Interesting facts about «Catholic» Christmas.
21/12/2021 17:40
The holidays are getting closer. And today we will tell you a few facts about «Catholic» Christmas.
- Why is «Catholic» Christmas celebrated earlier? In 1582 Europe switched to the Gregorian calendar. Since then, the Catholic Church has been using it, and the Russian Orthodox Church has used the Julian one. According to the Gregorian calendar, the whole world lives and the New Year is celebrated according to it on January 1 – and Christmas on December 25. The Julian calendar is used by a smaller part of Orthodox churches – only 4 out of 13 (Russian, Georgian, Serbian and Jerusalem). The gap in dates between calendars is 13 days. It is for this reason that the whole world celebrates Christmas on December 25, and these 4 churches are 13 days later.
- The first gifts for Christmas began to be made by the ancient Romans. They exchanged boxes with small but pleasant surprises inside. On this day, believers spoke kind words to friends and family, which were much more valuable than a material gift.
- The traditional decoration of Catholic Christmas is considered to be a wreath of coniferous branches. The history of its origin is very nice. A Catholic named Johann Hinrich Wihern made a wreath from a wooden wheel and decorated with branches from coniferous trees. There were 24 red candles and 4 white ones on the wreath. In order for his adopted children to know when the bright holiday will come. Every day they lit 1 red candle and every Sunday they lit a white one. Nowadays, such wreaths made of Christmas tree branches decorating with fruits, nuts, ribbons, bells.
- The Advent calendar, which is so popular with children all over the world, is one of the symbols of Christmas among Catholics. It notifies how much time is left before the joyous holiday and consists of 24 days. A postcard with windows, a box with cells, bags with numbers, convolutions on a ribbon – there are a lot of options. This tradition is very popular with kids, because now the Advent calendar is made not only with a date, but also with a sweet surprise that comforts the expectation.
Our team of the Teatralny hotel whole heartedly congratulates you with the upcoming holidays! We are looking forward to your visit.