The big old Christmas Thread 2011
- Thread starter jason
- Start date
Christmas Light Show 2011 in Fountain Valley, CA by Devers Dream Weavers 54,020 LEDs No.2 - YouTube
At Christmas
A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;
Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime...
~Edgar Guest
The first nativity scene was created at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in 10th century Rome. The custom was soon popular at other churches, each one constructing ornate mangers with gold, silver, jewels and precious stones. Though popular among high society, such opulence was far removed from the original circumstances of Christ's birth, as well as being inaccessible to the poorer masses.
We owe the crèche to St. Francis of Assisi, who revised the gaudier displays of his time. In 1224, St. Francis of Assisi sought to remedy these problems by creating the first manger scene that was true to the Biblical account of Christ's birth. Called a crèche, the scene that St. Francis set up for the village of Greccio was made up of hay, carved figures and live animals, capturing for the uneducated people of the town more of the spirit and the story of Christ's birth than any splendid art treasure.
The popularity of St. Francis's crèche spread throughout the world. In Italy it is called a presepio; in Germany, a Krippe. It is a naciemiento in Spain and Latin America, a jeslicky in the Czech Republic, a pesebre in Brazil, and a portal in Costa Rica.
At Christmas
A man is at his finest towards the finish of the year;
He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here;
Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before,
And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for.
He is less a selfish creature than at any other time;
When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime...
~Edgar Guest
The first nativity scene was created at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in 10th century Rome. The custom was soon popular at other churches, each one constructing ornate mangers with gold, silver, jewels and precious stones. Though popular among high society, such opulence was far removed from the original circumstances of Christ's birth, as well as being inaccessible to the poorer masses.
We owe the crèche to St. Francis of Assisi, who revised the gaudier displays of his time. In 1224, St. Francis of Assisi sought to remedy these problems by creating the first manger scene that was true to the Biblical account of Christ's birth. Called a crèche, the scene that St. Francis set up for the village of Greccio was made up of hay, carved figures and live animals, capturing for the uneducated people of the town more of the spirit and the story of Christ's birth than any splendid art treasure.
The popularity of St. Francis's crèche spread throughout the world. In Italy it is called a presepio; in Germany, a Krippe. It is a naciemiento in Spain and Latin America, a jeslicky in the Czech Republic, a pesebre in Brazil, and a portal in Costa Rica.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, pine trees were used in Europe as part of the miracle plays performed in front of cathedrals at Christmas time. The plays detailed the birth and fall of humanity, its salvation through the death and resurrection of Christ and Christ's promise of redemption. The pine trees, decorated with apples, symbolized the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
Though such plays were later banned by the church, the tradition of this Paradise Tree, or Paradeisbaum, was kept alive in individual homes. People began to decorate the tree with wafers to represent the Eucharist; later these wafers evolved into cookies, cakes and fruit.
As early as 1710, German immigrants from the upper Rhine area may have set up the first Christmas tree in the United States, and certainly the custom was strengthened by the wave of German immigration that started around 1830. This German custom in turn probably sprang from two sources: the Paradise trees of the medieval miracle plays, and the decorated wooden pyramid known as the Weihnachtspyramide.
BTW, anyone interested in a PC Christmas Poem?
Though such plays were later banned by the church, the tradition of this Paradise Tree, or Paradeisbaum, was kept alive in individual homes. People began to decorate the tree with wafers to represent the Eucharist; later these wafers evolved into cookies, cakes and fruit.
As early as 1710, German immigrants from the upper Rhine area may have set up the first Christmas tree in the United States, and certainly the custom was strengthened by the wave of German immigration that started around 1830. This German custom in turn probably sprang from two sources: the Paradise trees of the medieval miracle plays, and the decorated wooden pyramid known as the Weihnachtspyramide.
BTW, anyone interested in a PC Christmas Poem?