Cites Christmas Facts, Trivia
Oliver Cromwell, in England
banned Christmas Carols be-
tween 1649 and 1660. Cromwell
thought that Christmas should
be a very solemn day so he
banned carols and parties. The
only celebration was by a ser-
mon and a prayer service.
In 1643, the British Parliament
officially abolishes the celebra—
tion of Christmas.
The Puritans in America tried
to make Thanksgiving Day the
most important annual festival
instead of Christmas.
Silent Night was written in
1818, by an Austrian priest Jo-
seph Mohr. He was told the day
before Christmas that the church
organ was broken and would not
be prepared in time for Christ-
mas Eve. He was saddened by
this and could not think of Christ—
mas without music, so he wanted
to write a carol that could be
sung by choir to guitar music.
He sat down and wrote three
stanzas. Later that night the
people in the little Austrian
Church sang “Stille Nacht” for
the first time.
St Francis of Assisi intro-
duced Christmas Carols to for-
mal church services.
Telesphorus, the second
Bishop of Rome (125-136 AD)
declared that public Church ser-
vices should be held to celebrate
“The Nativity of our Lord and
Saviour.” In 320 AD, Pope Julius
I and other religious leaders
specified 25 December as the
official date of the birth of Jesus
Christ.
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26 December was tradition-
ally known as St Stephen’s Day,
but is more commonly known as
Boxing Day. This expression
came about because money was
collected in alrns-boxes placed in
churches during the festive sea-
son. This money was then dis-
tributed during to the poor and
needy afier Christmas.
Melbourne, Australia has a
sporting Boxing Day tradition.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground
hosts a Cricket test match. Some-
times this attracts 90, 000 spec-
tators. Cricket is Australia’s pre-
mier Summer sport.
The first printed reference to
Christmas trees appeared in Ger-
many in 1531.
Holly is linked to Christmas
because its blood-red berries
and spiked leaves are reminis—
cent of Christ’s crucifixion and
crown of thorns. It is also likely
that Holly was used as a house
decoration in pre-Christian times
in Europe during the leafless
and flowerless Winter season.
The story of Father Christ—
mas or Santa Claus has ancient
European roots. St. Nicholas was
the inspiration for the modern
Santa Claus, a 19th century in-
vention of the United States. But
St Nicholas was himself derived
from pagan gift givers such as
the Roman Befana and the Ger-
manic Berchta and Knecht
Ruprecht.
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