Each year more than 3 billion Christmas cards are sent in the U.S. alone.
The traditional three colours of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolizes the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
Christmas trees have been sold in the U.S. since 1850.
Christmas trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870.
Ancient people, such as the Druids, considered mistletoe sacred because it remains green and bears fruit during the winter when all other plants appear to die. Druids would cut the plant with golden sickles and never let it touch the ground. They thought it had the power to cure infertility and nervous diseases and to ward off evil.
It is estimated that the single "White Christmas" by Irving Berlin is the best selling single of all time, with over 100 million sales worldwide.
Christmas is a contraction of "Christ’s Mass," which is derived from the Old English Cristes mæsse (first recorded in 1038). The letter "X" in Greek is the first letter of Christ, and "Xmas" has been used as an abbreviation for Christmas since the mid 1500s.
In 1962, the first Christmas postage stamp was issued in the United States.
Father Christmas has two addresses, Edinburgh and the North Pole. letters addressed to "toylandd" or "snowland" go to Edinburgh, but letters addressed to "the north pole" have to be sent there because there really is such a place!
WHITE CHRISTMAS: England has only known seven white Christmases in the entire twentieh century. according to the records of the Meteorological Office in London, snow fell on Christmas Day only in 1938 and 1976.
The definition of a white Christmas in England is when one snowflake falls on the roof of the London Weather Centre in the 26 hours of 25 December.
25th december was not celebrated as the birthday of Christ until the year AD 440.
The Queen's Christmas speech was televised for the first time in 1957.
ELECTRIC TREE LIGHTS were first used just 3 years after Thomas Edison had his first mass public demonstration of electric lights back in 1879. Thomas Edison's assistant, Edward Johnson, came up with the idea of electric lights for Chrismas trees in 1882. His lights were a huge hit. It took quite a few years, however, before they would be made available to the general public.
In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Christmas festivities were banned by Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell, who considered feastina and revelry on what was supposed to ba a holy day to be inmoral. anybody caught celebrating Christmas was arrested. the ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1550.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario