Christmas Trivia - Bells

The ringing of bells is an early pagan winter celebration to drive out evil spirits.

Later, the tradition was to ring bells on Christmas Eve to welcome in the spirit of Christmas with joyful noise.

In Norway, bells still ring throughout the country on Christmas Eve at 5 PM.

In Yorkshire, England, on Christmas Eve, the bell is rung once for each year that has passed since the birth of Christ.

Aroud the Christmas Net #5

Christmas Trivia

I recently came across this Christmas trivia site, aptly named Christmas Trivia. If you’re into Christmas trivia you’ll surely like this site, as it’s got plenty of quizzes on a wide range of Christmas topics both easy and difficult.

Christmas Trivia - Candy Cane

A 18th century English candy maker decided to make a candy commemorating Christmas (this was during the time that Christmas celebrating was outlawed in England). The result was a candy cane representing the Shepherds staff. Made of white candy to represent purity with three red stripes for the Trinity and one large red stripe for Jesus' blood shed.

Christmas Trivia - Candles

Lighting candles is an early pagan tradition to drive away the forces of cold and darkness.

The Romans decorated their temples with greenery and candles.

The early Christians started to light candles as symbolic of the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World.

Christmas Trivia - Christmas Cards

Card making began with school children drawing pictures of biblical scenes and a message like Happy Holidays and I promise to be good, etc., that was given to their parents before Christmas.

In 1846, after the advent of the British postal system, the first Christmas Card was produced, showing a family celebrating a Christmas dinner in the center and on each side were acts of charity picturing feeding and clothing the poor, with the message "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.", made by John Calcott Horsley. 1,000 cards were made.

Christmas Trivia - Kris Kringle

German for “Christ's Child” or “Christkindlein.” A name for an early German gift-bringing infant Jesus or angelic being, who was thought of as a Christ's helper and gave gifts to poor and needy children. As cultures merged, visits from the similar St. Nicholas, Pere Noel, Pelznickel and Christkindlein all became overshadowed or mutated into Santa Claus.

Christmas Trivia - Mistletoe

Ancient Celtic priests called Druids around the New Year would collect mistletoe from their holy oak tree and offer some as a sacrifice to the gods. Some would be hung up during a ceremony which people would stand under it and kiss showing an end to their old grievances with each other. This later practice never actually died out.

Christmas Trivia - Holly

Early Christians of Northern Europe decorated their homes and churches with this easily grown evergreen that was called “Holy Tree” later “Holly”, because the pointed green leaves reminded them of the crown of thorns and the red berries of the drops of blood at Jesus' crucifixion.

Christmas Trivia - Nativity Scene

St. Francis of Assisi is responsible for popularizing the nativity scene, but it most probably existed earlier. In 1223 or 1224, St. Francis wanted to add hope and joy of God's love to his message by constructing a life-size manger scene with live animals, with the gospel sung around the scene.

Christmas Trivia - Ornaments

Early Christmas trees had real fruit and flowers and candles as decorations, it looked good but was very heavy on the branches.

German glass blowers began producing glass balls to replace the heavy decorations. These became known as Blubs.

In the 1800's the women's publication, "Godey's Lady Book" popularize the making of homemade Christmas ornaments & decorations.

Christmas Trivia - Rudolph

The Montgomery Ward Company had been giving out coloring books for Christmas at their stores for years. In an attempt to cut their cost they had one of their employees, copywriter Robert May write a story. Robert May wrote the story to cheer up his 4-yr-old daughter Barbara whose mother was dieing of cancer. Rollo then Reginald were the first names he'd named the deer before he settled on Rudolph. His wife died shortly before the story was published. He had Denver Gillen from the Ward’s art dept. illustrate the story. Montgomery Ward’s distributed 2.4 million copies of the booklet.

Christmas Trivia - Stocking

Stockings for Christmas may originate from an old St. Nicholas legend of the 3 doweryless girls, in which each time St. Nicholas threw the bag of gold down the chimney, it landed in a stocking that happened to be hanging to dry.

In Holland the tradition arose of St. Nicholas “Sinter Klaas” coming around and putting gifts in children's wooden shoes, this may have developed in the filling of hanging stockings drying in front of the fireplace.

Christmas Trivia - Postage Stamps

On Christmas day, 1898, Canada started its Penny Postal System and issued a stamp to commemorate Christmas.

Christmas Trivia - Wreath

In ancient Rome, people hung decorative wreaths as sign of victory. The hanging of Christmas wreath seems to have derived from this. Denoting the victory of God over Satan with Jesus' birth into the world.

Christmas Trivia - X-mas

The Greek letter C, c (pronounced “chi” and looks like the Roman letter X) was a popular abbreviation of the name Christ for the early persecuted Christians, X or “chi” is the first letter of Christ when written in Greek and also resembled the cross.

Christmas Trivia - Animal Crackers

The string attached to boxes of animal crackers were originally placed there so that the container could be hung from the branches of a Christmas tree.

12 Days of Christmas

From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. During that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics.

The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit -- Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit -- Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

Merry (Twelve Days of) Christmas!

Saint Nicholas

The Legend

Strictly speaking, the tradition of St. Nicholas is not synonymous with the role of Santa Claus in the U.S.A. As practiced in many European countries, the celebration of St. Nicholas is separate from the Christmas holidays, and occurs during the 2 weeks prior to December 6th, which is St. Nicholas's Day. Sometimes St. Nicholas Day is the main holiday for gift giving and not Christmas.

In the Netherlands, legend has it that Sinterklaas (Dutch name for St. Nicholas) arrives in the Netherlands by way of steamboat from Spain two weeks before his traditional birthday, December 6th, along with his helper, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), who will help disperse the gifts and candy to all the good children. Sinterklaas will go at night and stride about the countryside wearing his red mantle, his mitre, and his golden crosier and sporting a long, white beard. Referring to his book that lists all the good and bad children, Sinterklaas will deliver presents to all the good children. The bad children may be taken back to Spain with him. The Low Countries (Belgium and Luxemburg) have basically the same traditions surrounding St. Nicholas, but not to the extent of the Netherlands. Children in Luxemburg call him Kleeschen, and his helper is Hoseker (Black Peter). Belgian children know him as Sint Niklaas.

In Germany, St. Nicholas is also known as Klaasbuur, Sunnercla, Burklaas, Bullerklaas, and Rauklas, and in eastern Germany, he is also known as Shaggy Goat, Ash Man, and Rider (reflective of earlier pagan influences). When Christianity came to Germany, St. Nicholas's attire began to change, maybe as a reflection of the change from the Roman church, and he started to wear a red suit with fur. His dark-skinned helper is most often known as Knecht Ruprecht. Although he still visits many homes on Dec 5th/6th and leaves candy and gifts in the children's shoes, more recently St. Nicholas has begun showing up on Christmas Eve in Germany and is called Father Christmas.

In France, he is now called Pere Noel (Father Christmas) and he travels in the company of Pere Fouettard. Pere Noel leaves presents for good children, while Pere Fouettard disciplines bad children with a spanking. Pere Noel only sometimes leaves presents on St. Nicholas day, more often now on Christmas.

St. Nicholas day was celebrated formerly in Russia, but under Communism he was changed to Grandfather Frost and wore blue instead of red.

In Sicily, he comes on Dec 13th and is called Santa Lucia.

The History

St. Nicholas was born in 271 AD and died around December 6, 342 or 343 AD near the Asia Minor (Turkey) town of Myra. He performed many good deeds and was a friend to the poor and helpless, and upon his death, myths soon sprang up about him all around the Mediterranean Sea. He was reputed to be able to calm the raging seas, rescue desperate sailors, help the poor and downtrodden, and save children. He was soon named as the patron saint of sailors, and when Myra was overthrown, his bones were transported by sailors to Bari, a port in Italy, where a tomb was built over the grave and became the center of honor for St. Nicholas. From here the legend spread to the Atlantic Coast of Europe and the North Sea to become a European holiday tradition regardless of religion.

The Holiday Today

In anticipation of St. Nicholas's nightly visits, children in several European countries put their shoes in front of the fire place. They sing traditional songs and provide a carrot or hay for the horse. At night Black Pete puts gifts and candy in the shoes.

In the Netherlands, families celebrate St Nicholas's birthday the night before his feast day (December 6th). At one point during the evening, a loud knock will herald the arrival of Sinterklaas. At the same time candy may be thrown from upstairs. When the door is opened, a bag of gifts will be on the doorstep.

For families with older children and adults, different twists are added to the gift giving and may include gag gifts or the drawing of gift ideas or names, and most times are accompanied by poems with a "personal touch" that poke fun at the recipient in a gentle way. Wrapping the presents up in odd packages and planting a trail of clues is also part of the general fun.

Christmas Trivia

Do you know your Christmas facts? Go to http://www.funtrivia.com/private/main.cfm?tid=22186 to play today. Compete against other Christmas fans and see how well you score.

Christmas Carol Trivia Quiz

http://www.chicagotribune.com/carolquiz,0,4932856.triviaquiz

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