Christmas Day is a Christian holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. Although the actual date of Christ’s birth is unknown, it has been celebrated on December 25 since the 4th century. Christmas is also extensively celebrated by non-Christians as a seasonal holiday, on which popular traditions such as gift-giving, feasting, and caroling take place.
As Christianity began to spread in the 4th century, the Christmas feast day was set to December 25 by Pope Julius I; although no one knows for certain, some say that this was to align with the Roman pagan holiday Dies natalis solis invicti, the birth of the invincible Sun.”
Today’s rich mosaic of Christmas customs dates back through the ages. Evergreen branches were used to symbolize life in ancient solstice festivals, as they stayed green in winter. This tradition was absorbed by Christians, who interpreted the evergreens as the Paradise tree and began decorating them with apples. The candles and lights associated with Christmas, meant to symbolize guiding beacons for the Christ child, may have evolved from the Yule log, which was lit to entice the Sun to return as part of the jol (Yule) festival in pagan Scandinavia.”
Daily Calendar for Monday, December 25, 2023
Question of the Day
We’ve just moved into a new home, and the yard is overrun with bamboo. Is there anything we can do (besides just yanking the plants out) to get rid of it?
If you have a patch of bamboo that you want to get rid of, cut the stalks about a foot above the ground and clear away the cuttings. Fill a plastic pail roughly one-quarter full of rock salt. Fill the rest of the pail with boiling water and stir well. Pour the hot mixture into the hollow stalks. Wait a week, then dig out the bamboo stalks and roots. You may need to repeat the process. It’s tough to dig out a complete bamboo root, but this way you know you’ve killed the plant.
Advice of the Day
If at Christmas ice hangs on the willow, clover may be cut at Easter.
Home Hint of the Day
Keep a bucket of sand or kitty litter outside the door (and another in the trunk of the car) to spread for traction.
Word of the Day
Brontophobia
Fear of lightning/thunder
Puzzle of the Day
What is that which everyone likes to have but wants to get rid of as soon as possible after he gets it?
A good appetite
Died
- Samuel de Champlain (explorer) –
- W.C. Fields (actor) –
- Charlie Chaplin (actor) –
- Billy Martin (baseball player) –
- Dean Martin (singer & actor) –
- James Brown (singer; the Godfather of Soul”“) –
- George Michael (singer, songwriter) –
Born
- William Collins (English poet) –
- Clara Barton (founder of the American Red Cross) –
- Humphrey Bogart (actor) –
- Cab Calloway (musician) –
- Rod Serling (author) –
- Gary Sandy (actor) –
- Jimmy Buffet (singer) –
- Sissy Spacek (actress) –
- Annie Lennox (singer) –
- Justin Trudeau (Canadian prime minister) –
- Dido (singer) –
Events
- Columbus’s flagship, the Santa Maria, abandoned off the coast of Hispaniola–
- From the Pennsylvania side, General George Washington’s troops crossed the icy Delaware River at night during a winter storm for a surprise attack against a Hessian garrison in Trenton, New Jersey (American Revolutionary War)–
- Bytown (Ottawa) and Prescott Railway opened in Ontario–
- Union Stock Yards opens giving the south side of Chicago a distinctive smell–
- Pansy blossoms picked, Manhattan, Montana–
- Comic strip hero Dick Tracy married Tess Trueheart–
Weather
- A chilly -57 degrees F at Fort Smith, Northwest Territories–
- White Christmas from central North Carolina to New England in wake of major snowstorm, even coastal Virginia was white–
- Temperatures throughout northern New England averaged -39 degrees F–
- A Christmas Day mudslide ran through St. Sophia Camp, San Bernardino, California–
- 1.3” snow fell in Atlanta, Georgia–