As the new year and Christmas have come about, we thought it might be a good idea to put up a few facts about these long celebrated holidays.
New year’s Day is touted to be the oldest celebrated holiday as Babylonians began the tradition around 2000BC on March 23rd. This day was chosen as it marked the beginning of spring.
It was Julius Caesar of the Romans who officially established the date of January 1st. The Roman god Janus, after which the month of January was named, had two faces: one looked forward to the future and the other to the past.
In Spain and Peru, they eat 12 grapes to bring luck for each of the twelve months ahead. In Peru however, a 13th grape is eaten to insure their charm sticks.
In Greece they bake bread with a coin inside. If when slicing the bread, the third slice has the coin then it is said that spring will be early that year. Similarly Norwegians make rice pudding with one whole almond and whoever receives the almond is guaranteed wealth that year.
Christmas is known as X-mas because in Greek, the letter X is expressed ‘chi’ which is an abbreviated form of Christ.
Any child’s letters addressed to Santa in the United States go to Santa Claus, Indiana.
During the Christmas of 2010, the Colombian government covered jungle trees with lights. When FARC guerrillas (terrorists) walked by, the trees lit up and banners asking them to lay down their arms became visible. 331 guerrillas re-entered society and the campaign won an award for strategic marketing excellence