|
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #1: THE HOLLY AND THE IVY
 When King Herod heard a child had been born who could threaten his throne, the King dispatched his soldiers to search for the child. Heeding the warning of the Three Wise Men, Mary and Joseph bundled up their precious baby and fled towards Egypt. Along a deserted road Mary and Joseph saw a group of soldiers coming towards them. Frantically, Mary looked around, searching for a place to hide her infant son. The only thing vaguely resembling cover was a bare little holly bush. With no other recourse, Mary carefully placed her baby under the bush and prayed.
And a strange and wonderful thing happened. The bush burst forth a crown of glistening, thorny leaves, completely shrouding the child within. As the soldiers passed they saw only a childless husband and wife and paid them no mind. When the soldiers had gone, Mary and Joseph turned back to the bush to see it was now heavy with rich red berries. The legend of the Holly is one of the wonderful traditions of Christmas.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #2: THE CHRISTMAS TREE
 The year 1605 marks the first written records of people decorating trees in their homes. It happened in the town of Strasburg, Germany. These early German trees were often lit with real candles, a tradition that continued for several hundred years. Then Thomas Edison’s electric company manufactured the first electric tree lights, making safer flames available. By the 1880’s people could string as many as 80 red, white and blue glass light bulbs on their Christmas trees. Now legend has it the lighting of the first Christmas trees on American soil occurred during the Battle of Trenton in 1776. Defeated Hessian mercenary’s, paid by the British to fight rebel American colonists, were apparently seen by George Washington’s men attaching lighted candles to the branches of a pine tree. Whether or not the story is true, German soldiers were likely the ones who introduced the Christmas tree to the American colonies.
Legends of trees that blossomed in the dead of winter at Christmas time helped convert the evergreen tree into a Christian symbol. The most famous of these is the Glastonbury thorn tree, which grew from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea, where he planted it around 70 A.D., when bringing the Gospel to England. Each year thereafter it would bloom at Christmas. If a miracle tree did not occur in a town, a representation was easily made by fastening hand made flowers to a tree. A merchant’s guild in Regga, Latvia, was the first recorded incidence of such a practice in 1510. Soon the custom spread from flowers to other things. By the 17th century the German tree, called Christbaum, the Christ tree, provided food for body and spirit with beautifully shaped elaborate candies and cookies for the tree.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #3: CHRISTMAS CAROLS
 Some say the first Christmas Carol ever sung was sung by a host of heavenly angels the night the baby Jesus was born. Shepherds heard their words, “Glory to God in the highest”, as chronicled by the third Gospel writer, Saint Luke. Others give the credit to Saint Francis of Assisi for the first Christmas Carol when in 1223 he sang about the nativity during Midnight Mass at his church in Italy. Carols became an important way to convey the nativity story to those who couldn’t read, as roaming actors and singers did during miracle plays in medieval France. The tradition of caroling spread throughout Europe, reaching its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries when most of the classic Christmas carols we know today were written.
Many carols started out as poems and were later set to music, conveying winter traditions and pre-Christian customs as well as biblical themes. In Victorian England carolers roamed the streets in groups going a-wassailing before their friends and neighbors in exchange for food and gifts. Caroling didn’t take off in the United States until after the Civil War. In 1911 the Children’s Aid Society organized bands of carolers to spread good cheer in exchange for donations towards needy causes. By 1928 community caroling had come to more than 2000 cities across the United States.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #4:  HOLIDAY FOOD
Cookies were invented in Holland where they were called test cakes. These small portions of cake batter were used to test oven temperatures before the full sized cakes were baked. Gingerbread cookies were made famous in the 1600’s by the Lebkuchler of Nuremberg, a guild of master bakers who baked their favorite treats for annual gingerbread fairs. As the holidays have spread, so have the traditions of eating. For instance, Christmas pudding promises good luck. Make a wish while mixing it up, but remember it can come true only if you stir in a clock-wise direction.
 And, Christmas dinner in early England wasn’t Turkey, but the head of a pig eaten with mustard. The Christmas turkey made its first appearance on English tables in the 1500’s, but didn’t manage to upstage the traditional beef, goose and boars head served in wealthy English households. And, according to an old German folk tale, when village children helped reunite Saint Nicholas and his lost donkey, the animal magically produced pfeffernusse (German anise & powdered sugar cookies) for them as thanks.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #5: CHRISTMAS CARDS
 The birth of the Christmas card is generally attributed to Sir Henry Cole, an Englishman. In the early 1840s this man of letters found himself in a difficult situation. He had fallen considerably behind on his seasonal correspondence. His solution turned out to be a stroke of genius. He commissioned John Calcott Horsley, an artist friend from the Royal Academy, to create a greeting card. Horsleys design portrayed a happy family feasting and toasting the holidays along side vignettes of people offering clothing to the poor and feeding the hungry. Although others had created and sent handcrafted Christmas cards, Horsley’s were the first to be professionally printed. Cole had a thousand of these cards lithographed. They sold at an old Bond Street book and gift company for a schilling apiece.
.jpg) The decade of the 1840’s saw the beginning of the penny post in Victorian England, as well as innovations in the steam press, which made mass production and mass mailing possible as never before. Christmas cards in the United States didn’t take off until 1875 after the German born lithographer Louis Prang designed a series of Christmas cards depicting reproductions of paintings with as many as 20 colors. Prangs cards had a huge following in England as well. To find the best Christmas art, Prang held numerous contests and offered cash prizes to contemporary painters. The art on his cards often featured nature scenes, family gatherings and singing children. His innovations turned a Christmas tradition into a Christmas industry.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #6: CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD
How is Christmas celebrated around the world? Throughout much of Europe, Christmas celebrations begin in early December and last more than a month, ending in mid January. For children in the Netherlands, the season begins on December 5th with Sinterklass Eve, when wooden shoes are set out to be filled with nuts, candy and gifts from Saint Nicholas. On December 6th, Saint Nicholas Day, the Patron Saint of children can be found wandering the streets of France, Holland and Austria.
Christmas festivities begin on December 13th in Denmark, Norway and Sweden where Scandinavians celebrate Saint Lucia Day in honor of a maiden who was martyred in AD 304 for being a Christian. Traditionally the youngest girl of the house plays the part of Lucia dressing in white robes and wearing an evergreen wreath on her head that’s lit with a halo of candles. She serves sweet buns to the other members of her family.
December 16th marks the first day of Posadas in Mexico, Honduras and other Latin American countries. During the nine-day celebration of Mary and Joseph’s pilgrimage to Bethlehem, people visit each other’s homes playing the part of weary travelers or stubborn innkeepers. In Germany, the Christmas tree is revealed to children on December 24th. Christkinder, children dressed as angels that symbolize the spirit of the Christ child, travel door to door helping to deliver presents on Christmas Eve.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #7: CHRISTMAS ELVES
 The belief in elves originated in the mythical tree spirits of Northern Europe in Scandinavia. The Celts worshipped evergreens and the elfin spirits who lived in them. Also known as Pixies, Brownies, Fairies, these fairy tale beings could either be benevolent or mischievous depending upon whether or not the people had been on good behavior. Santa Claus himself is the first elf according to Clement Clarke Moore’s 1822 poem “A Visit From Saint Nicholas.”
By 1850 Santa’s elfin helpers appeared for the first time in the American picture book “Little Messenger Birds” by Mrs. Caroline H. Butler. Around the same time Scandinavian folk tales, as told by Finnish writers and Swedish poets revealed that the true purpose of elves was to help Father Christmas care for his reindeer, make toys at his workshop and keep an eye which children were naughty and which were nice.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #8: REINDEER
 Where did Santa get all those reindeer? Considering he’s a man who makes his home North of the 66th parallel, he likely picked up on customs from neighboring Laps, Fins, Norwegians and the like, for whom reindeer have been an important part of culture and lifestyle since the second century B.C. Reindeer have long been part of Christmas celebrations. Reinessance writings from England describe the display of reindeer antlers at Christmas dances. Early depictions of reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh can be traced to the Finnish "Legend of Old Man Winter" who comes down from the mountains driving his reindeer and bringing the season's snow with him. In Russia as well, Father Frost arrives each winter driving a reindeer-pulled sled.
In the olden days Santa may have been spotted with only one reindeer but by 1823, he clearly had a posse. Clement C. Moore was the first to team Santa with eight of the antlered creations in a Visit From Saint Nicholas. Now children know them by name. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen. The latecomer to the group, Rudolph, didn’t arrive on thee scene until 1939, when the Montgomery Ward advertising department commissioned Robert L. May to write a Christmas story that the store could hand out to children as part of their Christmas promotions.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #9: STOCKINGS
 The tradition of hanging stockings by the chimney was born in the 3rd century in Myra, a port in Asia Minor where the beloved bishop Saint Nicholas reportedly performed numerous miracles. As the legend goes Saint Nicholas learned of three sisters who had no money for a dowry and wouldn’t be able to marry. One night he tossed a sack of gold through their window, enough money for the eldest sisters dowry. The next night Saint Nicholas dropped a second bag of gold for the middle sister. On the third night he found the window closed so he dropped the gold down the chimney. The coins fell into a stocking that happened to be hung by the chimney to dry. Word of the miracle soon spread and town folk all over began hanging their stockings by the chimney in the hopes of catching some of Saint Nicholas’s benevolence.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #10: POINSETTIA’S
 In some legends of Mexico, it’s a little boy who prayed at the altar on Christmas Eve because he was so poor he had no gift to bring the Christ child for his birthday. The first flame bright Fleur della Noche Buena, Flower of the Holy Night, sprang at his feet as his miracle gift to give. In other legends, it’s the story of a young girl who had no gift to bring and as she lay weeping in the cathedral, an angel appeared and told her to pick some tall weeds growing nearby. When she placed them on the altar as her offering to the baby Jesus, they burst into the brilliant red flower. It was Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, an amateur botanist and American Ambassador in Mexico that brought the beautiful red and green plant back to his home state of South Carolina. And now we know it as the Poinsettia.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #11: THE YULE LOG
 The English custom was to burn the Yule Log on Christmas Eve but centuries ago Scandinavians believed the Sun was attached to a big wheel, and it stopped for twelve days during the winter solstice. It was up to them to keep the fire going for that period of time. The ritual of the Yule Log was the center of much singing and merriment from beginning to end. It was thought to be good luck to sit on the Yule Log before it was burned and bad luck if the fire went out quickly. If you’re going to burn a Yule Log this year, you’ll want to know it has to be lighted from a piece of last year’s log. Cut the branches off your tree after the holidays and then cut the trunk into log-sized pieces and save them until next Christmas.
CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS #12: WASSAILING
 Wassailing brings to mind the Wassail Bowl, a potent punch, merry people and singing. The Wassail mixture itself is a recipe of wine, sugar, eggs and roasted apples specially concocted and protected by the man of the house himself. The word Wassail comes from an Anglo-Saxon term, Wass-Hail, which means, “Be in good health”. The custom of Wassailing began as the ritual salute to the apple tree, to insure a successful and increasing yield the next year. Festive people rather in the way of a procession during the 12 days of Christmas would visit the major trees in an orchard and sprinkle Wassail on the roots or christen the tree trunk with a bottle of Wassail mixture. The tree would be heralded with songs, toasts or recitations for a good season. The people would make loud noises as part of the ritual to scare of evil spirits, and partly as an excuse for loud merriment.
|
E-Mail Story
Print Story