Stand By Night

Here’s the last of me playing holiday news reporter.

Christmas
Everyone knows this one: Christmas was originally a day set aside to celebrate the birth of Jesus. December 25th was chosen not because Jesus was actually born on that day, but rather because of the persecution of the early church. The Roman festival of Sol Ivictus was on December 25th, so the church was able to celebrate without drawing too much attention. Most of the traditions that we have came much later.
The Christmas Tree has a much-disputed origin, but everyone seems to agree that Martin Luther was the first one to make a tradition of decorating one.
Santa Claus is based on the very embellished story of Nicholas of Myra. He was a Greek bishop in Lycia in the 4th century. He was generous, but mostly known for once giving three young women dowries so that they would not have to prostitute themselves. Santa Claus as we know him today was actually a marketing idea for Coca Cola in the 1930s.

Modern Christmas celebrations usually mean buying a bunch of stuff on credit cards and then lying to your kids about a man who could not possibly still be alive, who lives in a place that no one could possibly live in, and once a year decides to defy all of the laws of physics for no apparent reason.

-J