Christmas History
Beginning of paper
The word Christmas comes from the old English "Cristes maesse" meaning Christ's
Mass. The Holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual birthday of
Jesus is not known; therefore, the early Church Fathers in the 4th century fixed
the day around the old Roman Saturnalia festival (17 - 21 ....
Middle of paper
.... came together to create that special Christmas atmosphere.
The custom of gift-giving on Christmas goes back to Roman festivals of
Saturnalia and Kalends. The very first gifts were simple items such as twigs
from a sacred grove as good luck emblems. Soon that escalated to food, small
items of jewelry, candles, and statues of gods. To the early Church, gift-
giving at this time was a pagan holdover and therefore severely frowned upon.
However, people would not part with it, and ....
------------------
Word count: 1237
Page count: 5 (approximately 250 words per page)
