圣诞英语材料

Westerners with red, green, white and three colors for the Christmas colors, Christmas comes each household must be used to decorate the Christmas colors. Red Colored with Christmas flowers and Christmas candles. Green is the Christmas tree. It is the main Christmas ornaments, with cut to the cedar, Bo was a kind of evergreen tree decorated pyramid formed. Colorful lanterns hanging above, gifts and paper flowers, but also lit the saint Birthday candles. Exist side by side is the red and white Santa Claus, he is the most popular Christmas activity characters. Children in the West Go to bed Christmas Eve prior to the fireplace or put a pillow next to the socks, they fall asleep waiting for Santa Claus, after the gift Be placed inside the socks. In the West, to play Santa Claus is also a custom 西方人以红、绿、白三色为圣诞色，圣诞节来临时家家户户都要用圣诞色来装饰。红 色的有圣诞花和圣诞蜡烛。绿色的是圣诞树。它是圣诞节的主要装饰品，用砍伐来的杉、 柏一类呈塔形的常青树装饰而成。上面悬挂着五颜六色的彩灯、礼物和纸花，还点燃着圣 诞蜡烛。 红色与白色相映成趣的是圣诞老人，他是圣诞节活动中最受欢迎的人物。西方儿童在 圣诞夜临睡之前，要在壁炉前或枕头旁放上一只袜子，等候圣诞老人在他们入睡后把礼物 放在袜子内。在西方，扮演圣诞老人也是一种习俗。

Christmas is a Christian that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. No one knows the date of Christ's birth, but most Christians observe Christmas on December 25. On this day, many go to church, where they take part in special religious services. During the Christmas season, they also exchange gifts and decorate their homes with , mistletoe, and Christmas trees. The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, an early English phrase that means Mass of Christ. The story of Christmas comes chiefly from the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew in the New Testament. The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmas traditions were celebrated centuries before the Christ child was born. The 12 days of Christmas, the bright fires, the yule log, the giving of gifts, carnivals(parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from to , the feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back to the early Mesopotamians. Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian celebration of New Years. The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, and as their chief god-Marduk. Each year as winter arrived it was believed that Marduk would do battle with the monsters of . To assist Marduk in his struggle the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk, the New Year's festival that lasted for 12 days. The Persians and the Babylonians celebrated a similar festival called the Sacaea. Part of that celebration included the exchanging of places, the slaves would become the masters and the masters were to obey. The ancient Greeks held a festival similar to that of the Zagmuk/Sacaea festivals to assist their god Kronos who would battle the god Zeus and his Titans. The Roman's celebrated their god Saturn. Their festival was called Saturnalia which began the middle of December and ended January 1st. With cries of "Jo Saturnalia!" the celebration would include masquerades in the streets, big festive meals, visiting , and the exchange of good-luck gifts called Strenae ( fruits). The Romans decked their halls with garlands of and green trees lit with candles. Again the masters and slaves would exchange places. "Jo Saturnalia!" was a fun and festive time for the Romans, but the Christians thought it an abomination to honor the pagan god. The early Christians wanted to keep the birthday of their Christ child a solemn and religious , not one of cheer and merriment as was the pagan Saturnalia. Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was invented to compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not only sacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism was one of Christianity's main rivals at that time. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merriment, lights, and gifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them to the celebration of Christmas. The day of the Christ child's birth has never been pinpointed. Traditions say that it has been celebrated since the year 98 AD. In 137 AD the Bishop of Rome ordered the birthday of the Christ Child celebrated as a solemn feast. In 350 AD another Bishop of Rome, Julius I, choose December 25th as the observance of Christmas. The birth of Jesus had a story: In Nazareth, a city of Galilee. The virgin's name was Mary was betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband was minded to put her away secretly. While he thought about these things, Gabriel, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a and told him did not be afraid to take Mary as wife. And Mary will bring forth a Son, and he shall call his name, Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Before Jesus births, Joseph and Mary came to Quirnius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up out of Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the and of the of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And that, Christmas is the feast of the of Jesus, is on 25th, December every year. But nobody knows the actual birthday of Jesus. And the Christmas has become popular when Christmas cards appeared in 1846 and the concept of a jolly Santa Claus was first made popular in nineteenth Century. The custom of giving gifts to relatives and on a special day in winter probably began in ancient Rome and northern Europe. In these regions, people gave each other small presents as part of their year-end celebrations. In the 1800's, two more Christmas customs became popular--decorating Christmas trees and sending Christmas cards to relatives and . Many well-known Christmas , including ``Silent Night" and ``Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," were composed during this period. In the United States and other countries, Santa Claus replaced Saint Nicholas as the symbol of gift giving. The word Xmas is sometimes used instead of Christmas. This tradition began in the early Christian church. In Greek, X is the first letter of Christ's name. It was frequently used as a holy symbol. “”这个名称是“”的缩写。是教会的一种礼拜仪式。耶诞节是一个宗教节。我们把它当作的来庆祝，因而又名耶诞节。这一天，世界所有的都举行特别的礼拜仪式。但是有很多的欢庆活动和宗教并无半点关联。交换礼物，寄，这都使成为一个的日子。 圣诞节是世界最大的节日。4世纪初，1月6日是东部各教会纪念和受洗的双重节日、称为“”Epiphany，亦称“”即上帝通过向世人显示自己。当时只有的教会例外，那里只纪念的诞生而不纪念耶稣的受洗。 后来们在罗马习用的中发现公元 354年页内记录着：“在的。”经过研究，一般认为作为圣诞节可能开始于的。原来是波斯（即光明之神）（Mithra）的，是一个节日，同时也是罗马国教众神之一。这一天又是罗马的，崇拜的都把这一天当作，万物复苏的开始。可能由于这个原因，才选择这一天作为圣诞节。这是教会初期力图把的化的措施之一。后来，虽然大多数教会都接受12月25日为圣诞节，但又因为各地教会使用的不同，具体日期不能统一，于是就把到第二年的1月6日定为圣诞节节期（Christmas Tide），各地教会可以根据当地具体情况在这段节期之内庆祝圣诞节。 随着的广泛传播，圣诞节已成为各，甚至广大非群众的一个重要节日。在欧美许多国家里，人们非常重视这个节日，把它和新年连在一起，而庆祝活动之热闹与隆重大大超过了新年，成为一个全民的节日。 12月25日的主要纪念活动都与的传说有关。耶稣的出生是有一段故事的，耶稣是因着成孕，由童女所生的。神更派遣使者加伯列在梦中晓谕，叫他不要因为未婚怀孕而不要她，反而要与她成亲，把那孩子起名为“耶稣”，意思是要他把百姓从罪恶中救出来。当快要临盆的时候，罗马政府下了命令，全部人民到务必申报户籍。和马利亚只好遵命。他们到达时，天色已昏，无奈两人未能找到旅馆借宿，只有一个马棚可以暂住。就在这时，耶稣要出生了！於是马利亚唯有在上，生下耶稣。 后人为纪念耶稣的诞生，便把十十五日定为圣诞节，纪念耶稣的出世。但真实的诞生日就没有人知道了。，的流行、的出现，圣诞节也开始流行起来了。