Christmas is a magical holiday. You give gifts to the ones you care about, eat together, and enjoy the time you have with those you love. Christmas has a long history, but here are a few facts about Christmas that you may not know about…yet!
1. A festival called ‘Saturnalia’ was the original Christmas.
‘
Saturnalia
‘ was a Roman holiday that consisted of merrymaking, decorating, and gift exchanging. When the Roman Empire started to embrace Christianity, the holiday meant to celebrate the Roman god Saturn turned into one celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.
2. Was Jesus born on December 25?
Researchers have been figuring out clues along the way that suggest that Jesus Christ may have been born after December. They say with the presence of
Shepards and sheep
, it could have been Spring time. With ‘Saturnalia’ already celebrated on the 25th of December, church officials decided to go with that date instead of anything in the Spring since Easter is in that season.
3. Coca-Cola is the reason Santa Claus has an image.
Thanks Coca-Cola for the image of Santa Claus!
4. Mistletoe kisses come from Norse mythology.
According to legend
, the Norse god Baldur was killed by a mistletoe arrow. Somehow, Baldur was resurrected back to life, and his mother Frigg then declared the mistletoe as a symbol of peace and promised to kiss anyone who passed underneath one.
5. How do we track Santa Claus?
During the Cold War in 1955, a general at the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado received a call from a wrong number. Instead of getting a call about Russia, it was a little boy asking if it was really Santa Claus. Even though it was a secret phone number, a newspaper accidentally published their number instead. The general on the phone was a good sport and told him they tracked Santa’s location instead. The agency now known as NORAD has been tracking his location every year since.
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