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    History of Christmases Past
    History of Christmases Past
    History of Christmases Past
    Ebook235 pages2 hours

    History of Christmases Past

    By Suzi Love

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    About this ebook

    This is Book 1 in the History Events Series. The book is a collection of historical information about the traditions of Christmas through the centuries, including the religious aspects, decorations, games, food and plays. It shows through images how Christmas was celebrated through history in many different countries, especially Great Britain.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSuzi Love
    Release dateApr 3, 2015
    ISBN9780992345686
    History of Christmases Past
    Author

    Suzi Love

    I now live in a sunny part of Australia after spending many years in developing countries in the South Pacific. My greatest loves are traveling, anywhere and everywhere, meeting crazy characters, and visiting the Australian outback.I adore history, especially the many-layered society of the late Regency to early Victorian eras. In and around London, my titled heroes and heroines may live a privileged and gay life but I also love digging deeper into the grittier and seamier levels of British life and write about the heroes and heroines who challenge traditional manners, morals, and occupations, either through necessity or desire.Tag Line- Making history fun, one year at a time

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      Book preview

      History of Christmases Past - Suzi Love

      1

      BEGINNINGS

      Beginnings

      The time draws near the birth of Christ;

      The moon is hid—the night is still;

      The Christmas bells from hill to hill

      Answer each other in the mist.

      The Birth of Christ by Alfred Tennyson

      Christmas, or Crīstesmæsse in Old English, was first recorded in 1038 and means Christ’s Mass. It closes the Advent season and begins the twelve days of Christmas tide, which end after the twelfth night. Dates vary from country to country depending on whether the Julian or Georgian calendar is used, but this event is celebrated annually around the 25th December to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a public holiday in many countries, and even non-Christians celebrate the holiday season.

      2

      RELIGIOUS

      Early Christians appropriated pagan customs and turned them into religious observances and, therefore, a victory over Paganism and a way to win more souls. By the end of the second century, numerous dates were being proposed as the correct date for the birth of Jesus. One popular method, allegorical theology, thought Christ must have born on the same day the sun was created, though our modern theorists estimate that the birth of Jesus was between 7 and 4 BC.

      Unlike Easter, the earliest Christians didn’t celebrate the nativity or Christmas, which began in the late 3rd century AD as an alternative to pagan winter holidays. In the beginning, Christians only celebrated the baptism and resurrection of Christ and the death of the martyrs.

      The first evidence of Christmas being celebrated is in Rome in 336 AD and by the early fourth century, the 25th of December became the celebration day for the birth of Jesus Christ.

      Origen of Alexandria, amongst others, opposed the celebration of Christ’s birth and pointed out that only Pharaoh and Herod celebrate their birthdays in the Bible, and that birthdays were for pagans, not Christians. Jehovah’s Witnesses follow this belief and reject the celebration of both Christmas and birthdays.

      Early religious Christmas customs began with special services held by candlelight and often at midnight. In Bethlehem, Midnight Mass is celebrated at the place of Jesus’ birth in the ancient Church of the Nativity. But as the years passed, going to church, especially at Christmas, was something done by villagers and landowners as a custom, an obligation, or to show respect to the local clergyman rather than for any great religious reasons.

      People attended Church services on Sunday and Holy Days and donated money to village or church causes but the religious fervor of early years had dimmed. If a person was particularly devoted, they would read the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, or a book of sermons on a regular basis and probably attend the Church of England, which was the main church by the late Georgian and early Regency years.

      Gloria In Excelsis Deo, or Glory to God in the Highest. Church cantata written by German Baroque composer, Johann Sebastian Bach

      Gloria In Excelsis Deo, or Glory to God in the Highest. Church cantata written by German Baroque composer, Johann Sebastian Bach.

      3

      MANGER

      The Manger

      The Krippe, or holy manger, was considered a Catholic institution and was supplanted by an old pagan custom of immemorial antiquity and kindred significance. To give the festival importance in the eyes of children, the distribution of holiday presents was transferred from the 5th to the 24th of December, or from St. Nicholas’s Eve to Christmas Eve.

      Christmas trees, from German custom, became more popular in some countries but the presepio, or manger, remained more important in Roman Catholic countries. The manger is said to owe its origin to St. Francis, who constructed the first one in 1223, and subsequently the custom spread throughout Italy and afterwards to Germany and the Netherlands.

      ‘The presepii vary in size and expensiveness from the rude wooden figurtoes of the Alpine goat-herd, cut out with his own hands during the long winter evenings, to the pretentious representation of the wealthy burgher, with its exquisite carving and gilding, velvet drapery and cloth of gold, costing thousands of crowns." From 1873 Harper’s Bazaar.

      In many churches the whole parish contribute to the expense of fitting up the presepio, while moribund misers do not forget to endow it with a legacy in their last will and testament. In the manger reposes the Bambino, over whom St. Joseph, holding a bouquet, and the Virgin, dressed in satin and lace, with blue veil and silver crown, bend admiringly.

      Around kneel sundry shepherds in the act of adoration; while overhead, angels with golden wings float among the clouds and chant the Gloria in Excelsis. A silver star with its comet-like trail directs the approach of the Eastern magi, who, with their brilliant retinue of horsemen and attendants, dazzle the eyes of the juvenile spectators with their Oriental pomp and pageantry.

      Here a ragged beggar stretches out a beseeching palm, and there a devout hermit kneels before a rustic chapel. In the background rise the mountains, dotted with villas and chalets with flocks of sheep and goats grazing here and there upon their grassy slopes, while peasants are everywhere seen approaching, bearing the products of the farm, the dairy, and the chase as their simple offerings to the new-born child.

      Just opposite a tribune has been erected, from which dapper little boys and dainty little girls, greatly to the edification of indulgent parents, recite, or rather intone, selections of poetry and prose appropriate to the festive occasion.

      In some places in Bohemia they use the Krippe, or manger, as the receptacle of the presents which the Christ-child, drawn through the air by four milk-white horses, is fabled to bring in his chariot laden with all sorts of toys and sweetmeats. So, too, the representation is frequently accompanied with dramatic performances, styled Krippenspiele, or manger plays.

      In the Bohemian Forest the Christ-child, after announcing his approach in the deepening twilight by the tinkling of his little bell, throws in the children’s Christmas presents through the partially opened door, or else, in token of displeasure, he substitutes a rod, or a handful of pease, the former suggestive of punishment, the latter of penance. The kneeling on pease during prayer appears to be still in some Catholic countries a favorite method of doing penance, and an Italian friend relates as an unpleasant item of his boyhood’s experience that it was formerly a cherished mode of administering discipline in the schools.’

      Three Wise Men Bringing Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense

      Three Wise Men Bringing Gold, Myrrh, and Frankincense

      Nativity Scene

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