What's the story behind Christmas?
score:6
While Christmas has roots far in the past, many of our traditions in the English world were introduced by the Victorians. This was the period that moulded Christmas into important celebration is it today, deciding on the themes we recognise (charity, goodwill, gift giving etc), the traditions (many drawn from Germanic ones) and even the commercialism (cards, Christmas crackers etc) This BBC link should be useful.
As for the pre-Christian background: check out the wikipedia page for Christmas. "Modern Christmas customs include: gift-giving and merrymaking from Roman Saturnalia; greenery, lights, and charity from the Roman New Year; and Yule logs and various foods from Germanic feasts". Actually, read all of that section.
This Britannica article goes into some other detail. It also mentions Mithras.
(There is lots of info online, but I hesitate to link to non-wikipedia or encyclopaedia articles on such a touchy issue). This is decent where it provides references but has a massive agenda.
Bonus: If you think Christmas is mostly about the food (who can blame you) you'll find this answers everything.
Upvote:3
Christmas was originally a pagan tradition in northern Europe where they were celebrating that the sun had started to rise again. Winters were difficult to survive in those days with no lights, bad clothing, worse housing and heating and sometimes not even enough food etc. So winter and its end was a much bigger deal back then than it is today.
Then when Christianity came to northern Europe it was adapted to the already existing traditions to ease the conversion, which included Christmas, or Jul as it was called.
More post
- 📝 Why did China hate dogs? Why were dogs abject creatures in China?
- 📝 How did France worsen its relationship with Turkey?
- 📝 Rommel's letter to his wife from November 16, 1942
- 📝 Did Nazi Germany ever actually make it illegal to practice Judaism?
- 📝 What was the original intent of US presidential power to pardon?
- 📝 Was the Weimar Republic referred to as such by contemporaries?
- 📝 Was *Green Eggs and Ham* really banned in China from 1965–1991?
- 📝 Why did so few militaries use semi automatic rifles as their standard issue infantry weapon?
- 📝 Why did new religions flourish more easily in the past than they can possibly do today?
- 📝 Who was Christophorus Uveida?
- 📝 How many hours did Andrew Carnegie's steel workers work per week?
- 📝 Which of the Roman wars was the most important and riskiest for Rome?
- 📝 What is the secret behind the economic success of Republic of China (Taiwan)?
- 📝 To what extent the Jewish theatre of the late Antiquity resembled the Greek one?
- 📝 Is there folk knowledge associating late breastfeeding with low intelligence and/or gullibility?
- 📝 Why didn't Pakistan try to wrest Kashmir from India in 1962 but tried to do so in 1965?
- 📝 How did the Nazis justify the differences in the way they treated Jews v. POWs?
- 📝 Are there any communist countries that were model high functioning societies?
- 📝 Why did Mongolia split in two when they declared independence?
- 📝 Did the Assiniboine live around Fort Assiniboine (Canada)?
- 📝 Where did 15th century English serfs live?
- 📝 What was Poland's posture during the Seven Years' War?
- 📝 For whom would this priest write a long geographical report on his parish?
- 📝 Origin of "It won't be done by next Tuesday"
- 📝 Which days in the Mayan calendar were most auspicious for performing sacrifices?
- 📝 When was first security screen door instaled in Seoul metro
- 📝 In the United States government, has there been cases that electoral colleges don't vote for the candidate the majority of their state voted for?
- 📝 What was the fate of the planters and their plantations following the American Civil War?
- 📝 Why was Axis intelligence so poor in relation to Operation Uranus?
- 📝 What is this flag?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is the story behind the tall Northern offshoot on the West Virginia map?
- 📝 What's the story behind this photo of hikers who brought white plague cure to President Wilson?
- 📝 What's the story behind Christmas?
- 📝 What is the back story behind the Baja California towns of "Purgatorio" and "Providencia"?
- 📝 What is the story behind the Education of Alexander the Great by Aristotle - Jose Armet Portanell
- 📝 What's the story behind Allahabad's name?
- 📝 What's the story behind this photo from WWI?
- 📝 What is the significance behind "40 days" that often appears in the Bible?
- 📝 The WWI Christmas truce of 1914 resulted in no consequences, in spite of clear warnings against such beforehand - why were there no courts-martial?
- 📝 Did anyone face consequences (charges / court-martial) for the 1914 Christmas truce in WWI?
- 📝 In WWII, what was behind the very early decision to accept nothing but unconditional surrender in 1941-42?
- 📝 What is the truth behind this speech by (Lord Macaulay)?
- 📝 What's the backstory behind the US federal regulation that requires buses to stop at railway crossings?
- 📝 Why did the Germans fall behind the Americans in the development of the atomic bomb after an initial lead?
- 📝 What is the story of war that started with "if"?
- 📝 What is the real story of the Lion of Gripsholm Castle?
- 📝 What is the historical evidence behind the claim that the Soviet armies perpetrated mass rapes during their stay in Germany?
- 📝 Is there any science behind this graph that suggests we'd be exploring new galaxies if not for the dark ages?
- 📝 What was the logic behind Stalin's brutality?
- 📝 What's the reason behind the 17th century tradition of British monarchs being depicted on coins facing in the opposite direction to their predecessor?
- 📝 How did the US fall behind in airplane technology from 1909-1917?
- 📝 Is the story about Mussolini and Oliver Hardy apocryphal?
- 📝 How/when did the halo shift from being a solid disk behind the head to being a floating ring above the head?
- 📝 Motivation Behind the USSR Assisting China's Nuclear Program
- 📝 Why didn’t the Chinese leave troops behind in North Korea after the Korean War?
- 📝 What defenses did Lee leave behind when the Army of Northern Virginia left for Gettysburg?
- 📝 Is the story "Conquistadors using plans of Constantinople in the new world" factual?
- 📝 What is the history behind the stripes on the East India Company's flag?
- 📝 Where does the tradition of Christmas gifts comes from?
- 📝 What was the context behind Felix Frankfurter's quote?