Christmas Origins

The Christmas season is a big deal; music, seasonal food and candles, lights, trees, presents. But what is it really about? Where did it begin? Why do we celebrate this flashy holiday? Well, it comes from the one thing that most holidays come from: religion. In this case Christianity. For Christians, Christmas is the anniversary of Jesus of Nazareth’s birthday (their savior who is a spiritual leader). Some of their Christmas traditions include putting out nativity scenes, lighting one candle of Advent on each of the four Sundays before Christmas at church, going to church on Christmas or Christmas Eve, spending time with family, and of course opening presents from Santa Claus (St. Nicholas) on Christmas morning. 

Santa 

St. Nicholas, otherwise known as Santa Claus, was a Christian Bishop who was born around 280 CE and December 6, 0343. His birth place was in Patara, Lycia which is in modern Turkey, but later on in life he moved to a city called Myra (now Demre) to serve as a Bishop of Myra. St. Nicholas is an icon for being kind and providing for the poor and sick. 

Bishop – a person who supervises a number of local churches or a diocese, being in the Greek, Roman Catholic, Anglican, and other churches a member of the highest order of the ministry.

Christmas Trees

A popular Christmas tradition is to decorate a Christmas tree with lights and ornaments. Why we do this is because pine trees (the traditional Christmas tree) are coniferous trees that never lose their leaves, and because of this it was thought that they kept away evil spirits, witches, and other wicked things. Later on, the Germans would decorate their trees with candles, which led to us decorating our trees with lights.