The Meaning of Christmas

The meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, the Christ child, by most Christians.
However, now Christmas has become an international and popular holiday with Christmas trees and Santa Claus. Christmas is a day for families to gather, gather together, and share the joys and sorrows of the year.

Christmas symbols and meanings:

Advent ring

The Advent wreath is a circle made of green branches and leaves that are often placed on a table or hung high for all to see. On leaves placed within 4 candles. This custom was started by the Lutherans in Germany in the 16th century to represent the struggle between light and darkness.
The round leaf wreath represents the eternal character and endless love of God. Green represents the hope that the Savior will come to save people. 4 candles include three purple ones - the color of Advent, the 4th is pink, and the color of the third Sunday of Advent, also known as Gaudete Sunday.

Christmas Cards

It dates back to 1843 when Henry Cole, a wealthy English merchant, asked Horsley, a painter in London, to design a beautiful card to give to his friends. At Christmas that year, Horsley presented the world's first card. Christmas cards quickly exploded and became all the rage.

Christmas Present

When Jesus was born crying in Bethlehem in a manger, three Eastern kings came to pay their respects. They brought three precious gifts, namely gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Gold represents Jesus as King (ie, Son of the Father - King of the Kingdom of Heaven), frankincense represents Jesus as God and myrrh represent the image of Jesus being crucified on the cross or, more specifically, Jesus Christ. Jesus' death for the redemption of mankind.

Cave and manger

Today, on the night of December 24, in the churches, there are caves with managers, inside there is a statue of the Child Jesus, a statue of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by donkeys, statues of the Three Kings, some angels, and Saints. Joseph on the roof has a light, shining from a star to guide the three kings to God. Everyone turned to the benevolent God, praying to God to save humanity from war, poverty, and misfortune.

Christmas tree

Near Christmas, people often buy a pine tree and decorate it with stars, pearls, glittering tinsel, flowers... The tree is considered a symbol of hope and new vitality during the festival. New Year celebration.

Gifts in socks

Legend has it that, there were 3 girls of marriageable age in the other family, but no boys looked at them because their family was too poor. Bishop Myra was so merciful that he threw the gold coins down the chimney of the three girls' house. Gold coins fell from the roof onto the same pairs of stockings that the girls hung by the fireplace. Needless to say, you can tell how happy they are. They had the opportunity to fulfill their wish.
That miracle story was spread everywhere, everyone wanted to be lucky, so they all imitated the 3 girls hanging stockings by the fireplace in the hope of receiving gifts.
Currently, everyone in the family also celebrates this Christmas to give gifts to the children with the hope that they will be obedient and study well. Since then, there is a custom of children hanging socks next to the fireplace to receive gifts as dreams from Santa Claus.

Christmas Star

The star in Christmas has a special meaning, according to legend, when Jesus was born, a bright star appeared. The light radiates hundreds of miles away. From the far eastern regions of what is now Iran and Syria, three kings were revealed to believe that by following the starlight they would surely encounter a miracle called the feast of the three kings.
From there, the three followed the light's guidance to reach the city of Bethlehem where Jesus was born. These three men knelt before the Lord, offering the Lord gifts of incense and gold and silver treasures.
The star becomes a meaningful symbol during the Christmas season and is hung in the most luxurious places in synagogues and religious institutions during Christmas to remember the above legend. Due to the meaning of the star, it also symbolizes the miracles of God.

Santa Claus

The origin of the word "Santa Claus" or Saint Nicholas dates back to the 4th century in Turkey. From an early age, he was a very pious person and devoted his life to Christianity.
Saint Nicholas is especially celebrated for his love of children and his generosity. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, the island of Sicily, Greece, and Russia and of course, saint as well. In the 16th century, in the Netherlands children used to place their wooden shoes by the fireplace in the hope that they would be well fed by St. Nicholas.
The Dutch pronounce the word St. Nicholas as Sint Nicholaas, later falsified as Sinterklaas and eventually read by Anglicans as Santa Claus.
In 1882, Clemon C. Mor wrote his famous song “A visit from St. Nick" (Saint Nick's visit) and later published as "The night before Christmas". Mor is considered to have modernized the image of Santa Claus with the image of a fat, funny old man in a red suit.

Mistletoe and holly

Two hundred years before Jesus was born, pagans used mistletoe to celebrate the arrival of Winter. They often pick this consignment plant and use it to decorate their house. They believe that this plant has a special ability to cure all kinds of ailments from female infertility to food poisoning. People in the Scandinavian peninsula also consider mistletoe as a symbol. of peace and harmony. They also identified the mistletoe with their goddess of love, Frigga. The custom of kissing under the shade of mistletoe probably came from this belief. At first, the church banned the use of mistletoe at Christmas because of its pagan origins. Instead of using mistletoe, the priests suggested using holly as a Christmas tree.

Poinsettias

Poinsettias are named after Joel Poinsett, the first American ambassador to Mexico, who brought this plant to the United States in 1882. The homeland of the poinsettias is in Mexico. . In the 18th century, the Mexicans considered the poinsettia as a symbol of the star in Bethelem. According to legend, there was a boy who had no gift to offer to the Child Jesus, so he brought a bunch of leaves to the manger. My friends laughed at me, but when I put the branches at the feet of the Child, the branches turned into beautiful red flowers.

Candy stick

In the 1800s, a confectioner in India wanted to express the meaning of Christmas through a symbol made of candy. He started working on his idea by bending one of his candy bars into the shape of a candy cane. Through his candy cane, he incorporated symbols representing the love and sacrifice of Jesus. White represents the purity and innocence of Jesus. Then, the three small stripes represent the sufferings that the Lord endured before he died on the evil cross. Those three stripes also represent the divine trinity of God (the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). He added a bold stripe to represent the blood that God shed for mankind. When we look at the hook of the staff, we see that it resembles a shepherd's staff because Jesus is the shepherd of the people. If you turn the stick upside down, it will become the letter J representing the first letter of the name Jesus (Jesus). Thanks to that candy maker, everyone knows what Christmas is about.

Christmas song

Buche Christmas Cake

Church Bells

Christmas Candles