Advent Calendar Day 25: Christ

December 25, 2011

Symbol of Christmas:

Image source

Christ

So I wanted to research the word "Christmas" to see what it really meant.  Basically it means Christ's Mass.  Apparently when people were first celebrating Christmas, the most important part of their celebration was the Mass ceremony.  So they started calling it Christ's Mass (of course this was the Latin version of the words, or maybe Italian, I don't remember) and over the very long years, it evolved into "Christmas."  I also wanted to know what the word "mass" meant but it seems like no one is really sure what it means and I don't have access to a linguist.  Since there is a lot of speculation I won't go into it.  It doesn't really matter anyway.
What I think is important is that we remember Christ today.  As we spend time with family and enjoy all the traditions that come with this special holiday, I hope we can set some time aside to think about our Savior and give thanks for His birth.  I hope we can take a moment to appreciate His life and the sacrifice He made for us.  I am grateful to our Heavenly Father for sending His Son to provide a way that we can return to live with Him again.  I know Jesus Christ is real.  I am grateful for the influence of His gospel in my life.  And I am grateful for this time of year when we can reflect on Him and what He has done for mankind.  I hope you have enjoyed my posts this month.  It has been fun to research the many traditions and symbols of Christmas.  Though I have to say, doing a post every day is kind of hard.  However, I am grateful for all that I have learned and the insights I have gained.
I hope today will be very special as we celebrate Christmas and I hope we can feel the joy of the season and extend it throughout this coming year.
Merry Christmas!

Advent Calendar Day 22: The 25th

December 22, 2011

Symbol of Christmas:

The 25th

I don't know if you could really call this a symbol, but I wanted to do a post about it because a lot of people don't know why we celebrate Christmas on the 25th.  Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, though even though we know he wasn't actually born on December 25th, this is the day we celebrate it.  But why was the 25th of December chosen over any other date?  This site offers a good explanation in a nutshell:

The decision to celebrate Christmas on December 25 was made sometime during the fourth century by church bishops in Rome. They had a specific reason for doing so.
Having turned long ago from worshiping the one true God and creator of all things, many early cultures in the Roman empire had fallen into sun worship. Recognizing their dependence on the sun's yearly course in the heavens, they held feasts around the winter solstice in December when the days are shortest. As part of their festivals, they built bonfires to give the sun god strength and bring him back to life again. When it became apparent that the days were growing longer, there would be great rejoicing.

The church leaders in Rome decided to celebrate Christ's birth during the winter solstice in an attempt to Christianize these popular pagan celebrations. For the most part their efforts failed to make the people conform, and the heathen festivities continued. Today we find ourselves left with a bizarre marriage of pagan and Christian elements that characterizes our modern celebration of Christmas.

I don't think it matters that the traditions at Christmas have evolved so much.  I for one, enjoy everything about Christmas.  But what matters is why we celebrate.  The reason for doing this virtual advent calendar is to help me (and you, if you so choose) to focus my thoughts toward Christ and the reason for celebrating His birth.  I figure if everything about Christmas can be connected to Him somehow, it will be the perfect visual reminder for me so that everything I see or do will remind me of Him.  I really like what the author of the article from this site says about Christmas:

What other event throughout all time is more significant than the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ? ... His is the most significant birth ever. It is the central event in all of history. Time chronicles backward and forward from this moment. I find myself wanting to ask, how can we fail to remember this day with great joy and reverence? How can we not celebrate Christmas?

 I hope we will remember who we are celebrating on the 25th and why we are celebrating.  Christ did so much for us.  The least we could do is acknowledge Him on His day.  I am so grateful for the gift of our Savior, and I am grateful for the love He has for me.  And I am grateful for this time of year when we can honor Him.

Advent Calendar Day 19: Wise Men

December 19, 2011

Symbol of Christmas:

Wise Men

Image source

I feel like I have to do a post about the Wise Men.  I've often wondered about them.  They are a little mysterious, I mean, there is so little written about them and we don't even know that there were three of them.  We just assume that there were because of the three gifts that they gave.  Everything we know about them comes from Matthew 2 in the New Testament and thought it's now much, there are things we can learn from them.  I think they must have been very holy men.  They had knowledge of the scriptures and words of the prophets.  How else would they know what the star meant?  They also understood the importance of the event because they sacrificed a few years in order to make the journey, for Christ was a young child at the time the Wise Men got there (see Matthew 2:11).  This is what stands out to me, and I never really thought about it before.  They must have traveled so far!  I like the Wise Men because they are an example to us of how we should commit ourselves to Christ.  I hope we can understand the importance and significance of His birth, and not take such a wonderful gift for granted.  And if we are wise, we will continue to seek Him always.

I just watched the video "The Wise Men Seek Jesus."  It's one of the new Bible Videos that the church put out recently.  I liked it because they really illustrated well how long of a journey it was for them.  If you haven't seen it yet, you can watch it here.  I watched most of the other ones too (they are only a few minutes long) and they are also very well done.  You can see the other available ones here.

I am grateful for the example of the Wise Men, and all they stand for at Christmas time.  Just as they followed the light of the star to find Christ, I hope we can follow the light of the Gospel, which will also lead us to Christ.

Advent Calendar Day 15: Holly

December 15, 2011

Symbol of Christmas:

Holly

As far as holiday plants go, holly is probably one of the top three we think of, next to the evergreen and poinsettia.  Holly actually has a very old history and I was surprised to find that the use of holly in winter celebrations goes way back before Christianity.  I found a really good site here that gives the details.  These few paragraphs sum it up in a nutshell:

Originally, the holly was a type of offering that was given to the God Saturn by the Romans during the festival of Saturnalia. It was said that the holly was the sacred plant of Saturn and was thus even more valued by the Romans. All images of Saturn are depicted with him with the holly. It is also considered a special gift that was interchanged with a high regard for its symbolism.

At some point the holly became significant to Christians.  [Side note:  Early Christians were persecuted for their beliefs and winter celebrations at that time were not about Christ.  In order to avoid persecution but still be able to celebrate in their own way, they incorporated holly into their decorations to make it seem like they were celebrating the traditional winter festival.]

At first it was placed within decorations that adorned doors as a method of preventing persecution.  The power of the holly as a method of preventing unforeseeable trouble was not limited to the problems that earthly creatures could inflict but also demonic forces. It was believed that hanging the holly on the door of any home would prevent the entry of terrifying specters who were more likely to attack during the holy days. Soon it began getting more mainstream acceptance as an essential symbol of Christmas festivals, as expected the initial purpose of the holly became less recognized by the Christians who used it in yearly celebrations.

Another part of its symbolic significance is related to the crucifixion of Christ who wore a crown of thorns that caused him to bleed from his head. Thus the look of the hollies is similar to the look of Christ's make-shift crown, and the berries symbolize the blood that oozed forth from Christ during his darkest hours....It is not truly known if the Holly was actually used to create the crown that Christ wore, some schools of thought believed this is so, while others believe as suggested before that the holly is merely symbolic of Christ's trials through crucifixion. There are some theories that go further stating that Christ was crucified on a holly tree. Regardless of the view taken the Holly has since been a very important symbol in Christianity...[and] subsequently more of a religious symbol for those who subscribe to this metaphorical depiction of the widely-popular plant.

 I think I'll stick to the traditional Christian metaphor of holly representing the pain that Christ went through during his crucifixion.  Not that I want to remember such a horrible thing, (it really is hard for me to think about) but it is a reminder of why He went through all that.  Actually, I want to insert a scripture here, John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."  And that is why He did it.  He loved us so much that He was willing to go through all that pain and suffering.  Even if it was only for one person, he still would have done it.  This is why He came into this world.  He himself said, "...To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world..." John 18:37.  I truly am grateful for all He did and I am grateful for this Christmas season that we have to honor Him.

Advent Calendar Day 11: Red and Green

December 11, 2011

Symbol of Christmas:

Red and Green
These two complimentary colors together make up the "Christmas Colors."  But why these two?  Why not purple and yellow?
Even before Christ was born, people saw green as the color for life.  They saw that plants like the evergreen and holly stayed green all year.  During the winter solstice they would use these plants in their celebration of the sun's return, symbolizing the return of life in the spring.  As Christians began to celebrate Christmas, churches would preform Paradise plays (if you don't know what a Paradise play is, this site explains it).  Because apple trees were dead in the winter, they used evergreen trees and tied apples to the branches.  It eventually became popular to bring a Paradise tree into the home and this, along with the traditions integrated from winter solstice celebrations (such as evergreen and holly boughs) are the beginning of the "Christmas Colors."  Red from the apples and holly berries, and green from the evergreen boughs and holly leaves.  Because Christmas is about Christ, red also became a symbol of the blood He shed in the garden of Gethsemane.
For me there are no better colors than this.  After all, it is because of Christ and His atonement that we can have eternal life.  The blood He shed was for us.  Each and every one of us.  When we see these colors at Christmas time, we can remember His sacrifice and the wonderful gift it is to us.

Advent Calendar Day 5: Angel

December 5, 2011

Symbol of Christmas:

Angel
In the Nativity story, it was an angel who brought the good news of Christ's birth to the shepherds.  We can find that account in Luke chapter 2.

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.  And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord....And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

At Christmas time, the angel reminds us of the good tidings of great joy, that Christ was born and that He is our Savior.  When we look at the angel on top of the tree, as an ornament, or as part of our Nativity,  I hope we can feel even a small part of the happiness and joy the shepherds must have felt when they saw the multitude of heavenly hosts.  And let's not forget to share that joy and happiness with those around us, not just at this time of year, but always.

A Virtual Advent Calendar

So it is December 1st already (where did the time go?) and it's time to get out the Advent Calendar.  When we were little, we had what we called "The Mousey Calendar."  It was so much fun to count down the days until Christmas.  We would actually fight over whose turn it was to move the mousey to the next pocket.  I wanted to have something fun for my kids, but seeing as how Adam is too little for Mousey Calendars, I figure it can wait another year or two.  Besides, I don't have one yet.  I will probably make one for next year.  But lately, I've been thinking about Christmas and how most people don't even realize what or who Christmas is about.  Every year, as soon as Halloween is over (or earlier) you begin to see Christmas decorations and stuff in the store.  Then, as Thanksgiving approaches, there is the whole Black Friday craze as stores try and get people to hoard all they can in preparation for all the Christmas presents and stuff they think they need.  Thanksgiving is almost forgotten in the attempt to be the first to get the best deal.  I don't have anything against shopping, or getting a good deal, or even shopping on Black Friday.  I've done it, and it has been fun.  But what I don't like is the fact that the world has made it such a big deal, that many people forget to remember and be thankful for what the holiday season really is about.  So this year I have been trying to make a conscious effort to remember to be thankful for all of my blessings and really appreciate what I have.  I think Thanksgiving is the perfect segue into the Christmas season because aside from being thankful for my family, friends and comforts, I am so thankful for Jesus Christ, who gave his life so that I can return to live with my Heavenly Father again.  And it is Jesus Christ's birth that we celebrate at Christmas time.  So in an attempt to remember Christ this holiday season and encourage others to do the same, I thought I would do a virtual Advent Calendar this year.  This is how it works: Every day until (and including) Christmas, I will do a post about a symbol of the holiday, where it came from and what it means.  There are many symbols of Christ at Christmas time that I believe have lost their true meaning.  Because we are celebrating the birth of our Savior, everything should point to, and remind us of Him.  So here it goes!  

December 1, 2011

Symbol of Christmas:

Gifts

One of the main things we think about at Christmas time are gifts.  We buy presents for our family and friends, and Santa leaves presents for good little girls and boys.  That's what we go out shopping for on Black Friday and every weekend until the big day.  I found an explanation from this site on where the tradition of giving gifts originated:

In the Christian religion, the practice of giving gifts at Christmas is traced back to the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh that were given to the Christ child by the three Wise Men. These were kings from the East, who traveled a great distance following a star, to find the Christ child and to bring him gifts. The visit of the Wise Men to the Christ child was originally celebrated on the Feast of Epiphany on January 6th. Over time, the tradition of giving gifts came to be more associated with Christmas than with Epiphany. It is the time from Christmas to Epiphany in the Church calendar – from December 25th through January 6th – that is recognized as the “twelve days of Christmas” from the old Christmas carol. The ancient Church did not “celebrate” Christmas as much as it “observed” Christmas as a holy day.  The tradition of giving gifts to loved ones at Christmas became more and more popular as the middle ages ended and the modern era began. Various countries and peoples began to make gift-giving a regular part of the holy day (or “holiday”) over a period of time. By the time the Americas were settled, giving gifts at Christmas was practiced by many of the settlers. The early Dutch settlers to America introduced St. Nicholas, or Santa Claus, to the new world. The early French and English settlers, in contrast, were more likely to give gifts at New Year’s or at Epiphany.  Ultimately, a common Christmas culture developed in which gifts were given on Christmas. In the nineteenth century, the idea of gift giving took on new dimensions, as the works of O. Henry, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Nast all helped to shape our concepts of Santa Claus and other aspects of the holiday. At times, giving gifts at Christmas becomes almost mechanical, and a chore.  When this happens, it is worth stepping aside for a few moments to consider exactly why you give gifts at Christmas.

Something else that I want to add to this, is that for me, the giving of gifts represents our Savior, who gave us all the most precious gift anyone could give.  He atoned for our sins and this most selfless act of giving his life for all of us can and should be remembered when we give special gifts to those we love. 

I am grateful for my Savior and His gift of the Atonement.  I hope we can all remember that this Christmas season.