Christmas
Trivia Halos to Ho Ho's Index
If the search box doesn't appear below this try my site index.
The time we celebrate as Christmas means many things to many people and has come a long way from its’ beginnings of a babe in a manger and its’ prophesies made hundreds of years before the “first Christmas.” Along the way many traditions have developed from various cultures and for far to many it’s just another holiday which has lost it's original observance. Just as today’s news and movies try to put a different spin on old stories, the same is true for what has risen over the years concerning the events from the “first Christmas.” It reminds me of the children’s game; where you line several children in a circle, and whisper a story in the first one’s ear, then each whispers the story to the next and so on until the story has made full circle. The last child who hears the story tells aloud what he heard and it's seldom close to what was told to begin with. The closer you get to the source of the story, the more actuate it becomes.
For one to understand the true “Joy of Christmas” you must go back centuries to the birth of one very special child, who like it or not changed the world forever. The birth and existence of “Jesus” is a known fact and is not only chronicled in the Bible, but also in numerous works of the time, among which were historians; Flavius Josepheus, Thallus, Serapion, Tacitus, and Mishnah. To fully understand it you need to look at not only the event it’s self, but also the events leading up to the birth, the prophesies made centuries earlier, the Jewish culture, customs, and expectations of the prophesied Messiah and the way of life in the Roman ruled world. This could fill volumes in and of its’ self.
The first part of the book is brief explanation of terms, words, people, and events of the first Christmas. Each entry is defined when needed, and expounded on with things known, and theorize about if plausible. Next is a listing of only the common American traditions that have developed over the years with a brief history of each, due to tremendous amount of information available pertaining to most entries (both fact and fiction). Numerous reference materials were researched, and usually only things that were double-checked by more than one reference materials are included. (Many times during my researching, different sources will record different dates for the same event, I either went with the most common date or just put “about” or “around” to denote that I’m not sure of exact date.) And lastly is selected scriptures in the Old and New Testaments pertaining to and including the narratives of the birth of Christ. These scriptures are from the King James Version, not because it's the best translation, but it is the most widely accepted and it's public domain. (For a brief history of the Bible contact me.) These scriptures have been copied for your convenience, but I suggest you read from more than one good translation to get a fuller meaning of the translated word.
Please note: This is very condensed, and does not contain everything known or speculated about each entry. My goal is to make this the most complete and concise compilation of Christmas related customs, traditions and information surrounding individuals of the Christmas story. Also to explain entries that need explaining without becoming to wordy or to brief, and to make it easily referenced and readable, I feel I've fell short of this goal (considering the 100’s of pages of notes I’ve accumulated). I do not claim to an authority, please research on your own and come up with your own conclusions. When you see something in; ( ) it denotes additional expounding, [ ] it denotes a reference to be looked up, { } it denotes my personal opinion I couldn’t resist adding, abbreviated reference refers to Bible reference, and highlighted text refers to a entry in this book.
Christmas is a very popular holiday all over the world with many countries having very unique Christmas customs. In this book only the common traditions and customs of Americans will be covered.
The setting of the birth of Christ: The book of Matthew begins after approximately 400 years of absence of prophets of God. Many things happened during this time period and won't be covered here (But turn to Herods for some of it). It was at the outset of the 200 year long PAX ROMANA (or Roman Peace). There was a common language of Greek. The 50,000 miles of newly constructed Roman roads made for the easiest of travel in history up this time (many of the roads are still visible and used today). There has never been prior to this a more rapid development of, and easier time of communication and travel in the world. Which could be somewhat compared to the 19th & 20th centuries which we went from horse and buggy, sailboats, and written messages to automobiles, trains, planes, engine powered ships, phones, television, satellites and internet. This all made it possible for the Christian faith to spread very quickly. As Paul writes in [Gal. 4:4] “when the fulness of time came, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,....”.
P.S. I’m not finished yet and this is just a copy of what I have typed so far. I’m planning on adding illustrations later. When you see a >>> later, it denotes a note to myself.