Christmas

December 25 — Christmas Day

In ancient times, Celts divided the year into four sections marked by Quarter Days -- the days of the two solstices and two equinoxes, on which the seasons begin. Gradually, to conform more closely to the liturgical year of the Christian church, the Quarter Days became identified with the church's high seasonal festivals, which occurred close to the astronomical dates.

Christmas, the fourth Quarter Day, was both the culmination of the old year and the first festival of the new year. The day signaled a time of resting and gathering fertility for a new round of sowing and reaping. This festival merged easily with the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, which was celebrated at this time of year.

December 26 — Boxing Day

Why is the day after Christmas called Boxing Day? The holiday derives from the Old English custom of giving boxes of food or money to servants and tradespeople. Where celebrated (Great Britain, Canada, and Australia), Boxing Day is welcomed as a quiet day of recuperation. It’s also the biggest day of the year for soccer!


The most famous Christmas story is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It was a huge success when it came out in December of 1843 — it sold more than 6,000 copies during its first week in print. It's the story of the mean old miser Ebenezer Scrooge. One Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner, Jacob Marley, and then by three spirits. And he ends up changing his ways and joining in the Christmas spirit.
"A Child's Christmas in Wales," a short story by Dylan Thomas, was published in 1955, and it's still popular today. It's the story of a man remembering his boyhood Christmases spent in Wales. He remembers trying to put out a house fire with snowballs, and Uncles sitting around the fire testing their new cigars. He remembers feasting on turkey and a Christmas pudding. And an uncle playing the fiddle while the family sang — the singing was led by Auntie Hannah, "who had got on to the parsnip wine." And he remembers the Useful Presents, like mufflers and books, and the Useless Presents — false noses, toffees, and candy cigarettes.
"A Child's Christmas in Wales" begins: "One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six."