How did Valentine become the patron saint of lovers?

In 270 AD, the mad Roman emperor Claudius II outlawed marriage because he believed married men made for bad soldiers. Ignoring the emperor, Bishop Valentine continued to marry young lovers in secret until his disobedience was discovered and he was sentenced to death. As legend has it, he fell in love with the jailer’s blind daughter, and through a miracle he restored her sight. On his way to execution, he left her a farewell note ending in, “From Your Valentine.”

What is the origin of the New Year’s song Auld Lang Syne?

The tone and lyrics of Auld Lang Syne seem to capture perfectly the emotions involved in the passing of the fleeting accomplishments and losses of one calendar year coinciding with the rise of hope in a new one. Auld lang syne is Scottish and literally means “old long since,” or, in modern language, simply “long ago.” The song was written down by the poet Robert Burns, but he wasn’t the composer. Burns heard the folk song being sung by an anonymous old man and copied it down before passing it on to become a ceremonial fixture of New Year’s Eve.

When exactly are the twelve days of Christmas?

The twelve days of Christmas are the days separating December 25 and the Epiphany, or the date of Christ's baptism, which is January 6 - the legendary date that the three Wise Men visited the stable with their gifts. It was once the custom to pile up gifts on December 25 and then distribute them over the days leading to January 6. In North America, the tradition is now only a memory through the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

How much would all the gifts cost in "The Twelve Days of Christmas"?

Because the golden rings are pheasants and not jewelry, the most expensive item in "The Twelve Days of Christmas" would be the seven swans a-swimming, at US$7,000, followed by ten lords a-leaping and nine ladies dancing. The currents price of a partridge in a pear tree is $34, which is the hourly rate for eight maids a-milking. So when everything is added up, the tap is $15,944.20

How did turkey become the traditional Christmas dinner?

Up until the nineteenth century, mincemeat pie was the common Christmas feast in both North America and Europe, with preferred birds being pigeon, peacock, guinea hen, and goose. Turkey was introduced from America to Europe by the Spanish in the sixteenth century and caught on big time in 1843 after Ebenezer Scrooge sent a turkey to Bob Cratchet in the Charles Dickens story A Christmas Carol.

Why are Christmas songs called “carols”?

A Christmas carol is a song of religious joy, but the musical form of a carol doesn’t have to include Christmas. Its main feature is the repetition, either musically or chorally, of a theme, as in a circle. The word carole entered English from the French at the end of the thirteenth century, but it’s much older than that. Originally, a carole was a ring dance where men and women held hands while dancing and singing in a circle.

Was Rudolph the only name of the red-nosed reindeer?

In 1939, when Robert May, a copywriter for Montgomery Ward, wrote a promotional Christmas poem for that Chicago department store, its principal character was “Rollo” the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but the corporate executives didn’t like that name, nor did they approve of May’s second suggestion, “Reginald.” It was May’s four-year-old daughter who came up with “Rudolph,” and the title for a Christmas classic.

What was the original meaning of merry in “Merry Christmas”?

Today, merry, as in “Merry Christmas,” suggests gaiety, a mood for celebration, but its original meaning was quite different. For example, the carol we sing as “God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen,” should read “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen.” The word was at least four hundred years old when it was first written down in 1827, and at that time merry didn’t mean joyous, but rather, peaceful or pleasant.

How did Father’s Day get started?

During a Spokane, Washington, Mother’s Day service in 1910, a Mrs. Sonora Dodd thought of how she and her five brothers had been raised on a small farm by her single father. She proposed a Father’s Day celebration, but although it caught on locally, it was a political hot potato and didn’t receive permanent recognition until an edict by President Richard Nixon in 1972. Father’s Day is now the fifth-largest card-sending occasion in North America.

What happened to the man who outlawed Christmas?

In 1643, the English Puritan parliament frowned on the pagan rituals of Christmas and banned its celebration after William Prynne published his anti-Christmas manifesto. Clergymen were imprisoned for so much as preaching on December 25. After several years of rioting against the ban, King Charles II arrested Prynne and had him pilloried then had both his ears cut off while the manifesto was burned in front of him. The king re-established Christmas celebrations, but not before having Prynne expelled from Oxford and the legal profession.

How did holly become associated with Christmas?

No one knows the exact date of Christ’s birth, although May 30 is the most popular scholastic guess. December 25 was chosen early in the fourth century in an effort to convert those of other religions who celebrated the winter solstice. Holly was a prominent part of pre- Christian winter celebrations and was used to bring others into the fold by using its leaves to symbolize a crown of thorns and its red berries to symbolize Christ’s blood at the crucifixion.

Why do we kiss under the mistletoe?

Two centuries before Christ’s birth, the Druids celebrated the winter solstice with mistletoe because it enhanced fertility and was a favourite of the gods. The Romans hung it prominently during orgies, which is how it became associated with kissing and also why the church banned it in the fourth century. The name mistletoe is from the Germanic word mista, meaning “manure” or “dung,” because the plant grows out of oak trees well-fertilized by bird droppings.

What are we saying when we sing “Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly”?

The middle Dutch word decken meant “to cover or adorn” and came from dec, which originally meant any cover, such as a tarpaulin or a roof, and was borrowed into English as a nautical term in the fifteenth century. Although today a backyard deck might mean a wooden patio, a ship’s deck was not a floor but a roof to cover cannons. The Christmas carol “Deck the Halls” is saying simply “cover the walls” with boughs of holly.

Why is Thanksgiving celebrated six and a half weeks earlier in Canada than in the United States?

It took two hundred years after the pilgrims first celebrated Thanksgiving in 1621 before it became an annual holiday in the U.S. It was Sarah Hale, the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” who convinced Abraham Lincoln to create the annual celebration in 1863. Canada went along in 1879, but because of a shorter growing season changed the date in 1957 from the end of November to the second Monday in October.

What is the origin of Boxing Day?

Beginning in the Middle Ages, Boxing Day was known as St. Stephen’s Day in honour of the first Christian martyr. Although unknown in the United States, Boxing Day is still observed in Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. It’s called “Boxing Day” because on the day after Christmas, the well-off boxed up gifts to give to their servants and tradespeople, while the churches opened their charity boxes to the poor.

How much weight does the average person gain over Christmas?

In the Middle Ages, Christmas banquets started at three in the afternoon, with appetizers and fortified mulled wine followed by ten main courses, and lasted until midnight. Today, over the holidays, North Americans consume 24 million turkeys and 112 million cans of cranberries. We drink 108 million quarts of eggnog and 89 million gallons of liquor. The average weight gain over the Christmas holidays is four to six pounds.

What were the bizarre ingredients of history’s most exotic Christmas pies?

An early English saying was, “The devil himself dare not appear in Cornwall during Christmas for fear of being baked in a pie.” Records show that living creatures from blackbirds to pheasants, from foxes to rabbits, and in one case even a dwarf, were cooked into Christmas pies at temperatures not hot enough to kill them. Then, as a festival highlight, the crust was broken, and the enclosed creatures would fly, hop, or run among the guests.

How much would all the gifts cost in “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?

Because the golden rings are pheasants and not jewellery, the most expensive item in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is seven swans aswimming, at US$7,000, followed by ten lords a-leaping and nine ladies dancing. The current price of a partridge in a pear tree is $34, which is the hourly rate for eight maids a-milking. So when everything is added up, the tab is $15,944.20.

Where did the customs of Halloween come from?

The ancient Celts celebrated October 31 as New Year’s Eve. They called it “All Hallows Eve.” They believed that on that night, all those who had died in the previous twelve months gathered to choose the body of a living person or animal to inhabit for the next year before they could pass into the afterlife. The original Halloween festival included human sacrifices and scary costumes, all designed to protect the living from the dead.

Why do we carve jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween?

In Irish folklore, a supreme con man named Jack, or “Jack-o,” once tricked the Devil himself. Upon his death, his sins barred him from heaven, and because he had once fooled the Devil he couldn’t enter hell. After a lot of begging he finally persuaded Satan to give him one burning ember. Placed in a hollowed-out turnip it served as a lantern to light his way through the afterlife. Later in North America, the plentiful pumpkin replaced turnips for use as “Jack-o’s lanterns.”