CHRISTMAS LEGENDS
Legend Of Christmas Angels
One
of the most popular legends of Christmas angels is about a story that
revolves around two angel friends. One of the two angels wore pink robes
and the other wore blue robes. These angels were known for singing
lovely duets and praised the glory of God. They also played trumpets
made from pure silver that were believed to be the most melodious sounds
ever heard by man. The angels, who were popular for their musical
talents, led and conducted the orchestra for many angels, several times.
One day, 'Temira', their orchestra lead, shared wonderful news to the
members of the angelic orchestra. He said that God decided to send his
'Son' to live among 'His' people. On hearing this news, the angels were
overjoyed. The cherubs decided to prepare a musical event for the most
important occasion in history. The musical event was expected to be
flawless and only angels with the best voices were chosen to sing.
'Temira', the orchestra leader, questioned his orchestra whether they
knew what to do and for what purpose they sang. The angel, dressed in
pink, answered by saying that the 'Lord' wanted the angels to show
themselves to the shepherds, who lived in the hills of Bethlehem, and
also added that the shepherds might be afraid because would have never
witnessed angels in their lives. The angel in blue, added to what the
pink angel had to say, by saying that the angels could remove the fear
of the shepherds by singing and declaring the arrival of the 'savior' on
human lands. On hearing the answers of both the angels, Temira smiled
and nodded.
On the day of Jesus Christ's birth, the Christmas
angels set out to meet the shepherds. A number of angels appeared in
front of the shepherds and played few notes to rejoice the birth of baby
Jesus. The shepherds were awestruck. Never were they confronted by
divine beings in their life. This was a first. The shepherds were amazed
with this sudden appearance and their hearts were filled with humility
and love for God. The angels sang praises for God and spread happiness
all around. With their angelic voices they spoke the words - "Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men".
Another
Christmas story that relates to angels, states that 'Gabriel', the
archangel of revelation, told Mary that she was chosen to become the
mother of Jesus Christ. It is believed that God sent his angels to watch
over 'Mary' and 'Joseph' on their way to Bethlehem.
Legend Of The Christmas Star
Christmas And The Star
It
is believed that Jesus was born in 3 BC. A Mesopotamian prophet named
Balaam foretold the coming of the Star that would announce Messiah for
all the tribes of Israel. Zoroaster, a pupil of Daniel, had compiled
these predictions in his bible known as the Zend Avesta. It foretold
that there would be born unto the Jews a King Messiah, and that His
coming would be heralded by a sign in the heavens in the constellation
Virgo. So, it is said that on 14th September 3 BC and 17th February and
8th May in 2 BC, the planet Jupiter was positioned next to the brightest
star in Leo -Regulus. Regulus represents Royalty. On June 17th 2 BC,
the two brightest planets in the Solar System Venus and Jupiter seemed
to collide. These two planets stood at 1/50th degree distance and
appeared to combine into one immense ball of Light.
This was
considered an unprecedented event in the history. Then on 27th August in
2 BC there took place a splendid meeting of the planets in Virgo. Mars
and Jupiter were just 1/7th degree away from each other and within the
spitting distance were Mercury and Venus standing together in the glare
of the rising sun. This spectacular sequence of events ending in Virgo
was later identified/ recognized as the Star spoken in the Zend Avesta.
In the morning Jupiter moved westwards and left the other planets. The
planet Jupiter was instrumental in the appearance of Christmas star. Six
weeks after the spectacular sequence of events, the planet Jupiter was
found on the Meridian due south of Jerusalem. So it appeared directly
over Bethlehem 65 degrees above the southern horizon. At the time of
final event, Jupiter had reached its furthest point westward, and it no
longer shifted against the background store. The star stood over where
the infant Jesus was. Astonishingly, the Sun was at its furthest point
south for the year and stood still in the celestial sphere on the same
day. So, as foretold in the Zend Avesta, Jupiter was in the
constellation Virgo. This happened on 25th December in 2 BC. It was
unprecedented sequence of events that landed the Magoi at Bethlehem.
Legend Of The Christmas Stocking
The
legend of Christmas stockings had its origin in compassionate man
called Nicholas who lived in Patara, a city of Lycia, in Asia Minor
around 280 A.D. He inherited fortune from his parents who died when he
was young. Nicholas became devotee of Christ and ordained as a priest in
Church. He was appointed as a Bishop of Myra and devoted his life to
God. Nicholas gave his money whenever he saw sick and poor people. His
exceptional deed of helping poor and needy soon became known to all the
people in the region. In his personal life, he remained truly celibate
and unmarried with no biological children. However, he had great
affection for children and offered presents to them. In the course of
time, he was called as the gift giver of Myra. He journeyed far across
the country to help poor people. One characteristic trait of Nicholas
was that he offered gifts only during night time to keep the secret of
gift giver. The reason for this is that he did not like to be seen
giving away the gifts. Apart from children, Nicholas also showed great
concern for sailors. So, he was referred to as the patron saint of
children and sailors and given the title St. Nicholas.
One of the
popular stories about St. Nicholas and Christmas stocking was about a
poor farmer who lived with his wife and three daughters in Patara,
native land of St. Nicholas. One day, the farmer's wife passed away due
to illness. This left farmer with immense grief that the entire family's
burden fell upon the shoulder of his daughters. Years passed and the
daughters attained marriageable age. The poor farmer was shattered for
he knew that he would not be able to marry off his daughters to good
bridegrooms. It was custom during those days for bride's father to give
valuables to the bridegroom. Fortunately, sorry tales of poor farmer and
his daughters reached the ears of St.Nicholas. He wanted to help them
but at the same time would not like to reveal himself. One night, St.
Nicholas set out with a bag of gold at poor farmer's house and waited
till nightfall for family members to go to sleep. The farmer's daughters
had washed the stockings and hung it near the fireplace to dry. They
had no clue that St.Nicholas was visiting in secret. When the family
went to bed, St. Nicholas sneaked into cottage window and spotted the
stockings placed by the farmer's daughters. He placed the bag of gold
inside the stockings and left. Next morning, the poor farmer opened the
stockings and was overjoyed to see the bag of gold. It was like gift
from God for him and thought to himself " who could have put in the
stocking?". The bag of gold was sufficient to pay for one bridegroom.
So, he married off his eldest daughter. Again on some other night, Saint
Nicholas secretly visited poor farmer's house and threw another bag of
gold in a stocking for his second daughter. The next morning the
farmer's daughter opened the stocking and the poor peasant was so happy
but was curious to know who the benefactor was. With this gift he
married off his second daughter. The poor man kept vigil on following
nights to know the benefactor who had brought great joy to his life.
When Saint Nicholas visited for the third time with a bag of gold, he
couldn't escape farmer's curious eye. The poor farmer immediately
recognized St. Nicholas and bowed down to Bishop and expressed his
gratitude. So, the poor farmer was blessed and the third daughter was
married off and lived happy life forever.
Legend Of Santa Claus
Saint
Nicholas, popularly known as Santa Claus, is a popular gift-bearing
figure that most of us come across during the time of Christmas. Since
19th century, Santa is represented as an old man with a flowing white
beard, red coat and white cuffed trousers with black boots and a black
leather belt with a big buckle in front. Legend has it that Santa lives
in the North Pole with his elves and reindeers where he has a gifts
workshop. It is believed that this is where presents for well-behaved
children are manufactured. The jute bag carried by him is believed to be
loaded with goodies and toys for children, which come from this
renowned workshop. It is a popular belief that Santa makes a list of all
the children around the world and sorts them into naughty and nice,
based on their behavior all through the year. He then rewards the good
ones and either punishes the naughty ones or just omits them from his
gifts list, thus urging children to be good and well behaved round the
year. This article recapitulates the origin, traditions and history of
Santa Claus.
The story of Santa Clause traces back to
Saint Nicholas and his kind deeds in his city. Nicholas is believed to
have been born to a wealthy Christian family in Myra, which is now in
modern Turkey. He was a very kind person and his kindness and
benevolence made him so popular that he soon became the Bishop of Myra.
To ensure that the town folk were happy, he used to travel at night,
listening to his people's stories. During one such visit, he passed by a
poor family's house and overheard the conversation between the family
members. They were complaining about their misfortunes and were planning
to sell all three of their daughters as slaves or prostitutes. Nicholas
could not stand their plight and threw three purses of gold, enough to
get all three of their daughters married. It is believed that he threw
this money through the chimney of their house.
Different
cultures portray Santa in different ways. The Dutch called the Santa
Claus as 'Sinterklaas' who had a helper called Black Peter. They
described Sinterklaas as a serious, elderly man with white hair and a
long beard who wore a red cape and wore a mitre. There were the
Scandinavian folks, who believed and described a character called
"Tomte". He is shown as a man dressed in gray clothes and a red hat.
This character was obviously inspired by Santa Claus.
However,
since the 19th century, Santa was represented as an old man dressed in
red coat, white cuffed trousers with a white beard, black boots and
black leather belt. He is known for his happy-go-lucky attitude. Santa
Claus is shown carrying a jute bag loaded with goodies for children.
These were once again popularized in 1863 by a famous caricature artist,
Thomas Nast, in a weekly paper called "Harper's weekly". It was
reported in the weekly paper in 1866- a combination of drawings or
cartoons that were titled "Santa Claus and His Works" by Thomas Nast,
which included a subtitle "Santa Clausville, N.P". This was the time
when the whole story about Santa's residence and Santa's gift workshop
started.
The Legend Of Rudolph
Christmas
has been associated with various legends and mythical characters since
time immemorial. One such popular character is Rudolph, the red-nosed
reindeer. Rudolph is portrayed as a reindeer with a glowing red nose,
and is one of Santa Claus's prized reindeers. Known for pulling Santa's
sleigh on Christmas, Rudolph's nose is believed to light the path while
Santa goes from house to house, placing gifts under the Christmas tree.
There have been various television shows, feature films, comics and
cartoons based on this popular Christmas Character. Apart from being one
of the star reindeers of the Christmas night legend, there have been
countless variations on the origins of this character. Rudolph, Santa's
ninth reindeer has been immortalized time and again through Christmas
folk songs, stories and cartoons. Contrary to belief, Rudolph is infact a
twentieth century creation, whose invention and creation can be traced
back to a specific time and place. Read on to know more about the
history and the Legend of Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer.
Rudolph
was one of Santa's prized reindeers. He wasn't any ordinary reindeer,
and although he was made fun of for his red-nose, he was not regarded as
an embarrassment by his family and friends. Legend states that Rudolph
was brought up in a well-to-do family and was also a responsible
reindeer, who was concerned about his self-esteem. There is an
interesting story behind how Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was picked
by Santa Claus. When Santa was delivering presents around town, he found
a red light emanating from one of the houses. He bumped into Rudolph by
accident, and concluded that without Rudolph's guiding light from his
nose, Santa Claus might have been victim to an accident while travelling
on his sleigh.
After completing his rounds, Santa chose Rudolph
to be a part of his team, and picked him to lead the way back to the
North Pole. It is believed that Santa said "By you, last night's journey
was bossed. Without you, I'm certain we'd all have been lost". And ever
since, Rudolph has been considered as one of the most popular Christmas
legends, and will continue to be, so long as the story of Christmas
lives on.
The story of Rudolph was considered unsuitable for
traditional, Christmas folklore. However, the legend of Rudolph went on
to become one of the best-selling Christmas legends for a long time.
From several adaptations of animated feature-length films like 'Rudolph
the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and 'Rudolph's shiny New Year' to the
bestselling Limited editions of 'Rudolph' in 1958, Rudolph, apart from
being one of Santa's treasured Reindeers, has also managed to carve a
place in the hearts of children and adults galore.