Histories and Mysteries

When I was younger, Christmas was solely a time for presents, family gatherings, and a lot of patience. Those who say the holiday season is of joy and peace completely miss out the principle of patience. My brother and I would hang out by the Christmas tree staring at the presents (or trying to look through the sides of the wrapping paper) and listening to Christmas music. But with all of those yearly traditions, I never fully realized what Christmas meant to me. Everyone says that as you get older, Christmas is quite different. There’s not as much joy or excitement. I guess it might be because of all the responsibilities and things we realize when we grow up. There’s more stress (obviously because of homework, the grand disturber of the human soul), we don’t really play with toys anymore or believe in Santa Claus. So sometimes we just believe that Christmas is a children’s holiday. We know its about Jesus’ birth, but we treat the story just like another page in history. But tha...

Welcome back! Today’s article is about my favorite Christmas stories and poems. Hopefully, you will be able to read some of these stories on your spare time. Next week’s article will be posted on Christmas Eve (Sunday) instead of on Christmas (Monday) because I will be busy opening presents (obviously 😊). Next week’s article will be the last article of 2017. A lot of people say that time moves fast, but when I think more about it I realize that time moves really slowly for me. I’ll be ready for 2018 once Christmas 2017 has passed. But before we get too far ahead, here’s today’s article. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens This is a very classic Christmas story, and I have begun to read it in its entirety this December. Basically, the story is about Ebenezer Scrooge, a cynical miser, who discovers the true spirit of Christmas through an interesting presentation of his life. Charles Dickens is a talented author, and I think he did such a great job with the theme of this story: t...

The days leading up to Christmas have been quickly approaching, and I have been really busy with preparing for (The Last Jedi, anyone?) and mid-terms as well. Since this week is still a geography week, I decided to cover international Christmas traditions of the countries that are not usually mentioned in articles like these. Most articles I have seen over this topic cover the variations of Christmas traditions in Europe and the Americas, but in my brain about now, this article will be different. “Happy Christmas” in China Pretty much only the Christians in China know about Christmas, and they make up about 1% of the people. Larger cities have begun to celebrate Christmas with many of the same traditions we do: Santa Claus (Sheng Dan Lao Ren: “Old Christmas Man), trees, caroling, lights. Those who do celebrate have the tradition of giving each other apples that are wrapped as a gift. When I went to Hong Kong, there were posters for Halloween and Christmas, but most Chinese don’...

Break out the decorations, people! Christmas is coming! I love Christmas all year round as well as in this particular season. I am attempting to quickly summarize Christmas traditions in one article, so we’ll see how it goes. Today’s article will explain the main traditions most Americans have during Christmastime: The Nativity, Santa Claus, Gift-Giving, Christmas Trees, Caroling. Okay, at this point I may be trying to outdo what I can in one article. I’ll write about the most important ones first, and then get onto the rest. The Nativity Many of us have heard the phrase “the true meaning of Christmas.” It tends to be circulated all around us with the phrase “the spirit of Christmas” during the Christmas season. But what does Christmas really mean for all of us? Basically, in our world today, Christmas equals presents, winter, holidays, music, and whatever else may be inserted into this sentence. But Christmas finds it heart at the Nativity scene that is rarely seen each year. ...