The Origin, Meaning, And Symbolism Of Christmas

Welcome to our website to learn more about Christmas. It is the holiday that we always look forward to in a year, especially for religious people, this is the most important holiday of the year. So what is Christmas? Christmas, also known as nativity, Noel, Christmas, or Xmas (from the French Noël, short for the root Emmanuel, meaning “God with us”), is a holiday. celebrate. Jesus of Nazareth was born to most Christians. They believe that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the Jewish province of Judea, then ruled by the Roman Empire around 6 B.C.E. and 6.

The Origin And Meaning Of The Christmas Holiday (Noel)

Some countries celebrate this day on December 25, and others again on the evening of December 24. According to Roman Catholics, the official feast is December 25, also known as “the main feast of the day,” and the night of the 24th of the month. 12 is called the “vigil.” However, the night of December 24 usually attracts more news to attend. The Eastern Orthodox still use the Julian calendar to determine this date, so they celebrate Christmas on January 7 according to the Gregorian calendar.

The word Christmas consists of the letters Christ and Mas.

The word Christ (the Anointed One) is the title of Jesus. The word Mas is an abbreviation for Mass. When the words Christ and Mas are written, it becomes the word Christmas. Christmas means the feast of Christ, that is, the feast of the Nativity of Jesus. The words Christmas and Xmas both have the same meaning. Because the Greek word for Christ is Christos, Spitós, or Xristos. People use the consonant X to represent the whole letter Xristos or Spietós, ​​then add the adjacent Mas to form the word Xmas. Thus Xmas also means the feast of Christ.

During the early Christian Church (first 2-3 centuries C.E.), this feast was celebrated with Epiphany. However, as early as 200, Saint Clement of Alexandria (150-215) spoke of a special feast celebrated on May 20. And the Latin Church celebrates it on December 25. Another source is that the early Christians did not celebrate birthdays because they believed that celebrating birthdays was following the custom of pagan idolatry. That is why they did not celebrate the birth of Jesus during the first three centuries.

 By the fourth century, Christians were beginning to want to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus once a year. Still, they were afraid of being discovered and persecuted by the Roman authorities because, by that time, Christianity had not yet been established. they were recognized as a legitimate religion. The Romans, every year, celebrated the “Sun God” who brought light to the world on December 25. Christians took advantage of this opportunity to celebrate the birth of Jesus and bring light. Light and life came to mankind on the same day as the Roman “Sun God” holiday. As a result, the authorities did not detect that Christians were celebrating the Nativity of Jesus.

By 312, Roman Emperor Constantine had abandoned polytheism and adopted Christianity. This man canceled the celebration of the “Sun God” and instead celebrated the birthday of Jesus. In 354, Pope Liberius announced December 25 as the official date to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus. For centuries, Christian scribes accepted Christmas as the day Jesus was born. However, by the early 18th century, scholars began to propose a different explanation. Isaac Newton suggested that Christmas day was chosen to correspond to the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, which was once marked on December 25. In 1743, German Paul Ernst Jablonski argued that Christmas was fixed on the 25th. December to match the date of Sol Invictus in the ancient Roman religion. Also, before Christians, many other cultures and religions celebrate the holiday at the end of December.

Meaning Of “Merry Christmas”

The word “Merry” has planted joy, a warm feeling of happiness in our hearts because it is associated with Christmas. Although Christmas celebrations began in the 4th century AD, it was not until 1699 that the expression “Merry Christmas” was used. The person with excellent credit in the origin of the phrase was a naval officer who first used the word in a cordial letter in 1699. The term appeared a second time in 1843 in a work of Charles Dickens, “Christmas carols.”

During Christmas, Christians and almost everyone from all walks of life or religions send each other “Merry Christmas” wishes. In the phrase Merry Christmas, “Merry” means joy, and “Christmas” means the lambs of God (Old English usage). Many people use the word “Happy” instead of “Merry” to wish each other Christmas. The phrase “Happy Christmas” became famous around the world in the 19th century when it was used by Queen Elizabeth II herself.

In the 1823 American poet Clement Moore’s original work, “A Visit to Saint Nicholas,” the concluding sentence, “Happy Christmas to all, and all a good night,” was changed to “Merry Christmas.” to all,” in many subsequent editions.

Today, the expression “Happy Christmas” is mainly used by residents of Ireland and England. Sometimes, many people use the word Xmas instead of Christmas to shorten it. However, it must be affirmed that no phrase or expression can be more popular than “Merry Christmas.” I wish you a merry and happy Christmas season!

Christmas Symbols And Meanings

Advent Ring

The Advent wreath is a circle made of green branches and leaves that is often placed on a table or hung high for all to see. Trees are often decorated at parties during the winter solstice – a sign of the coming end of winter. On leaves placed within 4 candles. This custom was started by the Lutherans in Germany in the 16th century to represent the struggle between light and darkness.

The round leaf wreath represents the eternal character and endless love of God. Green represents the hope that the Savior will come to save people. 4 candles include three purple ones – the color of Advent, the 4th is pink, and the color of the third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday.

Christmas Cards

It dates back to 1843 when Henry Cole, a wealthy English merchant, asked Horsley, a painter in London, to design a beautiful card to give to his friends. At Christmas that year, Horsley released the world’s first card and has since printed 1000 copies. Christmas cards quickly exploded and became fashionable in the UK during the 10 years since the British Government passed a law in 1846 allowing anyone to send letters to anywhere at a cheap price. Not long after, this trend was introduced to Germany, and it was not until 30 years later that Americans accepted it.

Christmas Present

Gifts express people’s love for family and friends. For some people, Christmas gifts have a deep religious meaning. It is a celebration of the birth of Jesus, a gift God gave to man. When Jesus was born crying in Bethlehem in a manger, three Eastern kings came to pay their respects. They brought three precious gifts, namely gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold represents Jesus as King (ie, Son of the Father – King of the Kingdom of Heaven), frankincense represents Jesus as God, and myrrh represents the image of Jesus being crucified on the cross, more specifically, Jesus Christ. Jesus’ death for the redemption of mankind.

The three kings were rich, but the poor people with almost no possessions brought whatever they could to pay their respects to the Child Jesus. The shepherds gave Jesus fruit and small toys of their own making. Santa Claus used to ride his reindeer in the sky, go to the house with the Christmas tree, climb through the chimney to bring presents to the sleeping children, and often put gifts in socks. The origin of the use of cribs and mangers at Christmas is due to the legend that Jesus was born in a small cave, in the manger of the shepherds in Bethelem.

Christmas Tree

The Christmas tree originated in Germany in the 16th century. This tree lives in harsh climates but retains its robust, solid, and eternal green appearance. Gradually the image of this tree appeared more and more often, and it was considered the center of the festival, where people held hands and danced around the ornate pine tree inside and outside with flowers: roses, apples, and colored paper. In the 19th century, the Christmas tree began to be widely used in England. In the 1820s, the Christmas tree was brought to the United States by Germans in Pennsylvania. Nowadays, near Christmas, people often buy a pine tree and decorate it with stars, pearls, and glittering tinsel. , flowers… The pine tree symbolizes hope and new vitality in the festival to welcome the new year.

Gifts In Socks

Legend has it that there were three girls of marriageable age in the other family, but no boys looked at them because their family was too poor. Bishop Myra was so merciful that he threw the gold coins down the chimney of the three girls’ house. Gold coins fell from the roof onto the same pairs of stockings the girls hung by the fireplace. You can tell how happy they are. 

They had the opportunity to fulfill their wish. That miracle story was spread everywhere; everyone wanted to be lucky, so they all imitated the three girls hanging stockings by the fireplace in the hope of receiving gifts. Children hope to receive the most gifts. Everyone in the family also took this opportunity to give gifts to the children, hoping they would be obedient and study well. Since then, there has been a custom of children hanging socks next to the fireplace to receive gifts as dreams from Santa Claus.

Santa Claus

The origin of the word “Santa Claus” or Saint Nicholas dates back to the 4th century in Turkey. From an early age, he was very pious and devoted his life to Christianity. Saint Nicholas is mainly celebrated for his love of children and his generosity. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, the island of Sicily, Greece, and Russia, and, of course, a saint. In the 16th century, in the Netherlands, children placed their wooden shoes by the fireplace, hoping they would be well-fed by St. Nicholas.

The Dutch pronounce St. Nicholas as Sint Nicholaas, later falsified as Sinterklaas and eventually read by Anglicans as Santa Claus. In 1882, Clemon C. Mor wrote his famous song “A visit from St. Nick” (Saint Nick’s visit) and later published as “The night before Christmas.” Mor is considered to have modernized the image of Santa Claus with the image of a fat, funny old man in a red suit.

Santa’s Red Suit

Santa Claus has not yet become Santa Claus because he still wears his old woodcutter clothes and rides a horse when he comes to give presents to the children. One day, the village landlord Nicholas passed by his house, and immediately Nicholas was mesmerized by the rickshaw with two beautiful reindeer with cute ringing bells attached. The landlord wore a bright red suit with a fur hat of the same color on his head. “I deserve it, too, my horse is too old and whining, and these clothes can’t stand the cold of winter anymore.”

Nicholas went to the best seamstress in the area to get that dream red dress. But strangely enough, when the suit was finished, it was so big that Nicholas looked like he was inside. “Oh, I ruined your suit, how baggy it is!”. “It’s okay, I’ll eat candy to make people grow up like clothes. These pants? I will wear a pair of black boots to reduce the clutter. Don’t worry, I’ll look great in this outfit!” And so, Santa Claus was born as a legend. Still, it was not until a few decades later that the red costume associated with that legend appeared. And now, confidently tell everyone: “Santa Claus on a sleigh with two reindeer is completely real.”