By Margaret Ikladious: Christmas Treasures (1)

Margaret Ikladious

 

Christmas Treasures (1):

 Written by Margaret Ikladious

Christmas comes every year, knocking on the doors of our homes and our hearts.

And we used to celebrate it hundreds of years ago, even if the way of celebrating differed from one place to another, but in the end, it refers to one thing, which is the birth of Christ...

It is mentioned that Christmas is the second most important Christian holiday after Easter worldwide.

And in those celebrations, we may talk with others about the distinctive aspects of the celebration inherited through time, and about things that may occur many questions within some of us and we do not find an answer about them that reached us through time. We do not know their symbolism or significance in that celebration.

Therefore, I decided to take you on an exciting journey of several episodes that carry many meanings and simplified interpretations of most aspects of Christmas, including symbols, colors, customs, traditions, and personalities associated with Christmas and the evolution of the manifestations of its celebration over time.

First: Christmas:

What do you know about the source of Christmas's name?

Why is the Christmas name abbreviated "X mas"? Is this true or false?

It was found that some abbreviate it because the Roman letter "X" is similar to the Greek letter "X," which is "chi." Which is an abbreviation of the name of Christ (Χριστός) Christos.

The word Christmas is made up of two parts:

The first one

(Christ) is the Messiah, which means the Savior, and it is a title for the Lord Christ

It is from the Greek verb "Chris," which means to wipe, and it came in Latin "Christos" and from it in European languages ​​"Christ."

And the second section

It (mas) is derived from a sub-word that means birth. It is a word of ancient Egyptian origins and was transferred to the Coptic language and has the same meaning in the hieroglyphic language. There are no other origins for this word in any Latin languages ​​mas from the Coptic verb (mesi) source. It is the same in the meaning of the hieroglyphics (to give birth) in English, Messiah means diamond, such as Tuthmosis, which means born of Thoth, or Ra Ramses, meaning born of God of the sun, according to the ancient Egyptians.

The word "Christmas" came with the meaning of the birth of Christ or the birth of Christ. It is the hieroglyphic or Coptic language entry into the subject, and this name has no foreign language origins.

This name came from the religious influence of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the first century.

And that day (Christmas) was determined to celebrate, based on King Constantine's choice of this day, as the birth of Jesus, because the ancient Romans at that time were celebrating the same day as the birth of God of sun "Sol Invictus," which was called the "Saturnalia" feast.

December 25 was a holiday for most ancient pagan peoples who worshiped the sun. They celebrated that day because, after December 25, the length of the day increased day by day during the year.

Whereas in the East, January 6 fell on the virginal feast day of the Dionysus. 

The choice of these two days was to combat the long-term pagan influence on the Christian believers, especially the practices that accompanied pagan holidays (such as parties, drunkenness, and prostitution) and an attempt to gradually obliterate the effects of paganism by dyeing them in the Christian character through those celebrations.

The Romans set this date as nine months from the anniversary of the Annunciation of the Angel to Mary, which falls on March 25.

In the ancient Middle Ages, Christmas was considered a secondary celebration or not celebrated at all..!!!

It was known in some European countries in the past that this celebration was preceded by a period of fasting that ranged between four and seven weeks and that fasting ends on that day.

But that pre-Christmas fast was known in some eastern countries, such as Egypt, specifically in the eleventh century..!!!

This was during Pope Christodoulos, the 66th Pope of the See of St. Mark.

And starting from the fifteenth century, the celebration of the Marian month (the month of Kiahk) was added in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

By laying hymns and eulogy for the Virgin and the birth of Christ.

On the other hand, with time, we found that some write Christmas in another form, which is Xmas..!!!

This error is because the "X" whose birth we celebrate refers to the delivery of an unknown person.

  And here, we must differentiate well and not be deceived by saying that the badge x is an abbreviation of the word "Christ." Still, it has now become, unfortunately, an explicit reference to ignoring and denying the owner of the feast (Christ) and not recognizing him, which made many fall into that trap.

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