[Hymn #56] ~Vivace~
[Tear really should be attending school or something with all the reading she does. The cut is not necessarily meant to be a public announcement, but is completely readable; her journal just happens to be the most convenient place to copy all of this down. The entry is followed by a few rough copies of sheet music, sans lyrics, for two hymns and a more generic Christmas carol.]
According to various sources in the town's library, Christmas originated as an observance of the birthday of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, believed by Christians to be the one son of God and the savior of the world.
In addition to its religious background, recent years have lead Christmas to adopt a number of secular meanings.
Common traditions include gift-giving, attending church services, meeting and sharing meals with nuclear and extended family members and friends, singing holiday songs from door-to-door, and hanging decorations.
Decorations include nativities - that is, smaller representations of the persons from the holiday's origins, set in a barn or cave scene, including a manger; Christmas trees - decorated with ornaments, bells, sweets, tinsel, colored lights, and often crowned by a star; evergreen and mistletoe. Plants including holly, poinsettias and amaryllis are also quite popular. Houses are often decorated with colored lights, garlands, wreaths, and candles. Often these displays are accompanied by illuminated sleighs, snowmen, and other popular characters - reindeer, angels, nutcrackers shaped like soldiers, and a popular bearded figure known as Saint Nicholas or "Santa Claus".
It seems that there are a large number of traditions related solely to Santa Claus, who apparently delivers gifts to children on Christmas Eve (the night of the 24th of December) to be discovered Christmas morning - these include hanging stockings on chimneys (which is, according to most sources, how he enters buildings in order to deliver the gifts) and leaving out milk and cookies.
Gifts exchanged are typically wrapped in brightly colored paper with ribbons and left beneath the Christmas tree until Christmas Day, observed the 25th of December.
There's a long list of holiday foods as well, including wassail (a spiced punch, possibly named after early caroling groups[?]), gingerbread cookies (alternately gingerbread men and gingerbread houses), sugar cookies, candy canes, gumdrops and peppermints.
The list of festivals is also extensive. Additionally there's a large number of popular Christmas stories and related books which have been made into plays and broadcast via other means... this part was actually one of the most complicated. It seems technology has evolved quite differently in other worlds.
...It's all very overwhelming, and I'm still not certain that I understand it with any level of clarity. I'm quite sure I never participated in anything of this scale back on Auldrant. Aside from Score-readings and the coming-of-age ceremony, most religious events and other activities weren't accompanied by such a long list of related - and contradictory - customs.
I found him on the church roof. I'm not sure how he got stuck up there, but it must have gotten too cold for him to fly anymore. I apologize for any disturbance I may have caused, as the only way to get him down seemed to involve climbing up to the roof myself. He seems to be fine, though.
((OOC: Solution - Combine the two entries.))
According to various sources in the town's library, Christmas originated as an observance of the birthday of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, believed by Christians to be the one son of God and the savior of the world.
In addition to its religious background, recent years have lead Christmas to adopt a number of secular meanings.
Common traditions include gift-giving, attending church services, meeting and sharing meals with nuclear and extended family members and friends, singing holiday songs from door-to-door, and hanging decorations.
Decorations include nativities - that is, smaller representations of the persons from the holiday's origins, set in a barn or cave scene, including a manger; Christmas trees - decorated with ornaments, bells, sweets, tinsel, colored lights, and often crowned by a star; evergreen and mistletoe. Plants including holly, poinsettias and amaryllis are also quite popular. Houses are often decorated with colored lights, garlands, wreaths, and candles. Often these displays are accompanied by illuminated sleighs, snowmen, and other popular characters - reindeer, angels, nutcrackers shaped like soldiers, and a popular bearded figure known as Saint Nicholas or "Santa Claus".
It seems that there are a large number of traditions related solely to Santa Claus, who apparently delivers gifts to children on Christmas Eve (the night of the 24th of December) to be discovered Christmas morning - these include hanging stockings on chimneys (which is, according to most sources, how he enters buildings in order to deliver the gifts) and leaving out milk and cookies.
Gifts exchanged are typically wrapped in brightly colored paper with ribbons and left beneath the Christmas tree until Christmas Day, observed the 25th of December.
There's a long list of holiday foods as well, including wassail (a spiced punch, possibly named after early caroling groups[?]), gingerbread cookies (alternately gingerbread men and gingerbread houses), sugar cookies, candy canes, gumdrops and peppermints.
The list of festivals is also extensive. Additionally there's a large number of popular Christmas stories and related books which have been made into plays and broadcast via other means... this part was actually one of the most complicated. It seems technology has evolved quite differently in other worlds.
...It's all very overwhelming, and I'm still not certain that I understand it with any level of clarity. I'm quite sure I never participated in anything of this scale back on Auldrant. Aside from Score-readings and the coming-of-age ceremony, most religious events and other activities weren't accompanied by such a long list of related - and contradictory - customs.
I found him on the church roof. I'm not sure how he got stuck up there, but it must have gotten too cold for him to fly anymore. I apologize for any disturbance I may have caused, as the only way to get him down seemed to involve climbing up to the roof myself. He seems to be fine, though.
((OOC: Solution - Combine the two entries.))