Do you know how to actually call the Mother-midwife? Or who sent the first Christmas card?
Come Christmas time, we sing Christmas songs, eats scraps of food and sweep away the Christmas tree needles from the floor.
Most of us have our Christmas traditions, many of them were abroad. Christmas tree from Germany, Santa Claus from Turkey, some kinds of sweets — from Sweden.
Christmas began to be celebrated according to the law
Do we have native Norwegian tradition? Roald E. Christiansen (Roald E. Kristiansen) — associate Professor of religious studies Norwegian University of technology NTNU — tells that the tradition of celebrating Christmas are rarely unique.
“You should really try to find a purely Norwegian tradition. Most Christmas traditions are universal and are repeated in different contexts,” he says.
The holiday called “Yule” (Jól) celebrated in Norway from about the 8th century — and who knows how long before that time. The Christian Christmas has come to the country more than a thousand years ago, but, nevertheless, preserved many of the old traditions of the celebration.
“Christmas was introduced in Norway by law, passed by Haakon the Good in the middle of the 10th century. The “Norwegian” in this tradition may have been brewing, although it is unlikely the Norwegians were alone in that served alcoholic beverages during big religious festivals,” he says.
From the old traditions refused
Both in Norway and in the rest of Europe, of the Church, it was clear that people will continue to celebrate Christmas as they did before, but now it is “Christian”.
“You now have all drank the glory of the new heavenly forces. And a toast to say they were not for Odin and Thor, and for Jesus and Mary. In other words, the old traditions of celebration were not destroyed, but it was necessary to ensure that the religious celebration has gained new forms,” says Christiansen.
Here’s some facts about Christmas that you might not have known.
1. It is believed that the first Christmas card was sent by the Englishman Henry Cole (Henry Cole). He sent her to his grandmother in 1843.
2. Lutefisk (Norwegian national dish, the dried fish is soaked in a slightly alkaline solution — approx. ed.) is a typically Norwegian dish, but it has come to us from southern Sweden and Northern Germany.
3. In the song “Christmas eve” (song of Alfa Prasena — famous Norwegian writer, poet and bard — approx. ed.) we learn about the midwife-Mathieu. Is a real person, she lived in Ringsaker (Ringsaker). Actually her name was Helga Johansen (Helga Johansen), it was she who took birth from mother Prasena. But, Preisen chose the song to call her Mata, not Helga. Because that was the name of his grandmother.
4. British Bible scholar Ian Paul (Ian Paul) believed that Jesus was not born in a barn and in a private room on the second floor. The barn has arisen due to a MIS-translation.
5. Archaeologist Aviram Oshri (Aviram Oshri) believes that Jesus was born in a different Bethlehem, and not that which is considered to be the birthplace of Jesus. This town is located 10 km from Nazareth, while the city known as the birthplace of Jesus, is more than 150 km to the South. Oshri thinks that Mary before the birth could go so far. He also discovered many more signs that Jesus was born in a different Bethlehem.
6. When we imagine the birth of Jesus, we see the other sheep and the three kings around the manger. In the Christmas gospel (Luke) we read about the shepherds, not kings and not about the star of Bethlehem. In Matthew we read of a “few wise men”, but it does not say how many. In addition, the shepherds there is no mention.
7. For a long time it was not known how many wise men came to Jesus. Only in the 3rd century decided that there were three because they brought three gifts: gold, incense and myrrh.
8.The names of the wise men — Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar — not from the Bible. The names discovered in one Italian Church in the year 560.
Sources: Wikipedia, Uit.no, Forskning.no (I), Forskning.no (II), Nrk, Bible.com, Enstadmediakultur.blogspot.no.
