Dear employer, it was Christmas again, we end another year and as long as we get the dates indicated realize how time flies, but also the extent to which there are recurrent themes in everyday conversation even the years pass. One of them, but lately has been emphasized, is the meaning of Christmas: the more or less religious, the Christian celebration and respect for other religions, the contradiction between consumption and the values of solidarity and brotherhood inherent in these days, the family relationship willed or forced, the energy of light, natural trees cope artificial trees, etc.., newly synthesized in "I like the holidays" or "not like these parties. "
Noting this fact I have done the exercise, using the Internet to explore the origins of Christmas and its history, it is clear that for Christians the origin lies in the birth of Christ, but when you start to celebrate? How, for centuries, have been shaping the traditions of Christmas today? Reply from history, to give to these questions and many pages this is not space, but I understand that some events may help us to understand that I share with you.
Christmas is a festival that West first appeared in Rome in the first half of the fourth century, and not due to historical reasons, but the desire to Christianize - as in other aspects of philosophy and culture then existing - a party pagan: the Natalia (soloist) Invicta, the birth of the Unconquered, ie the Sun, after the winter solstice, even this relationship with the sun, according to some, go back to the Greeks and before, the Persians. The equivalent of Christmas in the East was and is the Solemnity of the Epiphany, also related to the celebrations of the winter solstice. The meaning of both festivals was the same: celebrating the manifestation of God in the humanity of Jesus and when the West adopted also the feast of January 6, he transferred to this aspect of the demonstration Christ to the Magi by a star, and left for 25 December commemorating the birth of Jesus to the adoration of the shepherds. In short, both the West and the East, instead of celebrating the birth of the sun god should introduce the birth of the son of God. From the Middle Ages, throughout the Western world, they were emphasizing the emotional aspects of the birth of Jesus and the Christmas party was surrounded by a series of demonstrations and family. Today these events are specified, at home, in the cribs - that is promoted by the urban bourgeoisie in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - to do shit piñata on Christmas Day lunch with soup and meat pot, the innocent man or noses of the Magi. But we have also incorporated the Christmas tree, lights, congratulations and more recently, Santa Claus, all of European origin.
The tree has German origins and date of the XV century, adorned with the apples, cookies, angels, paper chains, etc.., And tradition was consolidated when Prince Albert of Germany gave one there, the Christmas 1841, his wife, Queen Victoria of England, and German immigration to North America. The lamps are imported from a custom rooted in pagan Scandinavia and, in those countries, during the winter - and in December, especially - are spending more hours in the dark with sun and somehow have to make on bearable and face what is called winter affective disorder. Congratulations date in 1843, when an English illustrator - John Callcott Horseley - designed the first sentence with the greeting "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You" and the scene of a family celebrating Christmas together. As for Santa Claus, we might consider that the first capitalist tradition, the character's original name was Nicholas, a fourth century bishop altruistic who lived in Asia Minor, and in countries like Germany or Holland and cities as Rome, venerated as the patron saint of children. The Netherlands, in St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas call and emigration were the U.S. won the "Sinter Klaas" and there led to Santa Claus, which became famous due to two counts of 1809 and 1823. However, it was a magazine illustrator (1860-1880) who represented the North Pole Santa Claus in his workshop and his list of good and bad children, and the culmination came in 1931 when Coca-Cola made a series of ads showing Santa Claus that knowledge today.
For whatever reason, we have built traditions of others, while others have not built our own, but they or another, all respond to the same conclusion: the birth of Christ to believers, and the solstice winter for the unbelievers. Dear employer, you are believer or not, Merry Christmas and a happy 2006.
Joseph Albet
