Weird and Interesting Facts About Christmas

Weird and Interesting Facts About Christmas Christmas, besides being a joyful tradition of gift-giving and ham-devouring, has always been pretty weird, right? Like, just in general. How did everyone start celebrating it? Why? Here for your enjoyment we present a few interesting facts about Christmas that you can tell your family around the dinner table and give them a chance to think â€Å"Wow! Cant believe how smart my niece is!† and â€Å"God, do you always have to be the center of attention?† Christmas Wasnt Originally Jesus Birthday â€Å"Christmas† comes from â€Å"Christs mass†, the celebration of Jesus Christs birthday and christening. But did you know that Jesus want born on the 25th of December†? In fact, no one knows when he was born, but we can safely bet that it wasnt December. The clue is in Luke 2:8: the shepherds were â€Å"abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night† when he was born, which couldnt have been in December, since its so cold. Christmas Is an Adapted Holiday So how did Christmas come about? Well, youd be surprised to hear that many Christmas traditions you know have roots in pre-Christian seasonal celebrations. In fact, many traditions, for instance, the gift giving, carolers going from house to house, feasts, and many other traditions come from the Mesopotamian celebrations of the New Year. They held festivities for twelve days to honor one of their gods, Marduk. These festivities were called Zagmuk. By the way, have you already found Christmas gifts for friends and family? There are some Christmas gifts ideas you may like. The Romans Had Something Like Christmas, Too Like Zagmuk, the ancient Romans would hold seasonal festivities of their own. Their holiday was in the beginning of winter, just like ours, and held until approximately the beginning of January. They were celebrating â€Å"The Birth of the Unconquerable Sun†, since its at this time that the duration of the day began to lengthen. Like all pagans, they believed that the Sun was being reborn at this time. As the Christian church gained power and influence, they decided to ban this celebration, but many continued the tradition. The Christian church then decided to co-opt the holiday, and turn it into the celebration of Christ. Some Christians Celebrate Christmas in January In the US, the holidays are over with the New Years celebrations, but there are millions of Christians who celebrate their Xmas on January 7th. The reason here is a calendar mixup: a large part of the western world use the Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar, who didnt invent it, but loved naming things after himself). The gregorian calendar, which Orthodox Christians use, is shifted, and their â€Å"December 25th† falls squarely on January 7th. Santa Came from Saint Nicholas Youve heard Santa Claus be called Saint Nick, but did you know that he was a real person? And an actual saint? The story of how he became Santa is pretty interesting: in the new world, after the revolution, Americans wanted to depart from British traditions and looked toward their Dutch roots for that. The Knickerbockers (writers, not baseball players) had a huge role in creating Santa – they released a poem titled A Visit from St. Nicholas, which popularized the character, and was later adapted into The Night Before Christmas. Santas name comes from the nickname fro St. Nicholas, Sinter Klaas (Dutch, of course). And lots of other cultures have their own Santa, as well. Werent those Christmas facts both weird and interesting? And theres lots more to find out! Like that Xmas comes from the Greek â€Å"Xristos†. And that Christmas wasnt an official holiday in America until 1870! Finding out about the genealogical anthropology of this holiday is lots of fun, and you can research it on your own to find out more. If you know other interesting facts about Christmas, feel free to add them in the comments! If you get tired from traditional ways to spend Christmas, to check out the unusual things to do for Christmas!

Thanksgivings History and FDRs Involvement

Thanksgiving's History and FDR's Involvement U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a lot to think about in 1939. The world had been suffering from the Great Depression for a decade and the Second World War had just erupted in Europe. On top of that, the U.S. economy continued to look bleak. So when U.S. retailers begged him to move Thanksgiving up a week to increase the shopping days before Christmas, FDR agreed. He probably considered it a small change; however, when FDR issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation with the new date, there was an uproar throughout the country. The First Thanksgiving As most schoolchildren know, the history of Thanksgiving began when Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered together to celebrate a successful harvest. The first Thanksgiving was held in the fall of 1621, sometime between September 21 and November 11, and was a three-day feast. The Pilgrims were joined by approximately ninety of the local Wampanoag tribe, including Chief Massasoit, in celebration. They ate fowl and deer for certain and most likely also ate berries, fish, clams, plums, and boiled pumpkin. Sporadic Thanksgivings Though the current holiday of Thanksgiving was based on the 1621 feast, it did not immediately become an annual celebration or holiday. Sporadic days of Thanksgiving followed, usually declared locally to give thanks for a specific event such as the end of a drought, victory in a specific battle, or after a harvest. It wasnt until October 1777 that all thirteen colonies celebrated a day of Thanksgiving. The very first national day of Thanksgiving was held in 1789, when President George Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26 to be a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to especially give thanks for the opportunity to form a new nation and the establishment of a new constitution. Yet even after a national day of Thanksgiving was declared in 1789, Thanksgiving was not an annual celebration. Mother of Thanksgiving We owe the modern concept of Thanksgiving to a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale. Hale, editor of Godeys Ladys Book and author of the famous Mary Had a Little Lamb nursery rhyme, spent forty years advocating for a national, annual Thanksgiving holiday. In the years leading up to the Civil War, she saw the holiday as a way to infuse hope and belief in the nation and the Constitution. So, when the United States was torn in half during the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln was searching for a way to bring the nation together, he discussed the matter with Hale. Lincoln Sets Date On October 3, 1863, Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation that declared the last Thursday in November (based on Washingtons date) to be a day of thanksgiving and praise. For the first time, Thanksgiving became a national, annual holiday with a specific date. FDR Changes It For seventy-five years after Lincoln issued his Thanksgiving Proclamation, succeeding presidents honored the tradition and annually issued their own Thanksgiving Proclamation, declaring the last Thursday in November as the day of Thanksgiving. However, in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt did not. In 1939, the last Thursday of November was going to be November 30. Retailers complained to FDR that this only left twenty-four shopping days to Christmas and begged him to push Thanksgiving just one week earlier. It was determined that most people do their Christmas shopping after Thanksgiving and retailers hoped that with an extra week of shopping, people would buy more. So when FDR announced his Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1939, he declared the date of Thanksgiving to be Thursday, November 23, the second-to-last Thursday of the month. Controversy The new date for Thanksgiving caused a lot of confusion. Calendars were now incorrect. Schools who had planned vacations and tests now had to reschedule. Thanksgiving had been a big day for football games, as it is today, so the game schedule had to be examined. Political opponents of FDR and many others questioned the Presidents right to change the holiday and stressed the breaking of precedent and disregard for tradition. Many believed that changing a cherished holiday just to appease businesses was not a sufficient reason for a change. Atlantic Citys mayor derogatorily called November 23 as Franksgiving. Two Thanksgivings in 1939? Before 1939, the President annually announced his Thanksgiving Proclamation and then governors followed the President in officially proclaiming the same day as Thanksgiving for their state. In 1939, however, many governors did not agree with FDRs decision to change the date and thus refused to follow him. The country became split on which Thanksgiving day they should observe. Twenty-three states followed FDRs change and declared Thanksgiving to be November 23. Twenty-three other states disagreed with FDR and kept the traditional date for Thanksgiving, November 30. Two states, Colorado and Texas, decided to honor both dates. This idea of two Thanksgiving days split some families  because not everyone had the same day off work. Did It Work? Though the confusion caused many frustrations across the country, the question remained as to whether the extended holiday shopping season caused people to spend more, thus helping the economy. The answer was no. Businesses reported that the spending was approximately the same, but the distribution of the shopping was changed. For those states who celebrated the earlier Thanksgiving date, the shopping was evenly distributed throughout the season. For those states that kept the traditional date, businesses experienced a bulk of shopping in the last week before Christmas. What Happened to Thanksgiving the Following Year? In 1940, FDR again announced Thanksgiving to be the second-to-last Thursday of the month. This time, thirty-one states followed him with the earlier date and seventeen kept the traditional date. Confusion over two Thanksgivings continued. Congress Fixes It Lincoln had established the Thanksgiving holiday to bring the country together, but the confusion over the date change was tearing it apart. On December 26, 1941, Congress passed a law declaring that Thanksgiving would occur every year on the fourth Thursday of November.