CHRISTMAS
’Twas Christmas broach’d the mightiest ale;
’Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man’s heart through half the year.
[Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832), Scottish novelist, poet. Marmion, Introduction to cto. 6, (1808).]
Maybe one of most excited holidays. Everyone likes Christmas and Christmas Eve – some because they shouldn’t work, some – because they get a lot of beautiful presents.
In Lithuania everyone celebrates Christmas together with their families. But it’s not like that in other countries. For example, in Belgium Christmas are celebrated mostly by young people – they go to the coffees, to the towns, discos. It’s like New Year in Lithuania.
Actually, a Christian feast commemorates the birth of Jesus. This feast is celebrated on the 25th of December. The name ‘Christmas’ came from middle English Cristemas, from Old English Crìstes mæsse, Christ’s festival.
In the Christian calendar, it ranks after EASTER, PENTECOST, and EPIPHANY in liturgical importance and was not widespread until the 4th cent. The customs of the caroling, mistletoe, and gifts at Christmas are English. Elsewhere, gifts are given at other times, as at Epiphany in Spain. Christmas cards appeared c.1846. The concept of a jolly Santa Claus was first made popular in 19th-cent. New York City. The Christmas tree was a medieval German tradition. Midnight Mass is a familiar religious observance among Roman Catholics and some Protestants.
A greeting card sent at Christmas to express good will. But all these beautiful greeting cards with nice pictures on them are not so old. They were invented only a few centuries ago.
London museum director Henry Cole sends out the world’s first Christmas cards. He has designed a three-panel card that says, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” (1843).
The first American-made Christmas cards appear at Boston. German-American lithographer Louis Prang, 51, who makes the cards for the English trade, has been publishing $6 reproductions of famous works of art (“chromos”) since 1865 but will now concentrate on introducing Christmas cards in America, developing a market that he will dominate until 1890, when cheaper imports from Germany will put him out of business.
Moravian immigrants at Bethlehem (see 1740) introduce the celebration of Christmas with such German customs as the visit from Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus. In Puritan New England Christmas remains a working day.
A lot of famous writers and journalists wrote about Christmas, composed beautiful songs. There are some ‘very clever’ sentences about this holiday: