From the category archives:

Christmas

HISTORY OF EPIPHANY
January 6 is known in the Christian calendar as Epiphany. It is sometimes called the “Twelfth Night” being the 12th Day of Christmas. It signifies the event of the Magi, or Wise Men visiting the baby Jesus, and is known in certain Latin cultures as Three Kings Day. In the Eastern [...]

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History of Boxing Day: Feast of St. Stephen?

by Bill Petro on December 26, 2009 · 1 comment

in Christmas

HISTORY OF BOXING DAY
Boxing Day is a holiday unfamiliar to many Americans, but it it well known among the countries of the British Commonwealth. It is celebrated on December 26 as a public holiday in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand… as well as some parts of Europe and Africa.
While some believe it has [...]

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History of Christmas: Caesar Augustus

by Bill Petro on December 24, 2009 · 0 comments

in Christmas

HISTORY OF CAESAR AUGUSTUS
Perhaps it is fitting that our last article on the History of Christmas should be about the first person mentioned in St. Luke’s story of the first Christmas. He was neither Palestinian, nor Jew, nor shepherd, nor wise man. He was in fact, 1500 miles away, the Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus. Were [...]

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History of the Poinsettia

by Bill Petro on December 22, 2009 · 0 comments

in Christmas

HISTORY OF THE POINSETTIA
I studied one summer in Cuernavaca, a little town south of Mexico City. There is a story told there that long ago the people flocked to church on Christmas Eve because they loved to fill the Christ child’s manger with flowers. A little boy named Jose was too poor to [...]

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THE HISTORY OF THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
The Twelve Days of Christmas are the dozen days in the liturgical calendar of the Western Church between the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child (Christmas, December 25) and the coming of the Magi to visit at his house in Bethlehem (Epiphany, January 6). The Eastern [...]

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HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS CRECHE
One of the most beautiful Christmas traditions is setting up a creche during the Advent season. A creche is a model of the scene at the manger on the first Christmas in the stable at Bethlehem. A creche can be a small model, set up in the home or a large [...]

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HISTORY OF HEROD THE KING
When the wise men asked Herod the King “Where is he who is born king of the Jews?” their question was not really spoken in a vacuum, for even the Roman author Suetonius wrote, “There had spread all over the East an old and established belief that it was fated for [...]

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