MERRY CHRISTMAS

May your Christmas be wrapped in happiness and

tied with love

What is Christmas?The Christmas also called Easter is one of the most important festivities of Christianity, along with Easter resurrection and Pentecost. This solemnity, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem, is celebrated on December 25 in the Catholic Church, the Anglican Church, some Protestant communities and most Orthodox Churches.English speakers use the term Christmas, whose meaning is 'mass (mass) of Christ'.

Where does Christmas come from?Although the exact date of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth is not recorded in either the Old Testament or the New Testament (Bible), December 25th has been significant in the ancient peoples who celebrated during the winter solstice in the hemisphere North (since December 21). Adoption to that date was made centuries after.

Important things of Christmas

• The Christmas tree • Santa Claus • Three wise men • Nougat • Roscón de reyes

The Christmas treeThe Christmas tree remembers the tree of Paradise whose fruits ate Adam and Eve, and where the original sin came; And therefore remember that Jesus Christ has become the promised Messiah for reconciliation. But it also represents the tree of Life or eternal life, because it is perennial type.

Santa ClausSanta Claus stood out for his kindness and generosity with the poorest, always worrying about the good of others. Being still very young, the boy lost his parents, prey to a plague epidemic, and became the heir to a great fortune. At age 19, Nicolas decided to give all his wealth to the needy and to go to Mira with his uncle to dedicate himself to the priesthood. There he was appointed bishop and became patron saint of Turkey, Greece and Russia. In addition he was named Patron of the sailors because, tells a story that, being some of them in the middle of a terrible storm on the high seas and seeing themselves lost, they began to pray and to ask God for the saint's help, and the waters calmed down. St. Nicholas died on December 6th, 345. Since that date is very close to Christmas, it was decided that this saint was the perfect figure to give gifts and treats to the children on Christmas Day.

Three wise men

The Magi of the East (or simply Magi) is the name by which the Christian tradition calls visitors who, after the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, came from foreign countries to pay homage and deliver gifts of great symbolic wealth: gold , Incense and mirra.

NougatThe tradition of eating nougat is due to the fact that the writer and gourmet Antonio Martínez Montiño, cook of the king Felipe II (Century XVI) that served the nougles only for the Christmas season, also wrote in his work "Christmas Conduits", a humorous story In which he mocked with socarronería of the producers of the nougat, since in this story some Easterners visited Jijona and Alicante and they told them that they already knew the turrones and that they had world-wide fame, with that it wanted to know as these craftsmen of the turrón defended Your product.

Roscón de reyesThe custom of celebrating this bull with a toroid form during the Epiphany, when the Three Magi from the East arrived in Bethlehem to give them their three presents - Jesus, incense and myrrh - appeared in the eleventh century, although in Spain there seems to be Than to wait, at least, three hundred years for this tradition to arrive. The celebration, known as "the king of the bean", consisted of choosing a child among the poorest in the town to crown him as king and to give him gifts, clothing and food. This popular commemoration had its mirror at the family level since the house was made the roscón where they introduced a bean and the one who touched the piece with her, was crowned king and was in charge of chairing the table.

Hecho porAmin Belghou El Hadi

4°B