Christmas is probably the most festive time of the year, a season
of gift-giving and celebration. We all know that Christmas is a
religious holiday which marks the birth of Jesus Christ. But did you
also know that some of the traditions are adapted from rituals dating
back to a time before Christianity?
Many pagan peoples regarded the winter solstice as a time of
celebration. Anticipating the return of spring, people decorated their
homes with evergreen plants, a symbol of eternal life. Mistletoe was
especially popular, as it was believed to have magic powers. People hung
sprigs of mistletoe in their homes and kissed beneath them as a gesture
of friendship. At pagan festivals there was also a lot of singing and
dancing going on – “dancing in a circle” is the original meaning of the
word “carol”.
Still now we keep these traditions up: we sing Christmas carols and
dance around in circles, we kiss beneath the mistletoe and we decorate
our homes with Christmas trees. By the way, did you know that it was a
German who set the trend of decorating Christmas trees in England? It
was Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband. When he moved to England,
Christmas trees had already been popular in continental Europe, but not
in England. In 1841, Prince Albert put up a Christmas tree at Windsor
Castle. The event was reported in the press; and as the whole country
was very keen on the royal family, people enthusiastically took up the
custom of decorating a tree at Christmas.
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