This content is restricted to site members. If you are an existing user, please log in. New users may register below.
The NDN Children and Staff have their Christmas Lunch together.
History of Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve marks the culmination of the Advent period before Christmas that started on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Eve. Many churches will mark the end of Advent with midnight church services.
In Latin America, Christmas Eve marks the end of a nine-day period before Christmas, called ‘Las Posandas’ which represents the none months of labour for the Virgin Mary before she gave birth to Jesus.
Christmas Eve Traditions
Gifts
On the night of Christmas Eve, children around the world will leave food and drink for whoever will come to their house and bring them presents. Who this is, depends on what part of the world you live. It might be Santa Claus or Father Christmas; but in Switzerland, it will be the Christchild who delivers the presents. In Denmark, it’s the Christmas elf; in Sweden, it’ll be a small man and in Finland, it’ll be the Christmas goat!
In Latvia, the custom is that you can open the presents under the Christmas Tree after the Christmas Eve dinner, with a slight twist – before you take your gift, you’ll have to recite a small poem.
Candles
A unique tradition of Christmas decoration in Ireland is a large white candle which is placed at the entrance of the house or in a window. This candle is lit by the youngest child on Christmas Eve. This is a symbol to welcome the Holy Family and the candle can only be extinguished by a girl or a woman named Mary.
Christmas is a worldwide holiday celebrated on Dec. 25. The celebration originated as the Feast of the Nativity in the 4th century by Pope Julius I to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ—the savior in the Christian religion. The date was chosen to coincide with the Roman pagan festival Saturnalia and the winter solstice to help mesh with traditions in the areas where the church wanted to convert people.
History of Christmas Day
Whilst the holiday has a strong grounding in the story of the birth of Jesus, many of the traditions we associate with Christmas have evolved from pre-Christian beliefs and certainly, the traditions have evolved beyond purely a Christian holiday to have a wider secular significance.
The celebration of Christmas in late December is certainly as a result of pre-existing celebrations happening at that time, marking the Winter Solstice.
Most notable of these is Yule (meaning ‘Feast’), a winter pagan festival that was originally celebrated by Germanic people. The exact date of Yule depends on the lunar cycle but it falls from late December to early January. In some Northern Europe countries, the local word for Christmas has a closer linguistic tie to ‘Yule’ than ‘Christmas’, and it is still a term that may be used for Christmas in some English-speaking countries. Several Yule traditions are familiar to the modern celebration of Christmas, such as Yule Log, the custom of burning a large wooden log on the fire at Christmas; or indeed carol singing, which is surprisingly a very ancient tradition.
Under the Julian calendar, the winter solstice was fixed on December 25, and this date was also the day of the popular Roman holiday of Saturnalia, in honour of Saturn, the god of agriculture; which was later superseded by Sol Invictus, a day that bundled up the celebration of several sun based gods into one easy to manage festival.
As Christianity began to take hold across the Roman empire and beyond, the date of when to celebrate the birth of Christ became a bit of an issue, with several different dates proposed.
It wasn’t until 350 AD, when the then Bishop of Rome, Pope Julius I, fixed the official Christmas day on December 25. Unfortunately, Julius, I didn’t show his working out on how he reached this date; some scholars later suggested that it was calculated as nine months after the Annunciation (March 25), when the angel Gabriel is said to have appeared to Mary and told her she would bear the son of God. Whatever the reasoning, it is clear that, just as key pagan sites were being chosen for new churches, so too the date was chosen with the intention to catapult Christmas into becoming a major festival by placing it over the pre-existing pagan festivals.
Christmas Traditions
Mistletoe
Kissing someone who happens to be stood under a sprig of mistletoe is seen as a tradition popularised in Victorian England. However even this relatively modern tradition has much more ancient echoes in that Mistletoe bears its fruit around the time of the Winter Solstice, and its supposed mythical ability to heal and increase fertility.
In Norse mythology, an arrow made from mistletoe killed Balder, who was a brother of Thor. Frigga, Balder’s mother brought him back to life shedding tears that changed the red berries on mistletoe to white. Frigga then blessed the mistletoe and promised a kiss to anyone who passed beneath it.
A hint of Mistletoe’s integration from pagan ceremonies into Christmas tradition is said that the mistletoe plant used to be a tree, and its wood was used to make the cross on which Jesus was crucified. After the Crucifixion, the plant shrivelled to became the parasitic vine we know today.
Carol Singing
As mentioned earlier, the tradition of singing of songs can be traced back to the pagan festivals before the advent of Christmas. Indeed, the word carol is derived from the Greek word “choraulein”, which meant “an ancient circle dance performed to flute music.”
As carols were already an established custom, early Christians made the shrewd decision to integrate Christian songs into the tradition rather than ban the singing.
Most new Christian Carols were written in Latin, which was by the middle ages, a language only used by the church, thus reducing the popularity of the custom.
However, carols received an injection of popularity when St. Francis of Assisi started his Nativity Plays in Italy in 1223, which included songs written in the local people’s language.
The tradition of ‘Modern’ Carol singing flourished in England. Known as Wassailing, it was a chance for peasants to get some much-needed charity from their feudal lords. This singing for money developed in a custom involving travelling musicians who would visit wealthy homes, singing in the hope of receiving money food or gifts in return.
There was a short interruption in 1647 when the Puritans come to power after the English Civil War. The Puritans, under the leadership of Oliver Cromwell, disapproved of the celebration of Christmas. There was even a fine of up to five shillings for anyone caught singing Christmas carols. When King Charles II came back to the throne in 1660, the public singing of Christmas carols was permitted again.
Boxing Day is celebrated on Dec. 26 in the U.K. and British Commonwealth countries, such as Canada and Australia. The holiday originated because in past centuries servants were required to tend to their masters’ families on Christmas; on Boxing Day they were given Christmas gift boxes by their masters and did not have to work, allowing them to share the holiday with their own families.
When is Boxing Day?
This public holiday is celebrated on December 26th in several countries as part of the Christmas holidays.
Typically it will be moved and celebrated on the next working day if December 26th is a Saturday or Sunday.
Traditions of Boxing Day
It has been said that the name of Boxing Day comes from people getting rid of empty boxes from presents after Christmas day. While a beguiling notion, the tradition dates back to England in the middle ages, though the exact origin is debatable
One theory is that it comes from the fact that servants were given their presents in boxes on this day, the 26th being the first working day after Christmas day. This tradition of giving gifts for service extended beyond servants to tradesmen, such as milkmen, butchers, etc.
Another popular theory is that it is named after the custom of priests opening alms boxes in churches after Christmas. These held money which had been donated to the poor and needy in the run-up to Christmas. Some churches still open these boxes on Boxing Day.
Nursery is closed.
Nursery is closed.
This Scottish end to the year may be derived from Norse and Gaelic observances.
Hogmanay is what Scots call New Year’s Eve – December 31st – the big night that marks the arrival of the new year. Its origins reach back to the celebration of the winter solstice among the Vikings with wild parties in late December.
Hogmanay (no one is sure of the origin of the name) traditions include fireworks and torch-lit processions in the cities and bonfires in the rural areas. “First footing” is still observed: it is believed to be good luck for the first foot over the threshold to be that of a dark-haired stranger bearing a piece of coal, shortbread or whiskey. After the midnight chimes, everyone sings “Auld Lang Syne.”
New Year’s Eve is December 31st, the last day of the year, in the Gregorian calendar.
Countries who still use the Julian Calendar observe New Year’s Eve on 13th January.
New Year’s Eve is traditionally celebrated with firework displays across the globe at 00:00 in the local time zones.
History of New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Day was fixed at January 1st in 153 BC, when the two Roman consuls, after whom – in the Roman calendar – years were named and numbered, chose that date, mainly for military reasons.
During the Middle Ages, a number of different Christian feast dates were used to mark the New Year, though calendars often continued to display the months in columns running from January to December in the Roman fashion.
Most countries in Western Europe had officially adopted January 1st as New Year’s Day even before they adopted the Gregorian calendar. This was called Circumcision Style, because it was the date of the ‘Feast of the Circumcision’, which occurred on the eighth day after Christmas Day, and is said to have been the day when Christ was circumcised.
Traditions of New Year’s Eve
“Auld Lang Syne”, written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788, is traditionally sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The words auld lang syne mean “times gone by”.
About 1 million people will gather in New York City’s Times Square to watch the ball drop at midnight on December 31st and mark the arrival of the new year. The Times Square New Year’s Eve ball drop tradition began in 1907 following a ban on the firework display that had taken place since 1904. The first ball weighed 700 pounds and was lit with 100 25-watt lights. The current ball is 12 feet in diameter, weighs 11,875 pounds and is covered 2,688 Waterford crystals, lit by 32,000 LED lights.
“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.”
In Japan, at midnight on Shōgatsu (New Year’s Eve), Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times to ring in the New Year and drive away the 108 evil desires that humans fall prey to. This event is called Joya no Kane and is carried on Japanese radio.
New Year’s Eve is traditionally the time to make New Year’s resolutions, which one hopes to fulfil or abide by in the coming year; such as stop smoking or drinking alcohol, or lose weight or get physically fit.
New Year’s Eve is celebrated in Scotland more than the rest of the UK. This is because Christmas was effectively banned in Scotland from 1560 until 1712 due to the Scottish Reformation and only became a public holiday in 1958. Instead of Christmas, the Scots threw their end of year festivities into New Year, which they call Hogmanay. Rather than have a holiday on New Year’s Eve, the canny Scots give themselves an extra public holiday on the Day after New Year to help recover.
Happy New Year everyone at NDN!What Is the Significance of World Braille Day?
World Braille Day celebrates the importance of Braille as a medium of communication for people who are blind and visually impaired. The day aims to promote awareness of the braille language, which strives to bridge the big divide between ordinary and specially-abled people.
World Braille Day commemorates the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, who is popularly known for inventing a language used by blind and visually impaired people.
The inventor of a widely used touch system of reading and writing for blind people was born at Coupvray, France. Permanently blinded at the age of three by a leatherworking awl in his father’s saddle-making shop, Braille developed a system of writing that used, ironically, an awl-like stylus to punch marks in paper that could be felt and interpreted by people who are blind. The system was largely ignored until after Braille died in poverty, suffering from tuberculosis, at Paris, Jan 6, 1852.
It was the United Nations which, in its proclamation in 2018, decided to observe the event of World Braille Day on January 4.