聖誕節習俗(英文).......

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday that marks the traditional birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth. Christmas combines the celebration of Jesus' birth with various other traditions and customs, many of which were influenced by ancient winter festivals such as Yule[1] and Saturnalia. Christmas traditions include the display of Nativity scenes and Christmas trees, the exchange of gifts and cards, and the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Popular Christmas themes include the promotion of goodwill, giving, compassion, and quality family time.

Origin of Christian festival


Origen, a father of the Christian church, argued against the celebration of birthdays, including the birth of Christ.
It is unknown exactly when or why December 25 became associated with Jesus' birth. The New Testament does not give a specific date.[13] Sextus Julius Africanus popularized the idea that Jesus was born on December 25 in his Chronographiai, a reference book for Christians written in AD 221.[13] This date is nine months after the traditional date of the Incarnation (March 25), now celebrated as the Feast of the Annunciation.[17] March 25 was also considered to be the date of the vernal equinox and therefore the creation of Adam.[17] Early Christians believed March 25 was also the date Jesus was crucified.[17] The Christian idea that Jesus was conceived on the same date that he died on the cross is consistent with a Jewish belief that a prophet lived an integral number of years.[17]

The identification of the birthdate of Jesus did not at first inspire feasting or celebration. Tertullian does not mention it as a major feast day in the Church of Roman Africa. In 245, the theologian Origen denounced the idea of celebrating Jesus' birthday "as if he were a king pharaoh." He contended that only sinners, not saints, celebrated their birthdays.[7]

The earliest reference to the celebration of Christmas is in the Calendar of Filocalus, an illuminated manuscript compiled in Rome in 354.[3][18] In the east, meanwhile, Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus as part of Epiphany (January 6), although this festival focused on the baptism of Jesus.[19]

Christmas was promoted in the east as part of the revival of Catholicism following the death of the pro-Arian Emperor Valens at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. The feast was introduced to Constantinople in 379, to Antioch in about 380, and to Alexandria in about 430. Christmas was especially controversial in 4th century Constantinople, being the "fortress of Arianism," as Edward Gibbon described it. The feast disappeared after Gregory of Nazianzus resigned as bishop in 381, although it was reintroduced by John Chrysostom in about 400.[3]


Christmas tree in a Danish home, 2004
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Also called Christ's Mass
Xmas
Yule
Observed by Christians around the world, as well as by non-Christians who observe the holiday's secular traditions.
Type Christian
Significance traditional birthdate of Jesus
Date December 25
(January 7 in Old Calendarist Orthodox Churches)
Observances religious services, gift giving, family meetings, decorating trees
Related to Annunciation, Incarnation, Advent; the winter holiday season



參考資料:
http://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Christmas

eat turkey and pudding
sing chirstams song
put up a chirstams tree and decorate it with angels ang bells
hang up chirstams stocking
send chirstmas card
exchang presents

2007-01-09 21:53:12 補充：
串錯 應該是 christmas

1. eat chicken
2. write christmas cards
3.recevie christmas cards
4. buy a christmas trees

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