lobster and drink champagne by their roaring fire, Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit push their cold hungry faces to the warm glass of their window......:-1

Katy1 · Post by **Katy1** » Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:49 am

Wendybird wrote: And promptly find their faces are frozen to the glass till Spring?

Ooooh, you'd better be careful Wendy, you'll get 3 strange nocturnal visitors you know. Mummy bear, Daddy bear and Baby bear.......damn! wrong tale....

Post by **Bryn Mawr** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 3:43 pm

Didn't Tom Lehrer sum it up perfectly?

A Christmas Carol

by Tom Lehrer

Christmas time is here, by golly,

Disapproval would be folly,

Deck the halls with hunks of holly,

Fill the cup and don't say when.

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,

Mix the punch; drag out the Dickens,

Even though the prospect sickens,

Brother, here we go again.

On Christmas Day you can't get sore,

Your fellow man you must adore,

There's time to rob him all the more

The other three hundred and sixty-four.

Relations, sparing no expense, 'll

Send some useless old utensil,

Or a matching pen and pencil.

(Just the thing I need. How nice.)

It doesn't matter how sincere it

Is, nor how heartfelt the spirit,

Sentiment will not endear it,

What's important is the price.

Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,

Advertising wondrous things.

God rest ye merry, merchants,

May you make the Yuletide pay.

Angels we have heard on high

Tell us to go out and buy!

So, let the raucous sleighbells jingle,

Hail our dear old friend, Kriss Kringle,

Driving his reindeer across the sky...

Don't stand underneath when they fly by!

BabyRider · Post by **BabyRider** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:05 pm

Katy1 wrote: sneer 'bah humbug!'
Yeah....that one. ^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:35 pm

Come in out of the snow, Tiny & Bob and warm your chilled fingers by the hearth! (Just don't be singing carols, ok?) Want some hot buttered rum?

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:49 am

Nonsense! I'm the good witch, Glinda!:wah:

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:15 am

(I'll steal his crutch and give him "40 whacks!") HO, HO, HO! Peace on earth, good will to men! :wah:

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 8:19 am

HAH! "Deck the halls with Santa's balls, fa la la la laaaaaaa, la la la la!"

zinkyusa · Post by **zinkyusa** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:49 am

Lulu2 wrote: HAH! "Deck the halls with Santa's balls, fa la la la laaaaaaa, la la la la!"

:yh_rotfl

guppy · Post by **guppy** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:53 am

Lulu2 wrote: HAH! "Deck the halls with Santa's balls, fa la la la laaaaaaa, la la la la!"

didn;t you mean santa's wallet? same difference though isn't it????:D

zinkyusa · Post by **zinkyusa** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:56 am

guppy wrote: didn;t you mean santa's wallet? same difference though isn't it????:D

does he carry his wallet in his balls??

is that were the term money bags comes from?

Lulu2 · Post by **Lulu2** » Thu Oct 12, 2006 10:02 am

Santa has a wallet? Why? Does he carry a drivers' license? Money? Condoms? I THINK NOT!:D