TOP 10 FACTS ABOUT CHRISTMAS

                               TOP 10 FACTS ABOUT CHRISTMAS

AS Christmas week begins, it’s time for celebration and sharing loves each other. At this celebration time let we know some Facts about Christmas.

1. The earliest known reference of Roman calendar says that Christ’s birthday beings on December- 25^th this calendar were compiled in AD354.

2. Why the date of December 25 was chosen?

 This was bit of mystery. Some people say it was simply a continuation of the Roman feast of Saturnalia celebrating the winter solstice on that date. Saturnalia was an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn, held on 17 December of the Julian calendar and later expanded with festivities through to 23 December.

And some people say it was simply nine months after the date given for Christ’s conception on March 25.

3. The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038, and Cristes-messe, in 1131.And later it was recorded as Christmas in the year of 1123.

4. The custom of sending Christmas cards was started in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole. He was an English civil servant and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in 19th century Britain. Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending greetings cards at Christmas time, introducing the world's first commercial Christmas card in 1843.

First Christmas Card (uncolored )

5. Henry Cole commissioned John Calcott Horsley to design two cards, a colored one cost sixpence, and an uncolored version for five pence. So the drawing master of the first Christmas card was Mr. John Calcott Horsley.

Mr.John Calcott Horsley

  

6. It was not until 1883 that such cards were referred to as Christmas cards. In late 1860 Only it was referred for the Christmas cards and send through the post.

7. The custom of the Christmas tree developed in early modern Germany, with predecessors that can be traced to the 16th century, The Danish Christians who brought the  decorated trees into their homes and danced around them.

8. Love’s Labour’s Lost and The Taming of the Shrew are the only Shakespeare plays that mention Christmas.

9. The first song broadcast from space was Jingle Bells on December 16, 1965. It is one of the best-known and commonly sung American wintertime songs in the world. It was written by James Lord Pierpont.

 Now it was associated with the Christmas and holiday season, but it was originally written for American Thanksgiving.

10. Santa Claus was appeared in late 17^th century, in the remembrance of St. Nicholas, who was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra in Lycia, a province of the Byzantine Empire, now in Turkey. Nicholas was famous for his generous gifts to the poor.

Merry Old Santa