"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity...and I'm not sure about the universe" ... Albert Einstein
Holiday Traditions
So we continue our expansion of traditions: I have found a few sites concerning Christmas season traditions. Most are of a religious bent, even though the Catholic church banned Christmas during the Reformation, because it was pagan, gotta love all those pagan traditions the church adapted to convert the locals to the Roman Church, we are not even dealing with Easter yet, bless her Norse heart.
Christmas Season: Traditions of the World
The 25th of December is one of the most important days of the year for many people of the World that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Some of the traditions characteristic for this day are the same in all countries: many go to church, where they take part in special religious services, exchange gifts and decorate their homes with special symbols.
The oldest story of Christmas comes from the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew. According to Luke, an angel appeared to shepherds outside the town of Bethlehem and told them of Jesus’ birth. Matthew tells how the wise men, called Magi, followed a bright star that led them to Jesus.
It’s an old tradition that this day is celebrated at 25th of December. The celebration of this day as Jesus’ birth date was probably influenced by pagan traditions. Read more…
6 Dec. ...Sinterklaas, The Season Begins
The Feast of Sinterklaas, or St. Nicholas, is an annual event which has been uniquely Dutch and Flemish for centuries. St. Nicholas’ Feast Day, December 6th, is observed in most Roman Catholic countries primarily as a feast for small children. But it is only in the Low Countries – especially in the Netherlands – that the eve of his feast day (December 5th) is celebrated nationwide by young and old, christian and non-christian, and without any religious overtones.
Although Sinterklaas is always portrayed in the vestments of the bishop he once was, his status as a canonized saint has had little to do with the way the Dutch think of him. Read more…
13 Dec. ...Santa Lucia legend burns brightly
At dawn on Dec. 13, 8-year-old Jenny Breese will slip into a long white gown with a red sash, place a crown with a halo of candles on her head, and climb the stairs in her Whitefish Bay home to awaken her parents with a tray of sweets and symbolically, the light of the holiday season.
In keeping with a centuries-old Swedish tradition, Jenny will portray Santa Lucia, following in the footsteps of her older sisters, Katie, 15, and Christine, 17, who played the role before her, and their mother, Annette, who wore the candle crown before them. Their grandmother – Annette’s mother, Kathrine Thomas – grew up in Sweden and carried the tradition across the ocean when she immigrated to America in 1950. She, too, played Santa Lucia as a child. Read more…
6 Jan. ...La Fête Des Rois, The Season Ends
The French celebration of “La Fête des Rois” is a merging of two ancient traditions. The Roman pagan celebration, “Les Saturnales” and the Christian celebration of Epiphany, is the arrival of the three wise men in Bethlehem.
During antiquity times (B.C.), the Romans celebrated “Les Saturnales”, a week long festival which took place from December 17th to December 24th. The Romans went all out to celebrate this event and enjoyed huge feasts with a great deal of wine, games and other types of debauchery. Though the Roman celebrations are known for great excess, “Les Saturnales” also represented a wish for prosperity, health and peace for all citizens. During the celebration, the Romans would reverse traditional roles – masters would serve the slaves and they would eat together at the same table. The Romans also gave small gifts to friends and family during the celebration. Oftentimes, the present would be a small cake, which contained a small bean (la féve). The person who found the féve in their slice of cake would be crowned king of the feast. Read more…
I will be expanding on this list, as this just contains the beginning and the end of the ‘Christmas Season’.
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