Monday, 22 March 2021

IN AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND

 

In Auckland New Zealand

They don’t say Happy Christmas

As it’s built on a strip of land

So instead, they say Merry Isthmus

CHRISTMAS DATE

 

It was in the 4th century when The Catholic Church decided to celebrate Christmas on December 25th.

The idea behind it was a simple enough one in that they wanted to eclipse the festivities of a rival pagan religion that threatened Christianity's existence.

At that time of the year The Romans celebrated the birthday of their sun god, Mithras.

Church leaders decided that in order to compete with the pagan’s they needed a festival of their own at the same time, so they chose to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

And it worked.

XMAS

 

I have always hated the use of Xmas instead of Christmas and in fact I always believed it to be a vulgar Americanism.

Well, I was wrong The Xmas abbreviation for Christmas is in fact of Greek origin as The Greek word for Christ is Xristos.

It was sometime during the 16th century that Europeans began abbreviating Christ’s name with and "X" in Christmas as a form of shorthand for the word.

The 16th century Christians at that time would have understood that X stood for Christ's name.

Unlike 21st century Christians who don’t understand Greek and think using the word "Xmas" is disrespectful or just one more vulgar Americanism.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – COME DANCE WITH ME (2012)

 

Jack (Andrew McCarthy) is an executive in a financial brokerage firm and seems to have it all.

He is a rising star in line for a big promotion and has already impressed the boss, Drew Clayton (Chris Gillett), He is also dating the boss’s daughter’ the beautiful and elegant Demi Clayton (Stephanie Mills).

Jack plans to propose to Demi at her father's lavish annual Christmas Dance but in order to create the perfect impression on the night he signs up for ballroom dance lessons.

Which is when he meets dance instructor, Christine (Michelle Nolden), and the story really begins.

THE TINSEL SYMBOL

 

Tinsel like many things about Christmas is symbolic and what glittering tinsel symbolizes is light and light in all forms was held to have magic qualities in both the pagan and Christian faiths.

Light was the magic against the darkness of winter and was the power of Christ against the forces of darkness.

MY WIFE WAS IN THE KITCHEN

 

My wife was in the kitchen

And I went in to take a look

While she cooked the goose

Just before I goosed the cook

SILENT NIGHT

 

On the morning of Christmas Eve in 1818, an Austrian priest called Joseph Mohr, was told that the church organ was broken and would not be repaired in time for the Christmas Eve service.

He was so saddened at the prospect of Christmas without music that he decided he would try to write a carol that could be sung by the choir and be accompanied by guitar music.

So, Joseph sat down and wrote three stanzas and later that night the people in the little Austrian Church in Oberndorff sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time.