Christmas Today Research Paper

717 Words2 Pages

Christmas is a holiday celebrated by many nations and religions around the world. The spirit of Christmas causes people to come together. It is one of the most favorite times of the year involving gift giving and merry making. To celebrate Christmas people decorate their homes, churches, and other buildings in which fellowship may take place. They may do this with ribbon, holly, mistletoe, and decking them with silver and gold. But where did all these traditions originate? Now, many believe that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus's birth. The truth is that all of these customs from Christmas pre-date our Lord's birth entirely! Christmas today is just a collection of traditions put together to make the holiday we celebrate every year on December …show more content…

The evergreen tree was a sign of the essence of life, so if was very well regarded. Pagans were known to worship evergreen trees. Often they cut them down and decorate them inside their house, this practice was observed and then adopted by the Christians for this holiday. Why holly and mistletoe? Norse mythology recounts how the god Balder was struck down by his opponent, the god Hoder, using a mistletoe arrow. Druid rituals used the mistletoe to poison their human sacrifices! For some reason people used this plant that killed many as decoration in their home, often a place to kiss a loved one. Many pagans regarded the red holly as a sign of the blood of their heaven queen, known as Diana. Holly and mistletoe where hung in the door ways of homes and temples to invoke of fertility in those who kissed underneath, making the spirits of god and goddess enter them. Why do we call it Christmas? The word "Christmas" is made of the two words; "Christ" and "Mass". The word "Mass" means death which was originally invented by the Roman Catholic Church. The ritual of the Mass involves the death of Christ, and the distribution of the "Host" taken from the Latin word "hostiall" meaning …show more content…

The first name of this gift giver was Saint Nick, or Nicholas. Nicholas was born in turkey and he was one of the higher bishops. When Nicholas died a group of sailors who adored Nicholas to his bones to a sanctuary in Italy. His bones supplemented a female boon-giving deity, known as The Grandmother, who used to fill children's stockings with gifts. The Grandmother was ousted and there the Nicholas cult began. His followers began to give gifts to each other on the date of Nicholas' death, December 6. The cult spread north and was adopted by German and Celtic pagans. These groups worshipped the god Woden. Woden had a long white beard and rode a horse through the night skies in the autumn. When Nicholas merged with Woden her got rid of is Mediterranean clothing, rescheduled his flight for December and wore heavy winter clothing. The Roman Catholic adopted the cult and taught that we should give out gifts during December. So now you know the origins of one the most famous Christian holidays on the earth. But according to what we just read, the roots of these traditions aren't very Christian, but instead and pagan. The church leaders of old saw these customs and twisted them so they'd be Christian but still be the same custom. If someone ever says that Christmas is a very Christian religion you can tell them

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