Mon. Dec 23rd, 2024
Who invented Christmas, how lengthy has the festival been celebrated and the way was Charles Dickens involved?
Mother and daughter decorating Christmas Tree

It’s essentially the most glorious time of the year – but when did all of it get started? (Picture: Getty)

If You Happen To pay attention truly hard right now, you’ll most likely pay attention chestnuts roasting on an open fire someplace, and Jack Frost nipping at other folks’s noses.

That’s right, the Christmas season is in full swing again.

From place of job Christmas events to traveling the pantos, there are so many traditions we look forward to each year.

And that’s not even mentioning the unwrapping of items, staring at festive TELEVISION specials, tucking into turkey (although Gen Z try to turn that customized) etc.

we all know that Christmas itself is a Christian vacation to rejoice the birth of Jesus Christ, but how did Christmas as we all know it – with all of the trimmings and traditions – turn out to be something?

Allow’s take a glance back via history…

Who invented Christmas?

ADEQUATE, so Christmas as we all know it didn’t begin to be celebrated the second one Jesus was born – and it’s now not clear that he was actually born on 25 December both.

The First recorded incidence of Christmas being celebrated actually dates all the way back to the Roman Empire in 336, through the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine – so technically the Romans invented it, even though there’s no particular one who is credited with having done so.

Cropped Hand Of Woman With Christmas Card In Envelope At Table

Christmas cards haven’t at all times been around both (Picture: Getty Photographs/EyeEm)

There are a bunch of theories as to why December 25 was chosen, with one suggesting that it coincided with the Winter Solstice and the traditional Roman pagan midwinter fairs Saturnalia (which honoured the Roman god Saturn) and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (the competition marking the solstice).

It’s additionally concept it could have been chosen as it’s precisely nine months after March 25 – the date of the Spring Equinox – which was once selected as the date for God’s introduction of Adam, and therefore seemed like a fitting date to choose for Christ’s notion.

Despite the Romans having marked the date, Christmas was a comparatively minor affair, and was once not celebrated with a particular liturgy until the 9th Century.

Meanwhile celebrations tended to be riotous, with binge-consuming, gluttony and other hedonism concerned, and celebrants often going from door to door threatening vandalism if they were not given meals and drink.

How used to be Charles Dickens concerned?

An illustration from A Christmas Carol

This illustration by means of John Leech featured in A Christmas Carol, which painted a very different image of the pageant than other people have been used to (Picture: Getty Images)

Charles Dickens is given some credit score for giving us Christmas in its more brand new form thanks to his vintage novel A Christmas Carol.

Printed in 1843, it changed into an instant easiest-supplier, and altered other folks’s view of Christmas to a time whilst kindness and charitable acts have been seen as traditional, to boot as hanging the emphasis at the pageant as a time for households to be together.

The Victorians took his view of the festive season to their hearts, with new traditions corresponding to Christmas trees – that have been presented by means of Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert – Christmas cards and gift-giving changing the excesses of antique.

the story was chronicled in the 2017 movie The Person Who Invented Christmas, which starred Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens as Dickens and centred across the writing of A Christmas Carol.

MORE : Which UK grocery store does the most affordable mince pies this Christmas?

EXTRA : Why is Santa Claus referred to as St Nicholas?

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