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Christmas, meaning "Christ's Mass", coming from the Greek word "Χριστος" and the
Hebrew word "מָשִׁיחַ" is a holiday celebrated by billions of people worldwide.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with Christmas, let me very quickly explain; Christmas is
a Christian holiday celebrated on the 25th of December. Traditionally, what happens is
a magical fat guy named Santa Claus/St. Nick/Father Christmas/Kris Kringle gets into your house
through the chimney, puts presents underneath a tree your family has set up, eats the cookies
you've left out for him, and climbs back up the chimney to visit the neighbors.
So, where on Earth did this tradition come from? The short answer is: The Christian Roman
Empire, and the long answer I will explain right now.
Christmas at first took place on the 25th of December because that's when Jesus Christ
was possibly born. In reality, though, no one knows Jesus' precise birthdate, and all
we know about his birth year is that it was somewhere between 7 BC and 2 BC. The holiday
was first recognized in 350 AD in Rome by Pope Julius Caesar. Really? It was just Julius?
Anyway, Pope Julius recognized Christmas as a public holiday in the west, Christmas wasn't
even close to what it is today, though. Christmas was actually a nine-day long celebration of
feasting and partying, a LOT of partying! In fact, just the fact that personal property
damage wasn't illegal during the celebration alone can easily tell you how intense the
parties could have been! This new holiday eventually spread eastwards,
reaching Constantinople in 379 and Antioch in 380. The Christmas feast had disappeared
after Gregory of Nazianzus resigned his duties as bishop in 381. Christmas was shortly reintroduced
in 400 by John Chrysostom.
The Christmas Tree is a good example. Every year, families around the world set up small
Evergreen trees inside their houses and decorate them with hopes that a magic obese guy will
put presents underneath it. The reason why Evergreens are used is because in the eighth
century, a Christian monk cut down the sacred oak tree in Pagan Germany, which I'll bet
pissed off the Germans. The monk, however, replaced the oak tree with an evergreen, a
tree that stays green for, well... forever! This also played a huge role in changing Germany
from a pagan region to a Christian state because of how the monk taught the Germans how God
can make things last forever. Apples were originally put on the trees to remind us of
Adam and Eve when Eve bit into an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, over time, they just
turned into plastic and glass ornaments. Last is the star on top of every Christmas tree,
which represents the star the 3 Wise Kings used to navigate with. It is also common to
have a Nativity Scene as a decoration, representing the barn where Jesus was born.
St. Nick most likely comes from a Byzantine Saint named Saint Nicholas (Αγιος Νικολαος)
who lived in the early middle ages and was known for giving gifts in secret, Santa Claus
is the Americanization of the Dutch Sinterklaas, and Father Christmas was a British version
of Santa Claus who was thin, a pagan, wore a green robe, and was more of a guy who liked
to party and drink, not so much giving presents to kids. As the colonial era progressed, the
Dutch Sinterklaas combined with Kris Kringle from Germany, Father Christmas from Britain
and St. Nick to make Santa Claus, who has now spread to all the countries that celebrate
Christmas, except the Netherlands, they're essentially fine with who they have.
*Side note*: In the Netherlands, they believe Santa Claus doesn't live at the north pole
and travels by a magically flying sleigh with magically flying reindeer. They believe he
lives in a castle in Spain and travels by a steamboat.
So, why do we celebrate this holiday? Well, it's a good way to commemorate Christ's *likely*
birthdate. Additionally, it's a good way to reward children who have been nice throughout
the year for being nice children. Alternatively, the naughty children still get presents, but
it's just coal. At least it's something to keep the fire running!
There are also some very weird Christmas traditions, for example, in Wales, two people go house
to house singing for food and drink. Oh, and one of them is disguised and wears a horse
skull. Another good example is Japan's 'Christmas KFC', where many Japanese Christmas celebrating
families get Christmas KFC instead of Christmas turkey since they're hard to find. It was
started in 1974 and was then called "Kentucky Fried Christmas" and some orders are even
placed months ahead! And another one is the Catalan pooping log, which is 'fed' before
the festival, then sung to and then beaten so it 'defecates' candies. Seriously?! How
can you beat up something on Christmas, let alone something smiling?! Well, I said these
were strange traditions!
Thank you for watching this video, and thank you even more if you've stayed this far! As
always, we hope you have a Merry Christmas, or a Happy Holidays if you celebrate another
holiday at this time. Now, I'll leave you with a picture of a Christmas tree, just click
one of the ornaments and you'll be taken to another one of our videos! Stay Roman, my
friends!