Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We will be closed until January 4 but may be posting articles if we get some important breaking news. On behalf of the Insider Staff we wish all our readers a very Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Season of Joy. Please enjoy the season and have a safe holiday.
---Gil Rodriguez Texas Insider
The Date of Christmas
The idea to celebrate Christmas on December 25 originated in the 4th century. The Catholic Church wanted to eclipse the festivities of a rival pagan religion that threatened Christianitys existence. The Romans celebrated the birthday of their sun god Mithras during this time of year.
Although it was not popular or even proper to celebrate peoples birthdays in those times church leaders decided that in order to compete with the pagan celebration they would themselves order a festival in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Although the actual season of Jesus birth is thought to be in the spring the date of December 25 was chosen as the official birthday celebration as Christs Mass so that it would compete head on with the rival pagan celebration. Christmas was slow to catch on in America. The early colonists considered it a pagan ritual. The celebration of Christmas was even banned by law in Massachusetts in colonial days.
Mistletoe and Holly
Two hundred years before the birth of Christ the Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter. They would gather this evergreen plant that is parasitic upon other trees and used it to decorate their homes. They believed the plant had special healing powers for everything from female infertility to poison ingestion. Scandinavians also thought of mistletoe as a plant of peace and harmony. They associated mistletoe with their goddess of love Frigga. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe probably derived from this belief. The early church banned the use of mistletoe in Christmas celebrations because of its pagan origins. Instead church fathers suggested the use of holly as an appropriate substitute for Christmas greenery.
Poinsettias
Poinsettias are native to Mexico. They were named after Americas first ambassador to Mexico Joel Poinsett. He brought the plants to America in 1828. The Mexicans in the eighteenth century thought the plants were symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem. Thus the Poinsettia became associated with the Christmas season. The actual flower of the poinsettia is small and yellow. But surrounding the flower are large bright red leaves often mistaken for petals.
The Christmas Tree
The Christmas Tree originated in Germany in the 16th century. It was common for the Germanic people to decorate fir trees both inside and out with roses apples and colored paper. It is believed that Martin Luther the Protestant reformer was the first to light a Christmas tree with candles. While coming home one dark winters night near Christmas he was struck with the beauty of the starlight shining through the branches of a small fir tree outside his home. He duplicated the starlight by using candles attached to the branches of his indoor Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was not widely used in Britain until the 19th century. It was brought to America by the Pennsylvania Germans in the 1820s.
Xmas
This abbreviation for Christmas is of Greek origin. The word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. During the 16th century Europeans began using the first initial of Christs name X in place of the word Christ in Christmas as a shorthand form of the word. Although the early Christians understood that X stood for Christs name later Christians who did not understand the Greek language mistook Xmas as a sign of disrespect.
The Candy Cane
Candy canes have been around for centuries but it wasnt until around 1900 that they were decorated with red stripes and bent into the shape of a cane. They were sometimes handed out during church services to keep the children quiet. One story (almost certainly false) that is often told about the origin of the candy cane is as follows:
In the late 1800s a candy maker in Indiana wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He came up with the idea of bending one of his white candy sticks into the shape of a Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols of Christs love and sacrifice through the Candy Cane. First he used a plain white peppermint stick. The color white symbolizes the purity and sinless nature of Jesus.
Next he added three small stripes to symbolize the pain inflicted upon Jesus before His death on the cross. There are three of them to represent the Holy Trinity. He added a bold stripe to represent the blood Jesus shed for mankind. When looked at with the crook on top it looks like a shepherds staff because Jesus is the shepherd of man. If you turn it upside down it becomes the letter J symbolizing the first letter in Jesus name. The candy maker made these candy canes for Christmas so everyone would remember what Christmas is all about.
Santa Claus
The original Santa Claus St. Nicholas was born in Turkey in the 4th century. He was very pious from an early age devoting his life to Christianity. He became widely known for his generosity for the poor. But the Romans held him in contempt. He was imprisoned and tortured. But when Constantine became emperor of Rome he allowed Nicholas to go free. Constantine became a Christian and convened the Council of Nicaea in 325. Nicholas was a delegate to the council. He is especially noted for his love of children and for his generosity. He is the patron saint of sailors Sicily Greece and Russia.
He is also of course the patron saint of children. The Dutch kept the legend of St. Nicholas alive. In 16th century Holland Dutch children would place their wooden shoes by the hearth in hopes that they would be filled with a treat. The Dutch spelled St. Nicholas as Sint Nikolaas which became corrupted to Sinterklaas and finally in Anglican to Santa Claus. In 1822 Clement C. Moore composed his famous poem A Visit from St. Nicholas which was later published as The Night Before Christmas. Moore is credited with creating the modern image of Santa Claus as a jolly fat man in a red suit. However his authorship is controversial. Some scholars suggest that it was Henry Livingston Jr. who wrote the poem.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We will be closed until January 4 but may be posting articles if we get some important breaking news. On behalf of the Insider Staff we wish all our readers a very Blessed and Merry Christmas and a Season of Joy. Please enjoy the season and have a safe holiday.
---Gil Rodriguez Texas Insider
The Date of Christmas
The idea to celebrate Christmas on December 25 originated in the 4th century. The Catholic Church wanted to eclipse the festivities of a rival pagan religion that threatened Christianitys existence. The Romans celebrated the birthday of their sun god Mithras during this time of year.
Although it was not popular or even proper to celebrate peoples birthdays in those times church leaders decided that in order to compete with the pagan celebration they would themselves order a festival in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
Although the actual season of Jesus birth is thought to be in the spring the date of December 25 was chosen as the official birthday celebration as Christs Mass so that it would compete head on with the rival pagan celebration. Christmas was slow to catch on in America. The early colonists considered it a pagan ritual. The celebration of Christmas was even banned by law in Massachusetts in colonial days.
Mistletoe and Holly
Two hundred years before the birth of Christ the Druids used mistletoe to celebrate the coming of winter. They would gather this evergreen plant that is parasitic upon other trees and used it to decorate their homes. They believed the plant had special healing powers for everything from female infertility to poison ingestion. Scandinavians also thought of mistletoe as a plant of peace and harmony. They associated mistletoe with their goddess of love Frigga. The custom of kissing under the mistletoe probably derived from this belief. The early church banned the use of mistletoe in Christmas celebrations because of its pagan origins. Instead church fathers suggested the use of holly as an appropriate substitute for Christmas greenery.
Poinsettias
Poinsettias are native to Mexico. They were named after Americas first ambassador to Mexico Joel Poinsett. He brought the plants to America in 1828. The Mexicans in the eighteenth century thought the plants were symbolic of the Star of Bethlehem. Thus the Poinsettia became associated with the Christmas season. The actual flower of the poinsettia is small and yellow. But surrounding the flower are large bright red leaves often mistaken for petals.
The Christmas Tree
The Christmas Tree originated in Germany in the 16th century. It was common for the Germanic people to decorate fir trees both inside and out with roses apples and colored paper. It is believed that Martin Luther the Protestant reformer was the first to light a Christmas tree with candles. While coming home one dark winters night near Christmas he was struck with the beauty of the starlight shining through the branches of a small fir tree outside his home. He duplicated the starlight by using candles attached to the branches of his indoor Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was not widely used in Britain until the 19th century. It was brought to America by the Pennsylvania Germans in the 1820s.
Xmas
This abbreviation for Christmas is of Greek origin. The word for Christ in Greek is Xristos. During the 16th century Europeans began using the first initial of Christs name X in place of the word Christ in Christmas as a shorthand form of the word. Although the early Christians understood that X stood for Christs name later Christians who did not understand the Greek language mistook Xmas as a sign of disrespect.
The Candy Cane
Candy canes have been around for centuries but it wasnt until around 1900 that they were decorated with red stripes and bent into the shape of a cane. They were sometimes handed out during church services to keep the children quiet. One story (almost certainly false) that is often told about the origin of the candy cane is as follows:
In the late 1800s a candy maker in Indiana wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He came up with the idea of bending one of his white candy sticks into the shape of a Candy Cane. He incorporated several symbols of Christs love and sacrifice through the Candy Cane. First he used a plain white peppermint stick. The color white symbolizes the purity and sinless nature of Jesus.
Next he added three small stripes to symbolize the pain inflicted upon Jesus before His death on the cross. There are three of them to represent the Holy Trinity. He added a bold stripe to represent the blood Jesus shed for mankind. When looked at with the crook on top it looks like a shepherds staff because Jesus is the shepherd of man. If you turn it upside down it becomes the letter J symbolizing the first letter in Jesus name. The candy maker made these candy canes for Christmas so everyone would remember what Christmas is all about.
Santa Claus
The original Santa Claus St. Nicholas was born in Turkey in the 4th century. He was very pious from an early age devoting his life to Christianity. He became widely known for his generosity for the poor. But the Romans held him in contempt. He was imprisoned and tortured. But when Constantine became emperor of Rome he allowed Nicholas to go free. Constantine became a Christian and convened the Council of Nicaea in 325. Nicholas was a delegate to the council. He is especially noted for his love of children and for his generosity. He is the patron saint of sailors Sicily Greece and Russia.
He is also of course the patron saint of children. The Dutch kept the legend of St. Nicholas alive. In 16th century Holland Dutch children would place their wooden shoes by the hearth in hopes that they would be filled with a treat. The Dutch spelled St. Nicholas as Sint Nikolaas which became corrupted to Sinterklaas and finally in Anglican to Santa Claus. In 1822 Clement C. Moore composed his famous poem A Visit from St. Nicholas which was later published as The Night Before Christmas. Moore is credited with creating the modern image of Santa Claus as a jolly fat man in a red suit. However his authorship is controversial. Some scholars suggest that it was Henry Livingston Jr. who wrote the poem.
