It was believed that good spirits lived in the branches of holly. Christians believed that the berries had been white before they were turned red by Christ's blood when he was made to wear the crown of thorns.
Ivy was associated with the Roman god Bacchus and was not allowed by the Church as decoration until later in the middle ages, when a superstition arose that it could help recognize witches and protect against plague.
Mistletoe was used as a sign of love and friendship in Norse mythology. The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe started during the festival of Saturnalia and later in marriage ceremonies because of the plant's association with fertility. During the Roman era, enemies at war would reconcile their differences under the mistletoe, which represented peace.
Boxing Day is so named because it is linked to an older English tradition: since servants would have to wait on their employers on Christmas Day, the servants were allowed to take the next day to visit their families. The employers would give each servant a box to take home containing gifts, bonuses and sometimes leftover food.
Yule Log: The Druids would bless a log and keep it burning for 12 days during the winter solstice. Part of the log was kept for the following year, when it would be used to light the new yule log. For the Vikings, the yule log was an integral part of their celebration of the solstice, the julfest; on the log they would carve runes representing unwanted traits (such as ill fortune or poor honor) that they wanted the gods to take from them.
| 1) What year did the Germans and Allies declare a truce on Christmas eve: singing carols, exchanging souvenirs, trading their war dead, and playing soccer together. |
| 2) What were the names of the three wise men: |
3) “twas the night before christmas. . . . “ - who wrote the poem ?
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4) When did the Christmas tree tradition come to England.
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| 5) What gifts did the three wise men bring? |
| 6) When is the Epiphany celebrated: |
| 7) What was the name of George Bailey’s angel in It’s A Wonderful Life? |
| 8) In which country did St. Nicholas originate? |
| 9) What was Ebenezer Scrooge’s profession? |
| 10) Which was the first country to issue a Christmas postage stamp. |
| 11) Who created Rudolph, Santa’s most popular reindeer? |
| 12) How many reindeer drove Santa’s sleigh. |
| 13) What is the name of the most popular Christmas carol? |
| 14) White Christmas remains the best selling Christmas carol, with sales of 100 million copies worldwide and was first broadcast 18 days after Pearl Harbor. Who wrote it. |
| 15) In A Charlie Brown Christmas, what traditional Christmas carol does the entire Peanuts gang hum and then sing at the end of the show? |
Answers:
1) (a)
2) (a) and (b) The three wise men also are referred to as the three kings, the magi and, in the Historia Scholastica, as Apellus, Amerus and Damasius. The Historica was written by Petrus Comestor, a French theologian. The book was completed in 1173, drawing material from the bible, classical scholars and the Fathers of the Church; was oftentimes referred to as the Medieval Popular Bible. It was a required part of the core curriculum at the University of Paris, Oxford and other universities, and a significant secondary source of popular biblical knowledge from its completion through the 15th century.
3) (a) In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast drew on Moore's poem to create the first likeness that matches our modern image of Santa Claus. His cartoon, which appeared in Harper's Weekly, depicted Santa as a rotund, cheerful man with a full, white beard, holding a sack laden with toys for lucky children. Present day Santa owes his red robe not to an ancient legend or to an early myth but to the Coca Cola Company. A long time ago Father Christmas was shown in clothes of different colors.
4) (b) When Queen Victoria's German husband, Prince Albert, put up a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1848, the tannenbaum became a tradition throughout England, the United States, and Canada. Glass baubles were first made in Lauscha, Germany by Hans Greiner, who produced garlands of glass beads and tin figures that could be hung on trees. The glass ornaments were originally hand blown and were imported in the USA in 1880s by the Woolworth stores.
5) (a) but really, three wise women would have brought (c)
6) (a) The Epiphany is celebrated 12 days after Christmas, on January 6; it celebrates two events: the arrival of the three kings, and the baptism of the baby Jesus by John the Baptist. And refers not only to the day itself but as the beginning of the Carnival season that ends at Mardi Gras and the beginning of Lent.
7) (b)
8) St. Nicholas was born circa 280 in Patara, Lycia, which is part of present-day Turkey. He lost both of his parents as a young man and reportedly used his large inheritance to help the poor and sick. A devout Christian, he later served as bishop of Myra, a city that is now called Demre.
9) (c)
10) (c) The stamp is the 1898 Canada two-cent with the Mercator map. (Gerhardus Mercator was the most notable geographer of his time, and his world map of 1569 won lasting fame.) Most often called the 'Map' stamp or the Imperial Penny Postage issue, the stamp also gets credit for being the first ever Christmas stamp.
11) (a) Robert L. May, an ad writer, created Rudolph in 1939, when his company, the Montgomery Ward department stores, asked him to write a Christmas story that they could give away to customers. Over the next few years, the company distributed millions of copies of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. The book’s copyright was transferred to Mr. May in 1947, and under his ownership, Rudolph’s popularity soared. Commercial printings and cartoons quickly followed, and then, of course, came the song, which secured Rudolph’s place in Christmas history forever. Ironically, RLM was Jewish.
12) (a) and/or (c) In traditional lore, Santa Claus' sleigh was led by eight reindeer: Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Donner, Prancer, Vixen, with Rudolph being a 20th-century inclusion.
13) (a) According to Time magazine, Silent Night is not only the most popular carol, but it is twice as dominant as the second most popular carol, which is Joy to the World.
14) (b) Bing Crosby first recorded the song for distribution in 1942. When he traveled overseas to entertain the troops, he always hesitated to perform it because it caused such a nostalgic feeling among the men, but the men always requested it so he always sang it. After 72 years, it’s still the bestselling Christmas song of all time, which is ironic, given that Irving Berlin was Jewish. Sadly, every year while others opened gifts around the tree, he visited the grave of his son who died on Christmas Day, 1928, at only three weeks old.
15) (b) Hark the Herald Angels Sing
