(no subject)

[can_be_more]

Explain this holiday to me now, please. You know the one. The one with snow and trees and overweight men in bad suits with worse facial hair. I'm new! I don't know these things!

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[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

A very, very long time ago, there was a whole bunch of pagan ceremonies held during midwinter. About sixteen hundred years ago, the church decided that Jesus' birthday would be celebrated as a holiday, and it would occur during the time of these pagan festivals to try and draw interest to it.

Christmas wasn't really that popular for a number of reasons up until about two hundred years ago, when it gained a revival. It was declared a Federal holiday a hundred and thirty five years ago, and the idea changed from a bustling carnival type holiday into a supposedly peaceful family affair.

Since then, many changes and adaptions have taken place for it to become the Christmas the others have been telling you about, with presents and cards and decorating trees.

[can_be_more]

Cards? Decorating trees?

[the-ascended.livejournal.com]

Christmas cards were first introduced in Victorian England... that was about a hundred and fifty years ago in a country on the other side of the Atlantic ocean. A man called Sir Henry Cole sent the first Christmas cards, because he didn't have time to write to all his friends and family. Instead, he commissioned John Callcott Horsley to design a card with a single message on that he could send out. They're still used today to send out messages wishing you happy holidays, and I do believe it's the largest holiday of the year for card giving.

Decorating trees... ah, well, that has it's roots in Pagan ceremonies as well. But it didn't become popular until Queen Victoria, who was the Queen of England during the Victorian era I just spoke about, had one and she and her family were sketched about it.

They're evergreen trees because of the pagan beliefs - that the sun god would return stronger and green plants would grow again as summer returned. Decorating the trees in pagan times was in honor to their gods.