The difference between European Santa Claus and American Santa Claus.

Every year, 65438+February 25th is the day to commemorate the birth of Jesus, which is called Christmas.

From 65438+February 24th to the following year, 65438+1October 6th is Christmas. During the festival, all countries hold grand commemorative ceremonies. Christmas was originally a holiday, because people pay special attention to it, so it has become a national holiday, the biggest holiday in the country in a year, which can be compared with the New Year. For example, the West celebrates the Spring Festival like China.

Westerners use red, green and white as Christmas colors. When Christmas comes, every family should decorate it with Christmas colors. The red ones have Christmas flowers and Christmas candles. The green one is the Christmas tree. It is the main decoration of Christmas, decorated with evergreen trees such as fir and cypress that have been cut into towers. Colorful lanterns, gifts and paper flowers are hung on it, and Christmas candles are lit.

The contrast between red and white is Santa Claus, who is the most popular figure in Christmas activities. Before going to bed on Christmas Eve, western children should put a sock in front of the fireplace or beside the pillow. When they fall asleep, Santa Claus will put presents in the sock. Playing Santa Claus is also a custom in the west.

The name "Christmas" is short for "Mass". Mass is a church service. Christmas is a religious holiday. We celebrate it as the birthday of Jesus, so it is also called Christmas. On this day, all churches in the world have special ceremonies. But many Christmas celebrations have nothing to do with religion. Exchanging gifts and sending Christmas cards make Christmas a day of universal celebration.

There is a story about the birth of Jesus. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. God even sent the angel Gabriel to Yue Se in his dream, telling him not to abandon Maria just because she was unmarried and pregnant, but to marry her and name the child "Jesus", which means to save people from sin.

When Maria was about to give birth, Rome ordered everyone to declare their household registration in Bethlehem. Yue Se and Mary had to obey.

When they arrived in Bethlehem, it was already dark, but they couldn't find a hotel for the night, only a stable could stay. Just then, Jesus was born! So Mary only gave birth to Jesus in a manger. In order to commemorate the birth of Jesus, later generations designated1February 25th as Christmas, and held mass every year to commemorate the birth of Jesus.

Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus on1February 25th, but no one knows his real date of birth. /kloc-In the 9th century, with the popularity of Christmas cards and the appearance of Santa Claus, Christmas became popular.

The origin of Santa Claus

Christmas is an exciting day, especially for children. I believe everyone is familiar with Santa Claus? Once upon a time, there was an old man named Nicholas who loved to help poor families all his life. Once he helped three poor teenagers and sent them three bags of gold, which saved them from being caught. When Nicholas secretly gave a bag of gold to one of the women, he threw the gold out of a window and fell into a sock on the wall. Therefore, the way to give gifts by wearing Christmas stockings is to ask for candy from door to door!

It is said that on the night of Christmas Eve, the Santa Husbands Association will drive reindeer sleigh full of gifts to send some children who have behaved well in the past year. He would sneak into the house from the chimney and stuff gifts into socks hanging on the bedside. Therefore, children always hang colorful socks on the bedside and put a cup of hot milk next to them to quench their thirst for hard-working Santa Claus and give themselves a big gift.

The next day, every child can't wait to open the ceremony and want to know what reward he got.

In, after a Dutch missionary spread the story of this great philanthropist to the United States, American businessmen publicized the festival with special marketing techniques every year, which made a lot of money, and it also worked well in Japan and other Asian countries. Therefore, the custom of dressing up as Santa Claus to celebrate Christmas has gradually become popular all over the world.

The origin of Christmas tree

1. It is said that around16th century, Germans first placed evergreen pine and cypress branches in their houses as decorations. Later, German missionary Martin Luther put candles on fir branches in the forest and lit them, making them look like starlight leading people to Bethlehem, just as the Magi found Jesus according to the stars in the sky two thousand years ago. Today, people have switched to light bulbs instead of candles.

Legend has it that a long time ago, a farmer met a poor child at Christmas. He received the child warmly. When the child left, he broke a pine branch and put it on the ground. The pine branch immediately turned into a tree, and the tree was covered with gifts to thank the farmer for his kindness.

However, the Christmas tree really appeared at Christmas, first seen in Germany, and then introduced to Europe and America, becoming an indispensable ornament for Christmas. They usually use colorful lights, wax, gifts or angels to install Christmas trees, especially people living in the northwest of the United States. Because the local forest resources are rich, they will choose a real tree as a Christmas tree with their whole family. There are many kinds of Christmas trees, including natural pine and cypress trees, artificial Christmas trees and white Christmas trees. Every Christmas tree is covered with dazzling decorations, but there must be a very big star at the top of each tree, just like the star that guided the Magi to find Jesus. Moreover, in traditional customs, only the head of the family can hang this star of hope, and no one else can intervene.

The origin of Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is also called Christmas Eve. That night, the whole family will gather in the living room, sing Christmas songs around the Christmas tree, exchange gifts, share the joys and sorrows of life in the past year, and express their inner blessings and love. On this night, I will see a lovely little boy or girl, playing the guitar with a poem in her hand and singing one poem after another. How on earth did the Jiayin team come from this festival?

On the night of Jesus' birth, a shepherd who was herding sheep in the wilderness suddenly heard a voice from the sky telling them the good news of Jesus' birth. According to the Bible, Jesus came to be the king of the world, so angels spread the news to more people through these shepherds.

Later, people followed the example of angels and spread the news of the birth of Jesus everywhere on Christmas Eve. Until today, good news has become an indispensable program for Christmas.

Usually, the good news team consists of about twenty young people, plus a little girl dressed as an angel and Santa Claus. On Christmas Eve, after about nine o'clock, a family began to hear good news. Whenever the good news team goes to a family, they will sing some familiar Christmas songs first, then the little girl will read the Bible to let the family know that tonight is the birthday of Jesus, then everyone will pray together and sing a poem or two, and then the generous Santa Claus will send Christmas presents to the small hall of that family, and the whole good news process will be completed!

The whole good news activity will last until about four o'clock the next morning.

The legend of Santa Claus

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The legend of Santa Claus appeared in Scandinavia thousands of years ago. In Norse mythology, Odin, the god of wisdom, art, poetry and war, rode his eight-legged horse around the ends of the earth in winter to punish evil and promote good and distribute gifts. At the same time, his son Thor, dressed in red, used lightning as a weapon to fight the god of ice and snow in the dark and finally defeated the cold. According to pagan legend, Santa Claus is a descendant of Odin. There is also a legend that Santa Claus comes from Saint Nicholas, so Santa Claus is also called Saint Nicholas. Because most of these stories carry forward the spirit, their origins and story plots are mostly forgotten, but Santa Claus lives in people's spiritual world forever.

Every Christmas, Santa Claus rides on Aries, and the holy boy comes to the world with a Christmas tree. With the change of the world, writers and artists began to describe Santa Claus as a familiar image today, dressed in red and with a white beard. At the same time, different countries and cultures have different interpretations of Santa Claus. In Germany, it is said that he dressed up as a holy boy and put nuts and apples in children's shoes. He travels around in a two-wheeled carriage, observing people's behavior, especially children. If he behaves well, he will get many prizes, such as apples, nuts and sugar. Bad boys get whipped. Parents had a brainwave and used this legend to encourage their children to obey. It has greatly surpassed the New Year and become a national holiday. Santa Claus has become the most popular symbol and tradition of Christmas. The image of a happy old elf driving a reindeer and pulling a sleigh full of toys and gifts to give gifts to every child from house to house has been deeply left in people's memory.

165438+ Religious soldiers from Italy brought the relics of Saint Nicholas back to Italy at the end of the 20th century and built a church in the port city of Bari to commemorate him. Soon, people from all over the world flocked to worship the saint. These pilgrims brought the story of saint nicholas back to their homeland, so the legend about Santa Claus has its own characteristics in different countries.

/kloc-in the 0/2 century, St. Nicholas's Day appeared in Europe, with giving gifts and charitable activities as the main activities. Germany, France and the Netherlands take 65438+February 6th as a religious memorial day to give gifts to children.

When the Dutch colonists came to America, they took their bishop Cindy Glass with them. Sintirklass is wearing a red cassock and riding a white horse. Cindy glass's American image has gradually evolved into a happy old elf. At first, American writer washington irving described him as a round and fat Dutch old man in his comedy The History of new york. In the novel, the poet ClementMoore continued to dramatize the image of Sintirklass/SaintNicholas in his poem Impression of St.Nicholas, which is the Santa Claus you saw at the beginning of this article.

In the 65438+60s, cartoonist ThosNash drew a fat and kind Santa Claus as an illustration of Harper's Week. The image of Santa Claus began to take root in the hearts of Americans. With the passage of time, the image of Santa Claus has been transmitted back to Europe, South America and the whole world.

Many countries have kept their own customs and legends about Santa Claus. According to Dutch legend, Santa Claus Sintirklass also arrived by boat with an assistant named BlackPeter on February 6, 65438. He brought a big book describing the performance of all Dutch children in the past year. A good boy gives them presents, and a bad boy is taken away by his assistant.

German Santa Claus will also bring an assistant named KnechtRuprecht ruprecht, Krampus or Pelzebock, with a big bag of gifts on his shoulder and a stick in his hand. A good boy can receive his gifts, and a naughty boy will teach him some sticks.

Santa Claus in Italy is called Rabefana; ; Santa Claus in France is called FatherChrists or PereNoel；; Santa Claus in Switzerland is called Christkindl or ChristChild；; Santa Claus in Scandinavia is called julenisse or juletomte；; In Britain, Santa Claus, like France, is also called Santa Claus. His image is more solemn and thinner than other Santas. Santa Claus in North America takes a sleigh pulled by reindeer to give presents to children.

[Excerpted from Christmas of the Century]

The legend of Christmas socks

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A long time ago, there was a kind-hearted nobleman whose wife died of illness, leaving him and his three daughters. The aristocrat tried many inventions and failed, but he had no money, so they had to move to a farmhouse, and his daughters had to cook, sew and clean themselves.

A few years later, the daughters gradually reached the age of marriage, but the father was even more depressed because he had no money to give his daughters a dowry. One night, after washing clothes, the daughters hung their socks in front of the fireplace to dry. St Nicholas learned about their father and came to their door that night. He saw from the window that the whole family was asleep, and he also noticed the girls' stockings. Immediately, he took out three small bags of gold from his pocket and threw them into the chimney one by one, just falling into the girls' stockings.

The next morning, the daughters woke up to find that their socks were full of gold, which was enough for their dowry. The nobleman was able to see his daughter get married with his own eyes and lived a happy life from then on.

Later, children all over the world inherited the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings. Children in some countries have other similar customs, for example, in France, children put their shoes by the fireplace and so on.