Celebrating Christmas 2022: History of the festival of joy

This Christmas, people worldwide celebrate the joy, and we in India celebrate it with zeal. People visit shopping malls and markets, decorate their homes with Christmas trees, and dress up like Santa Claus to give out several gift items. Celebrating Christmas 2022, We started special prayers in church, shared gifts, festive meals, get-togethers, etc. public activities are the same all over the country. Some variations are spotted because local cultural influences are seen. The methods of celebration vary from one part of the country to another, but the main idea behind the festival remains the same everywhere.

Every year, we celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December. Christmas is a Christian festival celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, and Christians have faith in the son of God. The day that the Roman Catholic Church chooses to mark Jesus’s birthday. But no one knows the exact date Jesus was born!

Here are some 5 amazing historical facts about Christmas

The First Christmas Cards Were a Bit Weird

It’s great fun to send Christmas cards to your friends; why? Er…Victorians were just very…. strange people! Sending Christmas cards to your friends is great fun! But the Victorians didn’t enjoy a nice snowy church scene or a cute robin all the time. In detail, some of their cards were downright strange…they contained pictures of dead birds, bats, dancing insects, Krampus, and random stuff like oysters going on holiday or snowmen attacking people.

World War 2 Made Celebrating Christmas Tricky

Christmas in World War Two wasn’t straightforward. In the beginning, several counts of individuals, like soldiers, land girls, and evacuees, were away from home and had to be ready to do by celebrating with their friends, employers, and foster families instead. The blackout made decorating challenging, as no light was permitted at night time, so if your crucial fairy lights, you had to keep them indoors! As well as that, food rationing meant various Christmas treats weren’t available, and substitutes like sugared carrots or mock turkey (made from pork) would be served as well. On top of all that, an air raid might chance at any moment, meaning you’d have to celebrate in your shelter, waiting for the bombs to go away!

The Anglo-Saxons Celebrated Christmas in Their Own Way

The Anglo-Saxons were just as into Christmas as the rest of us! Although Christmas wasn’t the plays crucial religious holiday, it became, Anglo-Saxons still had exciting ways of celebrating – they would do lots of praying because it was an important religious time. They would also spend on charity and support the poor, something people still try and do today at Christmas. And some do not even eat at Christmas – meaning they don’t eat for religious reasons! Can you see not having Christmas dinner? They took time off, so at least you wouldn’t have to work on an empty stomach!

Christmas Carols Made a Comeback

Christmas carols were initially religious songs written in the Middle Ages to celebrate the birth of Jesus. By the 19th century, caroling was seen as stuffy, old-fashioned, and boring to celebrate Christmas, but it came back full of the Victorian craze for all things medieval. Nowadays, it’s hard to imagine Christmas without the classics like ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’ and ‘Coventry Carol.’

The Wassail Bowl Was a Big Part of the Christmas

You might have heard of ‘Wassailing’ from Christmas carols – but do you recognize what it is? The wassail bowl was traditionally a punch bowl full of spiced hot wine or ale. Singers would go from house to house, ‘wassailing’ (caroling), and then the house hosts would offer them punch! A bit like trick or treating, but at Christmas!

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