CHRISTMAS SYMBOLS (taken from http://www.santas.net) Have you ever wondered why children enjoy crackers at Xmas time? What does the mistletoe mean? What are its origins? And what about the typical Christmas colours? You
can read here to find it out. In
their earliest form crackers in France were sweets
or bonbons enclosed in twists of coloured paper. An English pastrycook
by the name of Tom Smith saw these bonbons while he was visiting Paris.
Once he had returned home, he started to copy the idea of the wrapper,
but added other small gifts, as well as slips of paper inscribed with
jokes, wise sayings or advice concerning the future. Small toys and
paper hats were other surprises that were included. The
most exciting moment at the Christmas dinner is finding out who the
lucky person is whose portion of the pudding contains the coin.
Children treasure this custom even if the coin is of no value. *
KISSING UNDER THE MISTLETOE *
POINSETTIA A
Mexican legend tells how the poinsettia became a Christmas flower. A
poor peasant girl was anxious to bring a gift in honour of the Virgin
Mary to the Christmas Eve service. She had nothing to give so she went
with nothing. On the way she met an angel, who told her to pick some
weeds. She did this. As by a miracle they were transformed into the
bright scarlet 'flowers'.Ever since poinsettias have been popular decorations
for churches and homes during the Christmas festival. The
evergreen holly symbolises eternal life. This shrub's
most conspicuous features have long been associated with Jesus Christ.
The bright red berries represent the drops of blood He shed on the cross;
their colour also represented the burning love for God present in the
hearts of the faithful. The prickly leaves remind us of the crown of
thorns the Roman soldiers placed on Jesus Christ's head. One
night it is told that he dropped three pieces of gold through the smoke-hole.
The coins did not fall into the hearth, but fell into the girls stockings,
which had been hanging up near the fire to dry. They were elated to
find the money in the morning. People have hung up Christmas stockings
ever since, hoping to receive a similar surprise. At
one stage it was thought that Father Christmas (Santa
Claus) lives in the North Pole. In 1925 it was discovered that there
are no reindeer in the North Pole. But there are lots in Lapland, Finland.
So today we know that the reindeer live around the secret village of
Father Christmas and the elves somewhere on the Korvatunturi mountain
in the Savukoski county of Lapland, Finland, which is on the Finnish-Russian
border. The
names of the 8 reindeer were published by Clement Clark Moore, an American
poet and professor of theology, in his 1822 poem "A Visit
From St. Nicholas." Rudolph was first written about only
in 1939 by Robert May, who included him in a story for the Montgomery
Ward Christmas catalogue. (Of course, the elves knew their names long,
long before Moore and May did.) If
you click RUDOLPH
you will listen to this famous Xmas song. And these
are the lyrics :
ACTIVITIES 1. After reading about all these Xmas traditions and symbols, you are ready to answer these questions. Choose whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE by clicking HERE 2. Now it's time for you to write a LETTER TO SANTA. Once there, scroll down till you see a snowy mailbox !!! Hope you get a reply from Him !!!
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