Lucy's Day, December 13, to commence Christmas observances. Nicholas arrives via the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and doesn't deliver his gifts until December 24. Obviously, a lot of this pageantry crossed over to America, except that our St. The Dutch make the biggest production of Nick's arrival, gathering to watch his ship land in Amsterdam, then seeing him off on his flying, white horse. Nicholas-accompanied by helpers with black faces-brings gifts for good children, who set out shoes or stockings for him to fill. Nicholas's Day, December 6, inaugurates the Christmas festivities in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and parts of Germany. Not that it matters historians now doubt that St. Barbara, which states that her father locked her in a tower, killed her for her Christian faith, and was then struck by lightning. This activity has no relationship to the story of St. Some Middle Eastern customs for the day resemble American Halloween-children dress up in frightening costumes and go door-to-door collecting candy and other small gifts. Barbara's Day, December 4, signals the beginning of the Christmas season in Syria, Lebanon, and parts of France and Germany. The Armenian Orthodox church is an exception its members fast for three of the seven weeks between November 15 (St. In the Orthodox church, Advent still includes fasting, and in most places it lasts from November 15 to December 24. Yet not everyone kicks off the Christmas season at the same time or in the same way. As a result, Advent can last anywhere from 22 to 28 days, though for the sake of year-to-year consistency, Advent calendars start with December 1. Sometime in all of this, the start date for Western Advent slid back two weeks, to the Sunday closest to St. (These prohibitions were dropped in recent centuries.) By the eleventh century, though, Rome had come around, and Advent meant no feasts, no recreational travel, no marital relations, and no weddings. Perhaps it seemed odd to them to approach Christ's birth as somberly as they did his death. While much of Western Europe, and at least portions of the Christian East, fasted, Roman Christians celebrated. Roman attention to the Advent season trailed Perpetuus by about 100 years, and it took a radically different tone. This practice, which mirrored Lent, spread slowly throughout France, Spain, and Germany. To help his flock prepare for the holiday, he advocated fasting every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from Martinmas (November 11) to Christmas Eve. The first church official to propose special activities for the pre-Christmas period was Perpetuus, bishop of Tours, in 490. Our Christian ancestors, however, had other ideas.
If retail promotions are any indication, Christmas begins as soon as the last bags of Halloween candy have been moved to the bargain bins.
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