Every year, 65438+February 25th is the day when most Christians in the world commemorate the birth of Jesus.
There was no Christmas at the beginning of the church, and it didn't happen until about one hundred years after Jesus ascended to heaven. It is said that the first Christmas was held in A.D. 138 at the initiative of Bishop St Clemens of Rome. The first Christmas in the history of the church was in 336 AD. Because the Bible does not clearly remember the time when Jesus was born, the date of Christmas varies from place to place. It was not until 440 AD that the Holy See set 65438+ February.
The 25th is Christmas. In A.D. 1607, church leaders from all over the world gathered in Bethlehem, which further confirmed this point. Since then, most Christians in the world have regarded 65438+February 25th as Christmas. /kloc-In the 20th century, Christmas cards became popular, Santa Claus appeared, and Christmas became popular.
Because the Bible records that Jesus was born at night, the night of 65438+February 24th is traditionally called "Silent Night" or "Silent Night".
Open Christmas: A History of Christmas
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65438+February 25th Christmas celebrates the birthday of the founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, which is the largest and most popular festival in western countries.
According to the Bible, the holy book of Christians, God decided to let his only son Jesus Christ be born on the earth, find his mother, and then live on the earth, so that people can better understand God, learn to love God and love each other better. "Christmas" means "celebrating Christ", celebrating the moment when a young Jewish woman, Maria, gave birth to Jesus.
According to the Bible, Maria was engaged to Joseph, a carpenter. However, before they moved in together, Joseph found out that Maria was pregnant. Joseph wants to break up with her quietly, because he is a decent man and doesn't want to tell her about it and embarrass her. While he was thinking about it, the angel of God appeared in his dream and said to him, "Stop whispering and marry Maria home. The child she conceived came from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a boy, and you will name him Jesus, because he will save people from sin. "
Although the exact birthday of Jesus is not clear, about 2000 years ago, the calendar divides the time into BC (before the birth of Jesus Christ) and AD. In the first 300 years after AD, Jesus' birthday was celebrated on different days. Finally, in 354 AD, church leaders designated 65438+February 25th as the birthday of Jesus Christ.
Open Christmas: A History of Christmas
Christmas is the biggest festival in the Christian world. At the beginning of the 4th century AD, 65438+1October 6th was a double festival for churches in the Eastern Roman Empire to commemorate the birth and baptism of Jesus, which was called Epiphany (also known as Epiphany), that is, God revealed himself to the world through Jesus. The only exception at that time was the church in Jerusalem, which only commemorated the birth of Jesus, not the baptism of Jesus. Later, historians found in the calendar used by Roman Christians that the page of 65438+ February 25, 354 AD recorded: "Christ was born in Bethlehem, Judah."
After textual research, it is generally believed that 65438+February 25th is Christmas Day, which probably started in the Roman Church in 336 AD, spread to Antioch in Asia Minor in about 375 AD, and spread to Alexandria in Egypt in 430 AD. The church in Jerusalem accepted it at the latest, while the church in Armenia still insisted that Epiphany was the birthday of Jesus.
65438+February 25th was originally the birthday of Mitra, the Persian sun god (that is, god of light), and it was a pagan festival. At the same time, the sun god was also one of the gods of Roman Catholicism. This day is also the winter solstice festival of the Roman calendar, and pagans who worship the sun god regard this day as the hope of spring and the beginning of the revival of everything. Perhaps for this reason, the Roman church chose this day as Christmas. This is one of the measures that the early church tried to christianize pagan customs. Later, although most churches accepted 65438+February 25th as Christmas Day, the calendars used by local churches were different, and the specific dates could not be unified. Therefore, the period from 65438+February 24th to 65438+1October 6th of the following year was designated as Christmas Day, and local churches could celebrate Christmas during this period according to local conditions. Since February 25th, 65438+ was recognized as Christmas by most churches, the Epiphany of 654381October 6th only commemorates the baptism of Jesus. However, the Catholic Church designated June 6, 65438+ as the "Three Kings Day" to commemorate the story that three kings (that is, three doctors) came to worship when Jesus was born.
With the widespread spread of Christianity, Christmas has become an important festival for Christians and even non-Christians of all denominations. In many countries in Europe and America, people attach great importance to this festival and associate it with the New Year. The excitement and solemnity of the celebration greatly surpassed the New Year and became a national festival. The main commemorative activities of 65438+February 25th are all related to the legend of the birth of Jesus. From 65438+February 24th to the following year, 65438+1October 6th is Christmas. During the festival, Christians from all over the world will hold grand commemorative ceremonies. Christmas was originally a Christian festival. Because people pay special attention to it, it has become a national festival. The biggest festival in the western countries in a year can be compared with the New Year, similar to the Spring Festival in China. Westerners use red, green and white as Christmas colors. When Christmas comes, every family should decorate it with Christmas colors. The red ones have Christmas flowers and Christmas candles. The green one is the Christmas tree. It is the main ornament of Christmas. It is decorated with evergreen trees in the form of towers, such as Chinese fir and cypress. Colorful lanterns, gifts and paper flowers are hung on it, and Christmas candles are lit. The contrast between red and white is Santa Claus, who is the most popular figure in Christmas activities. Before going to bed on Christmas Eve, western children should put a sock in front of the fireplace or beside the pillow. When they fall asleep, Santa Claus will put presents in the sock. Playing Santa Claus is also a custom in the west.
The origin and legend of the Spring Festival
The original intention of the two concepts of Spring Festival and New Year comes from agriculture. In ancient times, people called the growth cycle of the valley "year". Hebe: "in the year, the grain is ripe." . During the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the Xia calendar came into being, with the full and short moon as the month, and a year was divided into twelve months. Every month, the day when the moon can't be seen is the new moon, and the first day of the first month is called the beginning of a year, also known as the year. The title of the year began in the Zhou Dynasty and was officially set in the Western Han Dynasty, which continues to this day. However, in ancient times, the first day of the first month was called "New Year's Day". Until the victory of the Revolution of 1911 in modern China, in order to conform to the farming season and facilitate statistics, the Nanjing Provisional Government stipulated that the people would use the summer calendar, and institutions, factories, mines, schools and organizations would adopt the solar calendar, with the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day as New Year's Day and the first lunar month 1 day as the Spring Festival.
1949 On September 27th, New China was founded. At the first plenary session of the China People's Political Consultative Conference, the international use of the Gregorian calendar era was adopted, and the Gregorian calendar 1 month 1 day was designated as New Year's Day, commonly known as the Gregorian calendar year. The first day of the first lunar month is usually around beginning of spring, so the first day of the first lunar month is designated as the Spring Festival, commonly known as the Lunar New Year.
In the traditional sense, the Spring Festival refers to the La Worship sacrificial ceremony from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month or the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month to the 15th day of the first lunar month, with New Year's Eve and the first day of the first lunar month as the climax. During the Spring Festival, a traditional festival, the Han nationality and most ethnic minorities in China will hold various celebrations. Most of these activities are mainly about offering sacrifices to gods and buddhas, paying homage to ancestors, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new, and praying for the new. The forms of activities are rich and colorful, with strong national characteristics.
One of the legends of the Spring Festival: staying up late for the New Year.
Keeping the old year is the custom of staying up late to welcome the new year on the last night of the old year. Also known as New Year's Eve, the common name is "Enduring the Year". Exploring the origin of this custom, there is an interesting story among the people:
In ancient times, there was a fierce monster scattered in the mountains. People call them nian. Its appearance is ferocious, its nature is ferocious, and it specializes in eating birds, animals and insects. It changes its taste every day, from kowtowing insects to living people, which makes people talk about "Nian". Later, people gradually mastered the activity law of "Nian", that is, every 365 days, people go to places where people live in concentrated communities to taste fresh food. The haunting time is after dark, and when the rooster crows at dawn, they return to the mountains.
After determining the date of the ravages of 2008, people regarded this terrible night as a gateway, and came up with a set of methods to close the New Year's Day: every family prepared dinner in advance, turned off the fire, cleaned the stove, then tied all the cowpeas, sealed the front and back doors of the house, and hid in the house to eat the "New Year's Eve" because this dinner was uncertain. In addition to inviting the whole family to have dinner together to show harmonious reunion, we should also worship our ancestors before eating and pray for their blessing to spend the night safely. After dinner, no one dared to sleep, so they sat together and chatted with courage. Gradually formed the habit of not sleeping on New Year's Eve.
The trend of observing the age rose in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and many scholars in the Liang Dynasty had poems about observing the age. "One night for two years, five hours for two years." People light candles or oil lamps and keep vigil all night, which symbolizes driving away all evil diseases and looking forward to good luck in the new year. This custom has been handed down from generation to generation.
Legend of the Spring Festival 2: On Calendar Making in Ten Thousand Years
According to legend, there was a young man named Wan Nian in ancient times. Seeing that the festivals at that time were chaotic, he had an accurate plan. But he couldn't find a way to calculate the time. One day, he was tired of chopping wood on the mountain and sat in the shade. The movement of the shadow inspired him. He designed a sundial to measure the time of the day. Later, inspired by the dripping spring water on the cliff, he began to make a five-layer clepsydra to calculate the time. Over time, he found that every 360 days, the four seasons would cycle once, and the length of the weather would be repeated.
At that time, the monarch was called Zu Ti, who was often troubled by the unpredictable weather. Ten thousand years later, he took the sundial and the clepsydra to see the emperor and explained to Zu Ti the truth about the movement of the sun and the moon. Zu Ti was very happy after hearing this and felt reasonable. So I left for ten thousand years and built the Sun and Moon Pavilion in front of the Temple of Heaven, as well as the sundial platform and the Leaky Pot Pavilion. I hope I can accurately measure the laws of the sun and the moon, calculate the exact time in the morning and evening, and create a calendar to benefit people all over the world.
On one occasion, Zu Ti went to learn about the progress of the perpetual calendar. When he boarded the altar of the sun and the moon, he saw a poem engraved on the stone wall next to the Temple of Heaven:
Sunrise and sunset 360, start all over again.
Vegetation is divided into four seasons, and there are twelve circles in a year.
Knowing that the perpetual calendar was created, I personally boarded the Sun Moon Pavilion to visit the perpetual calendar. Wan Nian pointed to the astronomical phenomena and said to Zu Ti, "It's been twelve months now, the old year has passed and the new year has begun again. Please make a festival for you. " Zu Ti said, "Spring is the first year of a year, so let's call it Spring Festival". It is said that this is the origin of the Spring Festival.
After years of long-term observation and careful calculation, he worked out an accurate solar calendar. When he showed his successor the solar calendar, he was covered with silver whiskers. The monarch was deeply moved. In order to commemorate the achievements of 10 thousand years, he named the solar calendar "perpetual calendar" and named it the birthday star of the sun, moon and moon. In the future, people will hang up the Shou Xingtu during the Chinese New Year, which is said to commemorate the venerable ten thousand years.
The Third Legend of Spring Festival: Sticking Spring Festival couplets and Door Gods
It is said that the custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets began in the post-Shu period about 1000 years ago, which is proved by history. In addition, according to the Jade Candle Collection and the Chronicle of Yanjing, the original form of Spring Festival couplets is what people call "Fu Tao".
In the ancient mythology of China, it is said that there is a ghost world, in which there is a mountain, a big peach tree covering three thousand miles, and a golden rooster at the top of the tree. Whenever the golden rooster crows in the morning, the ghost who travels at night will rush back to the ghost domain. The Gate of Ghost Domain is located in the northeast of Peach Tree District. There are two gods standing by the door, named Shen Tu and Lei Yu. If the ghost does something unnatural at night, Shen Tu and Lei Yu will immediately find it, catch it, tie it up with a rope made of Miscanthus and give it to the tiger. So all the ghosts in the world are afraid of Shen Tu and Lei Yu. So people carved them into peach trees and put them at their doorsteps to ward off evil spirits and prevent harm. Later, people simply carved the names of Shen Tu and Lei Yu on the mahogany board, thinking that this could also eliminate disasters. This kind of red board was later called "Fu Tao".
In the Song Dynasty, people began to write couplets on mahogany boards, one for killing evil spirits, the other for expressing good wishes, and the third for decorating the portal for beauty. They also write couplets on red paper symbolizing happiness and good luck, and stick them on both sides of doors and windows during the Spring Festival to express people's good wishes for good luck in the coming year.
In order to pray for the longevity of the family, people in some places still keep the habit of sticking up doors. It is said that there are two door gods posted on the gate, and all monsters will be afraid. In the folk, the door god is a symbol of justice and strength. The ancients thought that people with strange looks often had magical temperament and extraordinary skills. They are honest and kind, and it is their nature and responsibility to catch ghosts and demons. Zhong Kui, a ghost hunter who is highly regarded by people, is such a strange look. Therefore, the folk door gods are always glaring and ferocious, holding all kinds of traditional weapons in their hands, ready to fight against ghosts who dare to come to the door. Because the doors of China's house are usually two opposite doors, the door gods are always paired.
After the Tang Dynasty, besides peace, people also regarded Qin and Weichi Gong, two military commanders in the Tang Dynasty, as gatekeepers. According to legend, Emperor Taizong was ill, heard ghosts screaming outside, and stayed up all night. So he asked the two generals to stand by with weapons in their hands, and there was no ghost harassment the next night. Later, Emperor Taizong had the images of these two generals painted and pasted on the door, and this custom began to spread widely among the people.