Reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mail<\/p>\n
Over the last few weeks I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve looked at a number of Christmas traditions and I hope they have been very educational. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also received a number of e-mail responses, so I thought I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d respond to them in this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s column. If this keeps up I may just change the name of my column to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Answer Man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But with out further ado, I give you Reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mail, Vol. I, Issue 2.<\/p>\n
– I enjoyed your piece on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Getting Cross at Christmas.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I thought it was interesting to find out where X-Mas really came from. But to combat the constant war on Christmas that liberals in this country have begun, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve start writing Merry C-Mas on my greeting cards and letters. I think it will make people think more about the real meaning of Christmas.
\nJosh
\nMorgan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Point Resort
\nJosh, thanks for your comments, but I must say, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m offended that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve started a new campaign to keep \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hrist\u00e2\u20ac\u009d out of Christmas now.<\/p>\n
– I really enjoyed your column on O Holy Night. What are the rest of the stanzas? I never knew there were others besides the first two.
\nDebbie
\nWaxahachie
\nDebbie, for lack of space, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t print the entire text of John Sullivan Dwight\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 translation of O Holy Night here, but you can find the entire song at http:\/\/www.eadshome.com\/ChristmasCarols\/OHolyNight.htm.<\/p>\n
– What is Boxing Day and why are Canadians the only ones to celebrate it?
\nJohn
\nBelton
\nI asked around and being that this is America, no one knows. The holiday is not only celebrated in Canada, but in European countries as well. It is often called St. Stephen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Day or the Second Day of Christmas. The common story of its origin is that servants and tradesmen received Christmas gifts from employers on the first Monday following the Christmas holiday. These gifts were commonly called, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Christmas boxes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more than welcome to come over Dec. 26 and celebrate Boxing Day with me and my roommate as we watch wrestling.<\/p>\n
– Was Jesus really born on Dec. 25?
\nEric
\nAlvarado
\nMaybe — but probably not. Historians don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know when Jesus Christ was. Scripture tells us in Luke 2 that it was during the Roman rule of Caesar Augustus and Quirinius was governor of Syria. All citizens were to report to their hometown for a census, which is why Joseph and Mary traveled to Bethlehem that blessed night. The first mention of celebrating Dec. 25 as the birth of Jesus is found in Latin, written by Theophilus of Antioch (171 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 183). As early as AD 354, Roman Christians celebrated Jesus\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 birth on Dec. 25. It is suggested that the date was chosen to take advantage of the Roman holiday celebrating the birth of the Sun god, Mithras. An interesting side note — many scholars believe that Jesus was not in fact born in AD 1, but likely in 6 BC. A mistake was made during the estimation of King Herod\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death and the new calendar (Before Christ and Anno Domini, meaning \u00e2\u20ac\u0153in the year of the Lord\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) was off by several years.<\/p>\n
– Where can I find some good last minute Christmas gifts for under $10?
\nChris
\nRichardson
\nChris, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to say I know, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to point you to Mandy Bourgeois\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 column for more information. She is the queen of shopping information.<\/p>\n
– Where did Santa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 12 reindeer come from?
\nAmelia
\nCedar Hill
\nWhy the North Pole of course! But the reindeer are first found in literature in Clement Clarke Moore\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s poem, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Night Before Christmas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (also known as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A Visit From St. Nicholas\u00e2\u20ac\u009d). The poem was first published in the Troy, New York Sentinel in 1823, which makes for some old reindeer. Reindeer number 13 and Donner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s son, Rudolph, didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t join the gang until 1939 when Montgomery Wards gave away a promotional story book, written by Robert L. May about the red-nosed reindeer.<\/p>\n
Well that about wraps it up for this week. Keep sending your questions and comments, maybe you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re will show up in Reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mail Vol. II. Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Mail Over the last few weeks I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve looked at a number of Christmas traditions and I hope they have been very educational. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also received a number of e-mail responses, so I thought I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d respond to them in this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s column. If this keeps up I may just change the name of my column … Continue reading This Week’s Column: Reader’s Mail<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pEnSo-9i","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/casadeblundell.com\/jonathan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}