Tuesday 17 April 2012

Free Essays-Art and Culture- Christmas-The merriest time of the winters


Christmas-The merriest time of the winters

            December 25th , the day to celebrate the birth of Lord Jesus Christ is here again. Colourful decorations and twinkling stars adorn the whole world that celebrates with zest the festival of Christmas. As the Christmas day dawns, it nears the end of a period of feverish activity. Preparations for the festivities begin nearly a month in advance. It is almost vacation time in western countries. Spick and span homes with new furnishings are readied to welcome the Lord Jesus. Christmas cakes and puddings are shopped as well as made at home. For the traditional taste and flavour dried fruits and nuts are soaked in rum to be used in the cakes and puddings for the big day. Various types of cookies and other sweetmeats are made and stored in advance.

            It is definitely a time to shop. Shopping malls wear entirely a festive look with colourful Christmas decorations lining the shop windows. Bargain sales for gifts, clothes, toys jewellry and household goods are the main attraction of the season. Cutouts of Santa Claus as well as live Santa i.e., persons in disguise of Santa dressed in red clothes and with a long flowing white beard play with the children and hand them over small gifts. Soft music and Christmas carols are played everywhere createing a pleasant atmosphere of warmth and comfort. Shouts of joy and ringing of the bells signify the importance of the Birth of Christ. Since medieval times, church bells have been rung on Christmas morning to announce to the world the coming of the Saviour.

            India being a secular country, celebrates Christmas with the same fervour as festival of other religions such as Holi, Dusshera, Diwali, Id and Guru Purab. Not only Christians but also non-Christians celebrate the festival with the same zeal and enthusiasm as anywhere else in the world.

            The Midnight Mass precedes the Christmas day and the church resounds with the joyful singing of Christmas carols and thanksgiving. Many a event are organized in the churches to celebrate the Christmas. These include Christmas lunch, fete and choir festivals. The money collected from the events is used for charity works, for the development of the church and spreading the messages of Lord Jesus Christ. Churches also organise carol singing practices at least a month in advance. Carol singing is also organized at the residences of the Prime Minister and the President of India.

            At home families prepare cakes, cookies and traditional Indian sweets. The Christmas dinner is an important affair, where the whole family sits down together for the meal - Christmas cake, Christmas pudding and roasted chicken or turkey and numerous other dishes.

            Christians in the country decorate banana or mango trees. They also light small oil-burning lamps as Christmas decorations and fill their churches with red flowers. They give presents to family members and charity to the poor. In South India, Christians put small clay lamps on the rooftops and walls of their houses at Christmas, just as the Hindus do during Diwali.

            Feasting and merrymaking takes precedence at Christmas. Each region of the country has its specialties. But there are some customs and traditions which all love to follow. For example, the Christmas tree is an integral part of the Christmas. Martin Luther gets the credit for introducing the Christmas tree. It is believed that he was walking on Christmas Eve and was so moved by the starlit sky that he took a fir tree home and attached candles to its branches to remind children of the heavens. Tinsel on the Christmas Tree is attributed to a woman whose husband died. She was left to bring up a large family of children by herself and had to work very hard. But she was determined to make Christmas a happy time for her family. She prepared a Christmas Tree to surprise them on Christmas Day. Unfortunately spiders made webs all over it. The Christ Child saw the tree and changed the spiders’ webs to shining silver.

            Quite a time ago, in Scandinavia, even before Christianity came into being, it was a custom to burn Yule logs as a mark of respect to Gods. This continues till date. It is considered good luck to keep an unburnt part of the log to light the next year’s Yule log. This unburnt portion is also believed to protect the home from lightning and fire during the year.

            The quintessential red and white striped candy cane is a much-loved confectionery the world over. The shape is the replica of the crooked canes used by the shepherds who were the first to see Christ. The red stripe represents the sacrifice of both Lord Jesus Christ and his followers and the white stripes are a symbol of purity.

            Hanging the Christmas stocking on the hearth on Christmas Eve in the hope that it would be filled with presents the next morning is a custom that goes back about 400 years. Besides exchanging gifts, hanging gifts on trees and the use of mistletoe at Christmas time are other favourite customs.

            The spirit of Christmas takes on whole of the country with a hope for the betterment of the humanity.

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