Christmas is a sacred religious holiday celebrated on December 25th, with people around the world celebrating the 12 days of Christmas, which span the birth of Jesus and the visit of the Magi. The Christian 12 days of Christmas, which include the delivery of toys, take place from Thanksgiving to Christmas Day. Santa rides a magic sleigh pulled by nine or eight flying reindeer, known as Dasher, to deliver the toys.
The history of Christmas customs and traditions includes church attendance, decorations, nativity plays, music and carols, traditional cuisine, cards, commemorative stamps, and gift giving. 16 festive rituals are celebrated, including crackers, mince pies, a kiss under the mistletoe, and Father Christmas.
Christmas traditions and rituals include boxing day, hanging out the stocking for Father Christmas, and making, baking, feasting, collecting, donating, and sending gifts. Candles are lit everywhere during Christmas, but in the modern world, they are often replaced with fairy lights.
In the US, 10 classic Christmas traditions include watching a movie, setting up a Christmas tree, stringing home and yard decorations, and hanging the mistletoe. In Dutch Christmas, people spend two days with their family, playing games, watching movies, and eating traditional Christmas food. The Ritual of Advent calendar offers a luxurious present filled with 24 special moments to surprise loved ones.
📹 The Tudors’ Bizarre 12 Days Of Christmas Ritual | Tudor Monastery Farm | Absolute History
Ruth Goodman, Peter Ginn and Tom Pinfold explore the festive season as it would have been celebrated during the reign of the …
What are 7 facts about Christmas?
The Top 10 American Christmas Facts include Santa’s unconventional red outfit, Rudolph’s nickname, the origin of Jingle Bells, the fact that at least 15, 000 people are sent to the ER over Christmas, the creation of Santa’s ride by Washington Irving, and the evolution of Christmas from traditional traditions. As the holiday season begins, these fun facts about Christmas stateside continue to be explored, highlighting the rich history of the holiday and the changing nature of the holiday.
What are the real 12 days of Christmas?
Christmas Day is the first day of the Twelve Days, which last from 25 December to 5 January, counting first and last. The Octave, or Eighth Day, is New Year’s Day and the Feast of the Circumcision, the day Jesus was circumcised according to the faith. The evening of the last day is Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve, with the next morning being Epiphany. For Christian denominations like the Anglican Communion or Lutheran Church, the Twelve Days are identical to Christmastide.
For the Roman Catholic Church, Christmastide lasts longer, running through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Some believe that the Twelve Days are considered December 26 to January 6, including Epiphany. In 567, the Council of Tours proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany as a sacred and festive season, establishing the duty of Advent fasting in preparation for the feast.
What is Santa called in the Netherlands?
Sinterklaas, also known as Sint-Nicolaas or Saint Nicholas, is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include De Sint, De Goede Sint, and De Goedheiligman. Sinterklaas is celebrated annually on 6 December, the day Saint Nicholas is named. The feast is celebrated with gifts on St. Nicholas’ Eve in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, western Germany, northern France, Romania, Poland, and Hungary. The tradition is also celebrated in some territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Aruba. Sinterklaas is one of the sources of the popular Christmas icon of Santa Claus.
What is the traditional way to celebrate Christmas?
Christmas traditions encompass a variety of customs, religious practices, rituals, and folklore associated with the holiday, with some having an exclusively Christian character and others being more cultural or secular. These traditions have evolved significantly over the centuries, with celebrations taking on different qualities or atmospheres depending on the period and geographical region. Christmas Day, including its vigil, is a Festival in the Lutheran Church, a Solemnity in the Roman Catholic Church, and a Principal Feast of the Anglican Communion.
Other Christian denominations place importance on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day, similar to other Christian feasts like Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. Attending a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day church service is important for Christians, as Christmas and Easter are the periods of highest annual church attendance. A 2010 survey found that six in ten Americans attend church services during this time, while the Church of England reported an estimated 2. 5 million people attending Christmas services in 2015.
Why do you kiss under the mistletoe?
The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe originated in ancient Greece during the Saturnalia festival and later in marriage ceremonies due to its association with fertility. During the Roman era, enemies would reconcile their differences under the mistletoe, symbolizing peace. Romans also decorated their houses and temples with mistletoe in midwinter to please their gods. A Nordic myth tells of Frigga, the goddess of love, who was killed by Loki, the god of mischief, and revived her son under the mistletoe tree.
Frigga granted protection from death and a kiss to anyone standing under the mistletoe tree. In Victorian England, kissing under the mistletoe was considered serious business, with refusal to kiss causing marriage proposals to be delayed and a woman likely to become an old maid.
What are the traditions of Christmas?
Christmas Day, celebrated on December 25 in the United States, has been a federal holiday since 1870. The holiday began in the middle of winter, with early Europeans celebrating light and birth during the darkest days of winter. In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21 through January, setting large logs on fire to celebrate the return of the sun. The people feasted until the log burned out, which could take up to 12 days. Each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf born in the coming year.
The end of December was a perfect time for celebration in most European regions, as most cattle were slaughtered to avoid winter feeding and fresh meat supplies were scarce. Additionally, most wine and beer made during the year were fermented and ready for drinking.
What is the ritual of Christmas?
Christmas is a holiday celebrated with various rituals, including decorating a tree, singing carols, hanging mistletoes, donating to the needy, attending midnight mass, exchanging gifts, baking cookies, and spending time with loved ones. Children often leave warm milk and cookies for Santa at night, hoping to receive gifts. The mythical figure of Santa Claus, based on Saint Nicholas’ traditions, lives in the North Pole with his helper elves. On Christmas Eve, Santa Claus rides on his sleigh to give gifts to children.
Why do the Dutch have two Christmas days?
The Dutch people were permitted to engage in festivities for four days, which was eventually reduced to two days. The church lobbied for the preservation of the second Christmas Day, which was initially at risk of being eliminated. Their objective was to encourage people to attend church for two days, in a manner similar to Easter and Pentecost.
What is the traditional way of Christmas?
Christmas is a time of exchange of gifts, home decoration, parades, prayer, and sharing food and drink. Theobroma offers hampers filled with delicious items like brownies, macarons, marzipan, ginger cookies, almond rocks, and chocolates. They also have a Christmas Special menu featuring classic stollen, chocolate orange stollen, chocolate coated gingerbread men, Christmas tarts, trifle pudding cup, Christmas chocolate cup, Christmas cake, and its eggless version.
Family traditions like watching holiday movies, sipping on eggnog, or cooking elaborate feasts are also treasured. Christmas traditions around the world are unique and hold special relevance to elevate the occasion.
What happens during the 12 days of Christmas?
The original twelve days of Christmas were a series of religious feast days in medieval and Tudor England, starting on Christmas Day and lasting until 5 January. Tudors celebrated Christmas through various traditions, including fasting for four weeks leading up to it and on Christmas Eve, which meant not eating meat, cheese, or eggs. This fasting made the thought of a big Christmas Day feast even more exciting. Today, many people enjoy chocolate advent calendars to count down the days to Christmas.
How is Christmas practiced?
Many Americans celebrate Christmas by decorating a Christmas tree with ornaments and lights, and opening wrapped presents on December 25. Christians may attend church the night before or on the day, which includes a retelling of Jesus’s birth. Some workplaces, friends, and families also play games involving presents, such as Secret Santa and Yankee Swap/White Elephant. If you know of a specific celebration you or someone you know participates in, please share it in the comments or if you think we made a mistake. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but we want to correct any errors.
📹 Christmas traditions in Great Britain
Wotksheet: https://bit.ly/3R8yZtH Christmas Jeopardies Game: https://bit.ly/3RqQYNj Christmas Theme: https://bit.ly/47SzBe4 …
These shows made me realize how lucky we are today. I love the way everyone helped each other out during these times, but everything was so much harder. I’m grateful to have been born when I was. These shows were all so awesome, I loved all of the farm series. I wish they had done more shows, I grew to love Tom and Alex and Peter and Ruth and I rewatch the shows over and over again just to see them.
I love everything that Ruth Goodman does….She’s not a bit timid or afraid or squeamish to “get her hands dirty” handling whatever she needs to – which, BTW, would turn my stomach. God love her!!! Her enthusiasm for history is so genuine and she is the hardest working “teacher” that desires nothing more than to present history in the most authentic way as possible. I consider myself one of her many “students,” and I live in NC. She is absolutely incredibly AWESOME!! Let me quickly add the answer to the question often asked “If you were stranded …on an island, on a mountain, in a secluded cabin in Alaska – almost anywhere really – (LMBO), who would you want to be stranded with?” Answer (without hesitation): Ruth Goodman, especially since I want to survive – LMBO!! Thank you Ruth, Peter and everyone who works so hard to bring us these series. Blessings from the USA! 🇺🇸❤️🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️🇺🇸
13:59 this is just insane to me like, I can go to my pantry right now and have each of those spices in a ready-to-use little container, or at the very least go to the grocery store and buy said spices altogether for less than an hours worth of pay based on my personal hourly income. This is one of my favorite things about history, is that it shows how far we’ve come as a civilization just to have cinnamon ready to go on a shelf in my pantry. In fact, if I’m feeling fancy, I can buy the cinnamon bark stick things 😅 and grind the cinnamon myself. I just love those little moments where you can compare life today verses life back then
Good God I have missed these three, absolutely love them and to a degree envy them that they can live it again, in the raw. Then I am old and used to hearing about it and smiling,. because I can have a hot cup of tea at the touch of an electric kettle. These three amazing people are just that, amazing, and incredible that they live the life to show us all how it goes.
congratulations ruth! you were fantastic. the acting even better than Katherine Hepburn in Golden Pond! i really find all of you so successful. thx for giving us a chance to experience life style in tudor age. as a classical archaeologist, i am quite fascinated with all i learn here… tallow candles, stooking sheaves, laying gorse under barley, alexanders, primrose, dandelion, hyssop as winter staples, pies made in coffins, fish, puffin, seals… stone masonry, carpentry, iron smelting and even steel production. absolutely fantastic!!!
I kept a subsistence farm in S. Ohio. I was not yet 30, but the only one with any experience, and much of that was from books. I will never forget the look on my husband’s face, when I’d cut around the pig’s head, seized it by the ears, and twisted it off with that distinctive sound! Luckily, our pig’s head went to a Mennonite Sister for souse meat. I didn’t even have to brush his teeth!
Every time I watch Ruth, Peter, and Tom, I learn new things and understand the past better. Of course roles were reversed: someone became the lord of Misrule; a boy became a bishop. It was a time of reversal, just as the sun itself was reversing; bringing long days out of short ones. Our ancestors understood the pattern of the universe and imitated it.
I wayched this years ago when I had cable, it was through PBS or TVO, it’s possible both stations aired it as EVERY series, not just this special, was FANTASTIC! Now that ll have found this on Utube it is on my Christmas playlist!👍🏻😃 I love how Peter loves his little piglets, but how do you not– adorable beyond words!❤️🐷❤️ Happy 2024 to the uploader of this great Christmas share, thank ❤️ you!! 👍🏻😃🐾🌈☮️🇨🇦
I wouldn’t have made it as a farmer back then. Just because I like pigs, really. I tended to a pig at my first job as a young teen. I grew to like her a lot. I left the farm job to return to school in the fall but still babysat for the farming family. Poor Gertie, my old friend the pig, was packed up in pieces in their freezer. That bothered me so much I had nightmares. Surely, I would have perished for my lack of courage to kill, butcher and eat a pig in the olden days.
Upon seeing the kids in church n singing in their red n white robes, (36:09) I was thinking they must be Catholic! – When I was younger, maybe 15 years ago, I used to “Serve” as they called it and help during Mass on Sundays at a local Catholic church that my Mom still attends weekly. I wore those exact red n whites at church! I thought that was so awesome I could relate to it! Then he started praying the Our Father prayer. =P I’m still Catholic, I just never go to Church anymore. I should start attending again more frequently, I know.
I like perusal about history once in a while, to learn of what people were doing during the Dark ages and during the Renaissance age. In America this is not mentioned in school’s as a history lesson. Christmas has been around for two thousand years, and no one wants to teach the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior in school’s anymore. That is a very important lesson in human history, the birth of Jesus Christ two thousand years ago.
Смотрела фильмы о разных фермах много лет назад на Виасат Хистори. Хорошо, что сейчас в яндекс браузере есть автоматический перевод с нескольких языков на русском и я смогу снова посмотреть любимые фильмы в любое время. Эта серия фильмов кажется не переводилась на русский язык. Ранее я смотрела её только на английском, возможно с субтитрами, которые переводились с английских субтитров.
I had a P10 which they have since discontinued. It would use 15 rd S&W mags . Once I mastered the long DA trigger it shot very accurately. I wrote them in 2000 and said they should offer a full size model with 18 rounds. The design was simple and effective. Glad to see the pistol released late, maybe too late.
Ah Ruth (you look SO like my Nanny, gone these 43 years), you need a hand in the kitchen with that pig’s head. I am very much enjoying this, one week before Christmas as it is, and picturing my Nanny in your place, teen-me alongside to hold the head up, as she barks orders and laughs. If our pig’s head came out flat, I’d imagine she’d have been furious. Such a perfectionist. I hate to see you alone in that kitchen, fighting that big task. Cooking together for the Christmas feast, just like we did when I was a girl, it was such an important part of the holiday. Neither of my (now grown) daughters are very interested. Maybe the grandchildren will be, in a few years? Well, off to plan my logistics for 8 pies, 2 rolled, stuffed turkey breasts, 1 ham, a vat of stuffing, and whatever else I can fit in. Who will do it when I’m gone? Ruth, I’m keeping very careful notes on all of my recipes, some from wood-stove era, hoping to leave no “assumption of knowledge” gaps, just in case.
Christmas is not a baptized pagan holiday. I’m disappointed since this website claims to be history. It is not about celebrating the solstice. Early church tradition holds the incarnation and the death of Jesus happened in the same day (March 25th for the western tradition and April 6th in the east, hence 12 days of Christmas for the difference) add 9 months and you have December- January area.
As much as I like this, that statement about no professional men-at-arms is as far from the truth as possible. The late 15th and 16th centuries were the peak of professional mercenaries, peasant levies were at the lowest they got until the practice was dropped altogether, and forced conscription/drafts were similarly rare. While the archery requirements were indeed in practice at this time, most of the soldiers were professional. The subsequent Henry VIII drew extensively on landsknechts in particular.
Can we please bring back Catholic Christendom?!?..especially the English pre-reformation way of doing things?..St. Jude, Saint of things almost despaired of, make it so!..I earnestly invoke thy aid, in this, this great matter that is impossible without thy help! St. Thaddeus O.P.N…- God bless Mary protect +++
Christmas was not a “rare” time for recreation. Apart from the hard work required to survive, before the Reformation in Britain, the calendar was stuffed with feast days. It’s Protestantism’s grim work ethic and need to control the working masses that did away with all the saints’ days and their revels and associated foods. In Catholic countries you’ve still got saints’ days throughout the year, and although the Protestant work- and profit-oriented model has taken over, it’s still possible to celebrate almost daily in the Catholic calendar because of one feast day or another. Sundays are non-fasting days even in Lent and Advent.
Great educational production. But, PLEASE, tell Ruth to turn down the VOLUME of her voice. Her constant shrill screeching pierces my eardrums! Even in your boisterous crowd scenes, her shrill voice is heard above THE ENTIRE crowd. Love your series, but I rarely watch due to Ruth’s annoying voice and borderline hysterical overly-zealous demeanor. It’s all cringe worthy. SHE is the reason I DON’T watch.
Very hypocritical in the UK. Most people don’t believe in Christ, yet celebrate Christmas in the most blasphemous way for their own gratification. Just an excuse to be off work, get drunk and eat to much without ever giving the true meaning a seconds thought. Please don’t celebrate it if you don’t believe in it. You’re teaching your children blasphemy
If you people believe in God and His Son Lord Jesus and want to enter His Kingdom, then you need to live based on what He commanded to the children of Israel. That is to live holy life. Holy life means obedience to the laws and commandments of God. They are written in the Law of Moses, Books of the Prophets and Testimony of the Lord Jesus. Whoever does it is worshipping God in Spirit and in truth. Christmas, thanksgiving, new year, birthday, and all celebrations are called pagan celebrations or statutes of the nations. The Lord God said He abhors pagans for dishonoring His laws and commandments. They follow their own cultures and traditions and forget the holy celebrations of God as the Sabbath, Passover, and Feast of Tabernacle. So He destroys them for committing such thing. Leviticus 18 Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments. Leviticus 20:23 And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them. Jeremiah 10 Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples futile; For he cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.