Christmas in the Palestinian Territories

Christmas is very important in the Palestinian territory of the West Bank as it contains Bethlehem, the town in which Jesus was born. Bethlehem is about six miles (10 kilometres) south of Jerusalem (which is in Israel). Bethlehem means 'house of bread' and back in history was famous for growing wheat for making into bread.
Only about 20% of Palestinians are Christian, but many Muslim Palestinians are also proud that Jesus was born in a Palestinian Territory!
On Christmas Eve there is a parade through the town. This is very important to the Christian part of the population. There are bagpipe bands in the parade, which you might not expect! Playing the bagpipes is a tradition left over from when the British army occupied the area between 1920 and 1948. People also dress up as Santa Claus and give out sweets. The streets and main square are decorated with lights.
Perhaps the most famous part of Christmas in Bethlehem is the church service of the Mass of the Nativity. It is held on Christmas Eve afternoon/evening/midnight in the Church of the Nativity. The Church is built over the place where it's traditionally thought that Jesus was born. There's a small door into the Church called the door of humility. The church was built, by the romans, about 500 years after Jesus was born. The most holy part of the church is the Grotto of the Nativity, which is under the main altar. A silver star marks the place where Jesus was meant to have been born.
It had been prophesied in the Bible that the Jewish Messiah or Savior (who Christians believe Jesus is) would be born in Bethlehem.
The Church is administered by three churches, the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church. The Mass service is led by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Jerusalem. Many local political people go to the service, Christians, Muslims and Jews. The church is crowded and lots of frankincense, one of the gifts bought to the baby Jesus, is burnt. People also sing Christmas Carols on Christmas Eve evening in Manger Square, a large paved courtyard in front of the Church.
The Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches don't celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but rather January 6th & 7th. They hold services on those days.




http://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/palestinianterritories.shtml



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ANDREY RUBLYOV


The Saviour


"In you rejoices"


Christ before Pontius Pilates


A Russian icon of the iconographer Rublyov, holding one of his images


Saviour in Glory


Christ the Redeemer


Nativity of Jesus


Annunciation


The Trinity

ANDREY RUBLYOV
Andrey Rublyov is the pride and glory of Russian culture. Many consider Rublyov the greatest Russian icon painter. Although his works found recognition during his lifetime, and they were held as iconographic standards in the 16th century by the Russian Orthodox Church, very little is known about Rublyov's life. He was born between 1360 and 1370 and died in 1430. He became monk probably as an adult at the Savior Andronikov Monastery in Moscow, where he was also buried after his death. The first mention of Rublyov is in 1405 when he decorated icons and frescos for the Cathedral of the Annunciation of the Moscow Kremlin in company with Theophanes the Greek and Prokhor of Gorodets. Theophanes was an important Byzantine master who moved to Russia, and is considered to have trained Rublyov. Chronicles tell us that in 1408 he painted (together with Daniil Cherni) the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir and in 1425–1427 the Cathedral of St. Trinity in the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra. After Daniil's death Andrey came to Moscow's Andronikov Monastery where he painted his last work, the frescoes of the Savior Cathedral.
He was one of the one of the three most significant persons of medieval Russia; the other two being Sergius of Radonezh (1321-1391) and Dmitri Donskoy (1350-1389). If the names of Sergius Radonezh and Dmitry Donskoy symbolize the spiritual and military renaissance of Old Russia and the first steps towards liberation from Mongol and Tartar yoke, the name of Rublyov is connected not only with the flowering of Russian art but also with the revival on Russian ground of the Byzantine art that had been ruined in the Osmanli fire.
Already in Rublyov’s time, his icons were worth their weight in gold: they were hunted by collectors, who did not stop far from violence and fraud. Rublyov’s authority was so high that, when the cannons of painting the Trinity were considered at the Stoglavy Sobor in 1551 in Moscow, the verdict was unequivocal: “To paint from ancient samples like Greek artists painted and like Andrey Rublyov painted…”
The icon Trinity from the Trinity Cathedral in the Trinity–St. Sergius Monastery, is the masterpiece of the great master. Still, the exact date of creation of the icon is unknown – it could be either 1411 or 1425–1427. The Trinity, ca. 1410, currently in the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, is based upon an earlier icon known as the "Hospitality of Abraham". Rublyov removed the figures of Abraham and Sarah from the scene, and through a subtle use of composition and symbolism changed the subject to focus on the Mystery of the Trinity.
There are two traditions combined in Rublyov's art: the highest asceticism and the classic harmony of Byzantine mannerism. The characters of his paintings are always peaceful and calm. The icon is meant to symbolically represent spiritual reality, and the most important quality for an icon is its ability to transmit a feeling of ecstasy and heavenliness. Thus, an icon of a saint should be understood as that saint's spiritual portrait. Rublyov is one of few craftsmen that attained these aesthetic goals.
“What marvels, startles, and almost scorches us in Rublyov’s work is not at all the subject or the numeral ‘three’, or the cup on the Communion table…but the fact that it showed us truly the Revelation beheld by him. Among the restless circumstances of the time, among the disorders, the local wars, the general savagery and the Tartar interventions, among this lack of peace that had deprived Rus, there opened to the eye of the soul this infinite, imperturbable, indestructible peace, the “lofty peace” of the celestial world… And this inexplicable world.. this incomparable sky-blue, not the earthly sky-blue, but the true heavenly azure, this unspeakable dream of Lermontov, who longed for it, this ineffable grace of the mutual bows, this peaceful unwordliness, this infinite submissiveness to each other – we consider the artistic contents of the Trinity.” (P. Florensky, “The Trinity – St.Sergius Monastery and Russia”)
If the name of Rublyov personifies the art of Old Russia, Trinity symbolizes the highest peak of that culture. Rublyov and his Trinity became synonyms for the Russian people, and for a foreigner the whole history of Russian art is not frequently overshadowed by this glaring peak.
Alexander V. Voloshinov, The Old Testament Trinity of Andrey Rublyov: Geometry and Philosophy.
Andrey’s work has influenced many different artists including Dionisy. He was canonized a saint in 1988 by the Russian Orthodox Church. The church celebrates his feast day on January 29[2] and July 4. Since 1959 the Andrei Rublyov Museum has been open at the Andronnikov Monastery, displaying the art of his works and his epoch. In 1966, Andrei Tarkovsky made his celebrated film, Andrey Rublyov loosely based on the artist's life, which shows him as "a world-historic figure" and "Christianity as an axiom of Russia's historical identity” during a turbulent period in the history of Russia.
Alexander V. Voloshinov, The Old Testament Trinity of Andrey Rublyov: Geometry and Philosophy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Rublev
http://www.icon-art.info/book_contents.php?lng=en&book_id=27
http://www.moscow.info/museums/andrei-rublev-museum-of-ancient-russian-art.aspx
http://www.russianartgallery.org/oldicons/inside2.htm
http://www.jstor.org
 
http://thearthistoryjournal.blogspot.ca/2011/02/andrey-rublyov.html
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29 Games Nobody Plays Anymore


Paul Anthony Jones
filed under: History
Image credit: 
getty images
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You’ve played blind man’s bluff and hide-and-go-seek. You have Marco Poloed, hot potatoed, and I-Spied. But you’ve probably never had to pull a peg out of the ground with your teeth because your knife wasn’t as sharp as the others, or tried to knock a metal plate into a basin with the dregs of your drink. Here are 29 games you won't recognize, because no one plays them any more.

1. ABLE-WHACKETS (1700s-1800s)

Able-whackets is a card game that was “very popular with horny-fisted salts,” according to The Sailors Word Book (1867). Although its rules are lost, what we do know is that the loser of each round would be whacked over the knuckles with a tightly-knotted handkerchief.

2. ARE YOU THERE, MORIARTY? (1800s-early 1900s)

Two players are blindfolded, given a rolled-up newspaper, and made to kneel down opposite one other. The first player asks, “Are you there, Moriarty?” to which his or her opponent replies, “Yes sir, I am here!” Player 1 then has to try and blindly hit Player 2 with the newspaper, judging where he is only by the sound of his voice. Player 2 can try to dodge the blow, but his knees must remain in place at all times.

3. BANDY-WICKET (1700s-1800s)

As well as being the name of a winter sport similar to ice hockey, a bandy is an L-shaped or J-shaped wooden bat. Bandy-wicket was an 18th century form of cricket played with bandies rather than cricket bats.

4. BARLEY-BREAK (1500s-1600s)

Three couples are each allotted to one of three squares drawn in a row on the floor. At the word “go,” the couple in the center square—referred to as “prison” or “Hell”—must try and catch one of the other two couples. All three couples must remain holding hands throughout the game, but the two couples being chased can split up and change partners at any time to avoid being caught. (Jacobean playwrights, incidentally, also liked to use barley-break as a euphemism for sex.)

5. BLOWPOINT (mid 1500s-1600s)

Blowpoint probably involved players using a peashooter to fire wooden or paper darts at a numbered target (or else at each other), although some later descriptions suggest it was a form of archery in which arrows were shot through a hollow log at a target.

6. BUBBLE THE JUSTICE (1780s)

Bubble the justice was an 18th century version of a much earlier game called “nine holes,” in which players would take turns bowling a metal ball along a wooden board with nine numbered holes or “pockets” drilled into it. The aim was either to land your ball in each hole in numerical order, or to simply to score as many points as possible. It was renamed bubble the justice as this was one of only a few games not outlawed in a clampdown on games in London taverns in the late 1700s.

7. CHICKEN-HAZARD (1700s-1800s)

Hazard was a complicated Medieval English dice-throwing game. Chicken-hazard was a low-stakes version that became popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.

8. COCK-A-ROOSTY (early 1800s)

One player is chosen as “it” and stands opposite all of the other players, who are lined up on one side of a road in their “den.” One by one, each player in the den has to try and get past “it” to reach “home,” on the other side of the road. Oh, and everyone has to stand or hop on one leg the entire time.

9. COTTABUS (Ancient Greece)

Cottabus was a popular game among young men at Ancient Greek drinking parties. Although there were numerous different versions, the basics were always the same: players tossed the dregs of their drink at a metal basin, above which was mounted a loose plate or dish. The aim was simply to knock the plate into the basin with the wine, but men playing the game would often shout out their girlfriends’ names at the same time and the louder the sound of the plate landing in the basin, the better the relationship was deemed to be.

10. FOX-IN-THY-HOLE (Tudor England)

One player is the “fox,” whose job it is to catch all of the other players, who are “chickens.” As soon as a chicken is caught, the fox takes him back to his den where he too becomes a fox. The last chicken to be caught becomes the fox in the next round.

11. GRAND TRICK-TRACK (1700s)

Grand trick-track was apparently an even more complicated variant of chess that emerged in France in the 1700s. Its rules are lengthy and convoluted, but if you have an afternoon to spare you can find out how to play in The Compleat Gamester, 5th Edition (1725)

12. HIJINKS (late 1600s-1700s)

Its name has come to be synonymous with “shenanigans” or “tomfoolery,” but hijinks or high jinks was originally a drinking game popular in Scotland in the 17th and 18th centuries. Players would roll a die, and either the lowest scoring player or the first player to roll a designated number would have to take a drink or else pay some kind of humiliating forfeit.

13. HONEY-POTS (1800s)

One player rolls himself up into as tight a ball as possible. The other players then have to pick him up and carry him, as if he were a jar of honey being taken home from market.

14. HOT COCKLES (c.1300-1800s)

One player is blindfolded and made to kneel on the floor with his head in another player’s lap and his hands held, palms outwards, behind his back. The other players then take it in turns to strike his hands, one at a time, and the kneeler has to guess which of the other players has hit him.

15. JINGO-RING (1800s)

An early 19th century dancing game from Scotland in which a circle of girls, all holding hands or linking arms, would dance around another girl in the center, singing, “Here we go the jingo-ring, the jingo-ring, the jingo-ring! Here we go the jingo-ring! About the merry-ma-tanzie."

16. JOHN BULL (1700s)

An old English pub game in which players would take it in turns tossing coins or stones onto a four-by-four grid of squares, randomly numbered from 1-16, in an effort to score as many points as possible.

17. KING ARTHUR (late 1500s-1600s)

Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811) lists a game called King Arthur that was played by sailors in the 16th and 17th centuries. According to Grose, one crew member would play “King Arthur,” and would customarily be dressed up in ridiculous robes and made to wear a wig made of old rope. The King would be sat beside a tub of water, and one by one all the other members of the crew would be ceremoniously introduced to him and then made to pour a bucket of water over this head with the words, “Hail King Arthur!” As Grose explains, “If during this ceremony the person introduced laughs or smiles (to which his majesty endeavours to excite him, by all sorts of ridiculous gesticulations), he changes place with, and then becomes, King Arthur.”

18. KING CAESAR (Tudor England)

Hopping on one foot, the “King” must chase down all the other players and tap them on the head. As soon as they are hit, they become one of the King’s “subjects” and can help him catch the rest of the players, but they too have to stand on one foot. The last player to be caught becomes the next King.

19. LOGGITS (Tudor England)

As mentioned in Hamlet (“Did these bones cost no more the breeding, but to play at loggits with them?”), loggits was an old Tudor game in which a stick would be pushed vertically into the ground as a target. Players would then take it in turns to throw smaller sticks towards it, and whoever managed to land theirs the closest won. Loggits was one of a number of games banned by Henry VIII in 1542 out of concern that it would distract his soldiers from military practice; the same statute banned quoits, all card and dice games, and even tennis.

20. MILKING CROMOCK (1500s-1618)

The only thing we know about milking cromock is that it was a gambling game popular in pubs and taverns in Tudor England. And we only know that because it was one of a number of games listed by name in a 1618 directive that made playing it illegal.

21. MOULD-MY-COCKLE-BREAD (1600s)

According to the 17th century writer John Aubrey, Mould-my-cockle-bread was a “wanton sport” that was once played by young women in northern England. As Aubrey explains, the women would “get upon a table-board, and then gather up their knees and their coats with their hands as high as they can, and then they wobble to and fro with their buttocks, as if they were kneading of dough with their arses.” There doesn’t seem to have been much point to the whole thing, but there was a rhyme should you want to try it out: “My dame is sick and gone to bed, And I’ll go mould my cockle-bread. Up with my heels and down with my head, and this is the way to mould cockle bread.”

22. MUMBLETY-PEG (1600s-?1960s)

The earliest description of mumblety-peg dates back to 1627, while more recent accounts suggest it was still being played as recently as the 1960s. The game involves players throwing knives into the ground, blade first, either aiming at a target or aiming just to propel the knife into the earth as deeply as possible. In the earliest versions of the game, the loser would be made to pull a wooden peg out of the ground with his teeth, hence the name.

23. PAPSE (Medieval England)

The only thing we know about papse is that it was popular in the Medieval England, and the loser was hit over the head.

24. PLUCK AT THE CROW (1500s)

Pluck at the crow was a Scottish children’s game, the only point of which seems to have been to tug and pull at someone’s clothes as much as possible. It dates from the reign of Henry VIII, but there are no records of it later than 1570.

25. SHAKING IN THE SHALLOW (late 1700s)

The “shallow” in question here was a type of hat popular in England in the 18th century, and all that we know about shaking in the shallow is that it was a dice game that presumably involved players rolling the dice around inside the hat.

26. SNAP-DRAGON (1500s-late 1800s)

The aim of snap-dragon was to pick a raisin out of a bowl of burning brandy as quickly as possible without being burned yourself. Although it dates back to Tudor times (Shakespeare mentions it in several of his plays), it became a particularly popular party game at Christmas in Victorian England.

27. SPARROW-MUMBLING (1700s)

According to Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811), mumble-the-sparrow was “a cruel sport practiced at wakes” (that’s old village festivals, not funerals) which involved a player, with his hands tied behind his back, trying to bite off the head of a live sparrow that had been placed inside a hat. Thankfully, the player would only ever succeed in being repeatedly bitten and pecked on the face by “the enraged bird”, which would either then be set free or kept as a pet. A later variation of the same game, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, involved holding one of the sparrow’s wings in the mouth, and then “attempting to draw in its head by movement of the lips.”

28. TAMBAROORA (1880s-mid 1900s)

Named for a town in New South Wales, Tambaroora is an Australian drinking game dating from the late 19th century. Players place a token amount of money (originally sixpence) into a hat, and then take three turns rolling a die. The player (known as the “nut”) who scores the highest collects the money in the hat, buys all of the players a round of drinks, and keeps any left over cash for himself.

29. UP JENKINS (1800s-mid 1900s)

Two teams sit opposite each other at a table with their hands kept under it, out of sight. One member of one team secretly hides a coin or a button in one of their hands. The captain of the opposing team then shouts “Up Jenkins!” and the team who are hiding the coin have to place their hands, palms downward, onto the table. Their opponents then have to guess who is hiding the coin under their hand; if they’re correct they win a point, but if they’re incorrect, their opponents take the point.

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November 25, 2015 - 10:22am
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The History of Christmas Traditions

Most of How We Celebrate Christmas Began During the 1800s


















Christmas tree at Windsor Castle - Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle, December 1848.  Hulton Archive/Getty Images

By
The history of Christmas traditions changed enormously in the 19th century, when most of the familiar components of the modern Christmas including St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Christmas trees, became popular.
In the early 1800s, Christmas celebrations only vaguely resembled the holiday season of the present day. But by the century's end, Christmas traditions had become established to the point where Santa's very existence was proclaimed in a legendary newspaper editorial.

Washington Irving and St. Nicholas in Early New York

Early Dutch settlers of New York considered St. Nicholas to be their patron saint and practiced a yearly ritual of hanging stockings to receive presents on St. Nicholas Eve, in early December. Washington Irving, in his fanciful History of New York, mentioned that St. Nicholas had a wagon he could ride “over the tops of trees” when he brought “his yearly presents to children.”
The Dutch word “Sinterklaas” for St. Nicholas evolved into the English “Santa Claus,” thanks in part to a New York City printer, William Gilley, who published an anonymous poem referring to “Santeclaus” in a children’s book in 1821.
The poem was also the first mention of a character based on St. Nicholas having a sleigh, in this case pulled by a single reindeer.

Clement Clarke Moore and The Night Before Christmas

Perhaps the best known poem in the English language is “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” or as it’s often called, “The Night Before Christmas.” Its author, Clement Clarke Moore, a professor who owned an estate on the west side of Manhattan, would have been quite familiar with the St.
Nicholas traditions followed in early 19th century New York. The poem was first published, anonymously, in a newspaper in Troy, New York, on December 23, 1823.
Reading the poem today, one might assume that Moore simply portrayed the common traditions. Yet he actually did something quite radical by changing some of the traditions while also describing features that were entirely new.
For instance, the St. Nicholas gift giving would have taken place on December 5, the eve of St. Nicholas Day. Moore moved the events he describes to Christmas Eve. He also came up with the concept of “St. Nick” having eight reindeer, each of them with a distinctive name.

Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol

The other great work of Christmas literature from the 19th century is A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. In writing the tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Dickens wanted to comment on greed in Victorian Britain. He also made Christmas a more prominent holiday, and permanently associated himself with Christmas celebrations.
Dickens was inspired to write his classic story after speaking to working people in the industrial city of Manchester, England, in early October 1843. He wrote A Christmas Carol quickly, and when it appeared in bookstores the week before Christmas 1843 it began to sell very well. It has never been out of print, and Scrooge is one of the best-known characters in literature.

Santa Claus Drawn by Thomas Nast

The famed American cartoonist Thomas Nast is generally credited as having invented the modern depiction of Santa Claus. Nast, who had worked as a magazine illustrator and created campaign posters for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, was hired by Harper’s Weekly in 1862. For the Christmas season he was assigned to draw the magazine’s cover, and legend has it that Lincoln himself requested a depiction of Santa Claus visiting Union troops.
The resulting cover, from the Harper’s Weekly dated January 3, 1863, was a hit. It shows Santa Claus on his sleigh, which has arrived at a U.S. Army camp festooned with a “Welcome Santa Claus” sign.
Santa’s suit features the stars and stripes of the American flag, and he’s distributing Christmas packages to the soldiers. One soldier is holding up a new pair of socks, which might be a boring present today, but would have been a highly prized item in the Army of the Potomac.
Beneath Nast's illustration was the caption, “Santa Claus In Camp.” Appearing not long after the carnage at Antietam and Fredericksburg, the magazine cover is an apparent attempt to boost morale in a dark time.
The Santa Claus illustrations proved so popular that Thomas Nast kept drawing them every year for decades. He is also credited with creating the notion that Santa lived at the North Pole and kept a workshop manned by elves.

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria Made Christmas Trees Fashionable

The tradition of the Christmas tree came from Germany, and there are accounts of early 19th century Christmas trees in America. But the custom wasn’t widespread outside German communities.
The Christmas tree first gained popularity in British and American society thanks to the husband of Queen Victoria, the German-born Prince Albert. He installed a decorated Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in 1841, and woodcuts of the Royal Family’s tree appeared in London magazines in 1848. Such illustrations, published in America a year later, created the fashionable impression of the Christmas tree in upper class homes.
The first electric Christmas tree lights appeared in the 1880s, thanks to an associate of Thomas Edison, but were too costly for most households. Most people in the 1800s lit their Christmas trees with small candles.

The First White House Christmas Tree

The first Christmas tree in the White House was in 1889, during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison. The Harrison family, including his young grandchildren, decorated the tree with toy soldiers and glass ornaments for their small family gathering.
Other presidents continued the tradition of having a Christmas tree in the White House, and over the years it has evolved into an elaborate and very public production.

Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

In 1897 an eight-year-old girl in New York City wrote to a newspaper, the New York Sun, asking if her friends, who doubted the existence of Santa Claus, were right. An editor at the newspaper, Francis Pharcellus Church, responded by publishing, on September 21, 1897, an unsigned editorial. The response to the little girl has become the most famous newspaper editorial ever printed.
The second paragraph in particular is often quoted:
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS.
Church’s eloquent editorial asserting the existence of Santa Claus seemed a fitting conclusion to a century that began with modest observances of St. Nicholas and ended with the foundations of the modern Christmas season firmly intact.

Related Articles
 
http://history1800s.about.com/od/entertainmentsport/a/christmas19thc.htm
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS

By Tim Lambert
Christmas is, of course, Jesus' birthday. In England Christmas was originally called Yule. The old Saxon word Yule meant mid-winter. However when the Saxons were converted to Christianity the word Yule came to mean Jesus' birthday. The word Christmas (Christ mass) was not used until the 11th century.
For most of history Christmas was just one of many festivals celebrated throughout the year. Until the 19th century Christmas was not particularly important in England.
Most of the things that make up a 'traditional' English Christmas were actually invented (or imported into England from other countries) in the 19th century. That includes Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas crackers, paper decorations and, of course, Father Christmas or Santa Claus with his white beard and red costume.
During the 17th century and 18th century people continued to celebrate Christmas as they had done for centuries. For centuries it was traditional to burn a Yule log in the fireplace at Christmas. In the 19th century it was also common to light a large Yule candle.
Boxing Day was originally a day when alms-boxes in churches were opened and the money was distributed to the poor. Later 'boxes' were given to servants.
Our modern Christmas really began in the 19th century. Long before the 19th century people in England decorated their houses at Christmas with holly, ivy and mistletoe. However they also used many other plants, such as fir, yew and laurel. In the 19th century people began to use colored paper decorations.
For centuries it was common to give Christmas gifts to friends and relatives at Christmas. However hanging out stockings to be filled with presents was first recorded in parts of England in the early 19th century. It became common in the late 19th century.
The first Christmas card was designed in 1843 by John Horsley. Before 1840 it would not have been feasible for ordinary people to send cards because of the cost of postage. However Rowland Hill introduced the penny post in 1840. By the 1860s Christmas cards were very popular in England.
Christmas crackers were first made in 1847 by a confectioner named Tom Smith. While in Paris he saw sugar almonds sold wrapped in tissue paper and he invented the Christmas cracker. He added mottoes to the sweets (later these evolved into jokes). Smith added the 'bang' in 1860. Little gifts were also added to Christmas crackers.
Christmas trees were used in central Europe from the Middle Ages. By the 16th century they were decorated. By the 17th century tinsel was used. Other Christmas ornaments included paper flowers, candles, barley sugar, gingerbread and wax shapes. The first trees in England appeared in England about 1800 but they did not become popular till Queen Victoria married a German, Prince Albert. In 1848 they were shown in a picture in the Illustrated London News with a Christmas tree. As a result Christmas trees became very popular in England. Electric Christmas tree lights were invented in 1882.
Father Christmas and Santa Claus were originally two different figures. In England Father Christmas was a man dressed in green (representing the return of Spring) who was supposed is supposed to visit families and feast with them at Christmas. (He did not bring gifts). However in the 19th century in England Father Christmas merged with the Dutch Santa Claus. He is supposed to be based on St Nicholas a Christian bishop who lived in Turkey in the 4th century AD. According to tradition St Nicholas gave generous gifts to the poor. St Nicholas had a feast day on 6 December. (In Poland Santa still brings gifts on 6 December). On that day it was traditional to give gifts or to give to charity to remember the saint's generosity.
The Dutch took the tradition of 'Sinterklaas' to America. In time Santa Claus evolved into a figure who brings gifts to sleeping children at Christmas. The modern Santa Claus or Father Christmas was invented in 1862 by a German-American artist called Thomas Nast. In the late 1860s Santa Claus was imported into England.
Mince pies have been eaten at Christmas in England since the 16th century. Originally they were made of minced meat but in the 19th century the meat was replaced with dried fruit and spices.
Christmas pudding dates from the Middle Ages. Originally it was called plum pottage and was made of chopped meat with 'plum' i.e. dried prunes or raisins. In time the meat was replaced by suet.
Originally Christmas cake was eaten on Twelfth Night (6 January). In the late 19th century people began to eat the traditional Twelfth Night cake at Christmas. So a Victorian Christmas contained all the elements of a 'traditional' Christmas such as Santa Clause, Christmas trees, Christmas crackers, Christmas Cards, Christmas cake and pudding.
Today Christmas is still celebrated on 7 January in Ethiopia. The Russian Orthodox Church also celebrates Christmas on 7 January.

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Nature, quiet times... peace... Christmas Season
Keep the madness at bay

Search for peace particularly challenging at this time of year


Holiday madness landed suddenly and in full force at our house. The kids didn't seem all that worked up in November, but we experienced a festive explosion the moment the calendar turned.

My wife and I woke Dec. 1 to find all three boys decked out in Santa hats, trying to convince their sister to wear one too. (That lasted 30 seconds.) Even the boy who needs a three-stage wakeup call on school days was already digging the Christmas decorations out of the basement, ready to cover the house. We made him put on the brakes.

December always seems to arrive in a flash, showing up on the doorstep like an aggressively cheery house guest who talks non-stop and hands over multiple suitcases to carry upstairs. There is never enough time to prepare, never enough time to finish the to-do list or make it to all the events.

In theory, it is a season to slow down and enjoy friends and family, but it usually feels like we do an awful lot of speeding up first. The pace of our world does not always grant us much heavenly peace.

I thought about peace last week as I sat at the piano trying to pick a peace-themed carol for our Sunday Advent service, a few hours after yet another mass shooting in the United States. They have become terrifyingly commonplace - more than one per day in 2015 - but this was the worst since the one three Decembers ago at Sandy Hook. I had a hard time summoning the right frame of mind.

Sometimes I wonder if we rush, rush, rush from one thing to the next as a form of emotional protection, because if we stop for too long it's so easy to feel angry and sad at the many horrible yet preventable things that keep happening all the time.

These atrocities seem heavier in December, when we're supposed to be celebrating hope and goodwill.

Peace is not something the world grants us. It's not something that just happens. It takes effort.

Peace is something I find myself searching for in little moments these days. Peace is choosing a 15-minute walk instead of a five-minute bus ride, enjoying the brisk December air and being thankful it's not snowing yet. Peace is leaving my headphones off sometimes to enjoy the quiet.

Peace is watching the fog roll in. Peace is sitting still long enough to savour a cup of tea, or a glass of wine.

Peace is laughing till my eyes tear up at something outrageous my eight-year-old says. Peace is tearing up for a different reason as my 10-year-old plays the beautiful bass line of Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No. 1, one of my favourite piano pieces.

Peace is reading my daughter the same bedtime story twice in a row, just because she loves it so much.

Peace is choosing not to respond to that tweet, or weigh in on that aggravating Facebook post. Peace is walking away from the Internet altogether and getting lost in a hobby or a good conversation instead.

As parents, we sometimes have to fight for these things, to carve out these spaces in the midst of the noise and the bustle and the fears. Ironically, it can be harder than ever at this time of year.

Yet it's worth finding ways to instill in our kids that this isn't just a season about gifts and overeating and sprinting from one event to the next. It's a time to make peace, in all the ways we can.
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North Pole on the line- NORAD
Photo by TOM AYERS


Braydan Kaiser, 7, gets help talking to Santa from Cpl. Kea Currie of 36 Signal Regiment in Glace Bay on Saturday. The army reservists had Santa live on the phone in a tent on Commercial Street, chatting with children and taking toy requests. The army also had a map showing Santa's progress as he made his way from the North Pole toward Glace Bay and his expected appearance in the Light Up parade set for later that evening.



Canadian NORAD Region

The mission of the Canadian NORAD Region (CANR) is to provide aerospace surveillance, identification, control and warning for the defence of Canada and North America.
Headquartered at 1 Canadian Air Division in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CANR executes a variety of tasks to defend Canadian airspace, including identifying and tracking all aircraft entering Canadian airspace, exercising operational command and control of all air defence forces in CANR and operations in support of other government departments and agencies.
CANR is one of three North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) regions. The other two subordinate regional headquarters are located at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. NORAD is the bi-national Canada- U.S. command that continuously provides worldwide detection, validation and warning of a ballistic missile attack on North America and maintains continental detection, validation, warning and aerospace control of air-breathing threats to North America, to include peacetime alert levels and appropriate aerospace defense measures to respond to hostile actions against North America.
Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, CANR has been heavily committed to Operation Noble Eagle (ONE), NORAD’s ongoing internal air defence mission.
1 Canadian Air Division is responsible for providing CANR with combat-ready air forces to meet Canada’s commitment to the defence of North America and maintain the sovereignty of North American airspace.
NORAD assets are positioned strategically throughout Canada and the U.S. and can respond to any air sovereignty threat in a matter of minutes. CANR CF-18 Hornet fighter aircraft are on continuous alert to respond to any potential aerial threat to the safety of Canada and Canadians.
Learn more about NORAD's Canadian Forces



 http://www.noradsanta.org/
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Did u hear - about the birth of Baby Jesus? Everybody loves babies...













and cats.... no ... mice.... we love u... but no gifts....of other creatures.... how about a prrrrr...







We we were little- Christmas songs by children



 


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BLOGGED:  CANADA MILITARY NEWS: Let's have some Christmas cheer troops- Videos and jokes and honour Bollywood Canada does Christmas/Canada Zimbabwe/- and our Jewish Friends/Jokes Canada Style/Drummer Boy/How to wrap a cat for gift and love my dog/NORAD-tracking Santa 2011-2013


http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/12/canada-military-news-lets-have-some.html


AND...




BLOGSPOT:
CHRISTMAS CANADA- 1600s- Global Santa History -Stories from UK/USA/Canada/Europe- beautiful - God bless our troops - God bless the child in all of us -God bless our Canada peace and goodwill 2 all
http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2014/12/christmas-canada-1600s-global-santa.html




and...



BLOGGED:
CANADA MILITARY NEWS: South Pole Wounded Warriors Allied Challenge-Incredible story and victory of 4 countries of Wounded Warriors – Antarctica 2 South Pole- Victory run/walk success- in harshest climates- UK/Canada/Australia and USA- The Journey and success proving 2 a billion folks proudly- disabilities are abilities in disguise- did we make u proud- u surely did and do..Environmentalists could NOT make it.... u ran and walked it.... the world rejoiced and Santa and NORAD hugged u along the way. The Journey 2 Victory blogged daily- December 2013/O CANADA TROOPS- we love u so- honour


http://nova0000scotia.blogspot.ca/2013/11/canada-military-news-nov24-true-patriot.html