Christmas is a special season most people look towards. It’s a season that affords us the opportunity to link up with old friends and spend quality time with family.

Christmas is an annual festival in memorial of the birth of Jesus Christ. It is observed on the 25th of December as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world.

Christmas for many is a time to make merry and enjoy to the fullest, while enthusiastically counting down to the new year. During this period, we see cities beautifully decorated, hear Christmas songs, and have our stomachs filled with our favorite meal.

We all love the traditions of this season, however, many do not fully understand the reason for the season. We mainly enjoy the season and it’s practices based on the stories we have heard, and how people around us have been celebrating it.

But for how long will we hold on to wrong ideologies and prevent our children from enjoying the truth? We should do better.

For this reason, The News beam gathered some myths that have ended up to be false.

Here are 9 Myths about Christmas that are untrue:

1. Christmas is the most important Christian holiday: No, actually, it’s not. Truely, Christmas is the time when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus and it’s undoubtedly a very important event. But Easter, which commemorates Jesus’ rising from the dead into the eternal life, is much more celebrated around the world. The Easter season lasts about two months, much longer than Christmas.

2. Jesus was born on December 25
The truth is, no one knows for sure. The Bible does not give a date or even a month and while, yes, Jesus could have been born on December 25, it’s also highly unlikely.

What the Bible does say is that during Jesus’ birth, shepherds were in their fields. But here’s the thing, it was cold in Bethlehem in December and nothing much grows there then, so it was normal to shelter their sheep and stay wrapped up indoors.

Also, the Bible says Mary and Joseph were travelling to take part in a census. Back then, the censuses usually took place in September or October. As such, most scholars agree that Jesus was born sometime near the end of September.

3. Jesus was an only child
Although Jesus was the only child Mary had as a result of a direct work of the Holy Spirit, there is no basis for suggesting that she and Joseph did not have further children by natural means. In fact, the Bible makes several references to Jesus’ brothers, indicating that he grew up surrounded by siblings.

4.The Three Wise Men appeared at Jesus’ birth
As per the Book of Matthew, the wise men came from the east to Jerusalem bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for the baby Jesus, but it never specifies how many of them. There is also no mention of baby Jesus where he laid sleeping in a manger.

5. Jingle Bells is a Christmas song
We’ve all heard the song ‘Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way’, and it’s become one of the best-known Christmas songs there is. The thing is, it’s not even a Christmas song.

Well, it is now, but it wasn’t meant to be. It was written for American Thanksgiving. American composer James Lord Pierpont penned the song in the 1850s for his Sunday school class. It was originally titled One Horse Open Sleigh. Eventually, the lyrics were changed to fit Christmas.

6. Xmas is a sacrilegious abbreviation
That’s what’s claimed by many Christians, who get upset to see Christmas shortened to Xmas, thinking it’s taking the ‘Christ’ out of Christmas. The thing is, the ‘X’ is simply a substitute for the Greek word ‘Chi’ which represents “Christ”. There is no intention of causing offence.

7. Santa Claus Is St Nicholas
No!!, they are different people. St Nicholas was in fact a bishop in Turkey during the 4th Century who would leave money in the stockings of poor people. December 6 is St Nicholas Day. Some time much later, Europeans changed St Nicholas into Father Christmas, who then became Santa Claus.

8. The modern image of Santa Claus was invented by Coca-Cola
In 1931, Coca-Cola commissioned artist Haddon Sundblom to create images of Santa Claus drinking from a bottle of Coke. Sundblom’s painting of Santa became hugely popular, but it’s not accurate to say Sundblom invented the modern image of Santa.

By the early 20th Century, Santa was already commonly being depicted as a fat, jolly, red-suited man with a long beard.

9. Prince Albert invented the Christmas tree
Tradition suggests that the husband of Queen Victoria brought the Christmas tree to England from his native Germany for the first time in 1848. There is evidence, however, that people in Britain had already been observing this tradition for around 100 years previous to this.

Culled from Scotsman food x drink

Tags: Christmas