Image via WikipediaExchange gifts with your friends and relatives and make your own delicious Plum Cakes along with variety of other Christmas Recipes.
Christmas Celebrations
Modern day celebrations of the Christmas Eve are characterized by exchanging gifts, attending masses, singing Christmas carols, giving Christmas cards to one another, display of various decorations such as lights, candles, mistletoe, nicely decorated Christmas Trees etc.
Christmas festivities continue throughout the 12 days of Christmas and are symbolized by bright fires, the Yule log, exchange of gifts, carnivals (parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house to house, holiday feasts, and the church processions.
The word Mass refers to celebration of the Catholic Church and Christs Mass refers to the celebration of the Catholic Church centered on Jesus Christ or the
Son of God.
The first word Christ has been derived from the Greek word Christos and Mass has been derived from the Latin word Missa.
This is because Chi which is the first letter in the word Christ is represented as X in Greek.
History of Christmas and the Birth of Jesus Christ
Prior to the 18th Century, Christmas was popularly believed to be the birth date of Jesus Christ.
This was because the true date of the birth of Jesus Christ was not known as even the Bible has references to more than one date.
However, the fact is that the history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years to the ancient Mesopotamians.
The Persians and the Babylonians also celebrated a similar festival which was called the 'Sacaea'.
The Romans celebrated their festival which was called Saturnalia to honor their God Saturn.
The celebration included visiting friends, big festive meals, masquerades in the streets and the exchange of gifts.
During this period also the masters and slaves would exchange places.
Initially, the Church forbid this kind of celebration but it was to no avail.
The Church was eventually able be make the Saturnalia festival unpopular by bringing the joy and cheer to the celebration of Christmas.
By the late 300's, Christianity had became the official religion of the Roman Empire and by 1100, Christmas had become the most important religious festival in Europe and Saint Nicholas was a symbol of gift giving in many European countries.
Thomas Nast.
By the 1880s, Nast's Santa had evolved into the form we now recognize.
Santa Claus lives with a large number of magical elves and flying reindeer, Rudolf the reindeer being the most famous with a Christmas Carol after him.
He accomplishes this feat with the aid of elves who make the toys in the workshop and the reindeer that pull his sleigh.
Christmas Tree - A Ravishing Charm
The Christmas tree plays an important role in the celebrations of Christmas and as s part of the Christmas traditions, it is beautifully lit and decorated
with lights, candles, stars, balloons and other decorative materials along with edible goodies.
A Christmas tree is a beautiful sight and sparkles and shimmers with lights and other decorative materials.
I am including a recipe to make delicious Christmas Cookies for all you Christmas lovers out there.
The ingredients are:
3 cups flour Teaspoon Baking Soda Teaspoon Baking Powder 1 Cup Butter at room temperature 2 Beaten Eggs 1 Cup Sugar 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Teaspoon Salt
For Icing (Optional) 1 box Confection Sugar Several Different Small Colored Bottles of food coloring
Preparation:
Put all the dry ingredients together and mix them well.
Remember, both have to be mixed separately.
Take some amount of dough, not more than the amount that fits in your fist and flatten it with the help of a rolling pin on a to about a inch thickness.
Bake for 5-6 minutes and watch the cookies carefully to see when they are of right color.
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