hristmas 文档.doc

What is Christmas? The word Christmas comes from the words Cristes maesse, or Christs Mass. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus for members of the Christian religion. Most historians peg（认定，鉴定） the first celebration of Christmas to Rome in 336 A.D. Why is Christmas such a big deal? There are 1.8 billion Christians in a total world population of 5.5 billion, making it the largest religion worldwide. In America, 241 million out of a total population of 281 million people are Christians -- thats 85 percent. Because Christians follow Jesus, the birth of Jesus is important to them. In America, the weeks leading up to Christmas are the biggest shopping weeks of the year. Many retailers make up to 70 percent of their annual revenue in the month preceding Christmas. Therefore, retailers hype （刺激；烘燃）the event beyond belief. Santa claus/Father Christmas welcomes Christmas, who was based on a real person in history named St. Nicholas who was born many centuries ago in the 4th century in Lycia, Anatolia, a province on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. He became a bishop of the church at Myra. It is said that in the year of 300 AD, there was a kind old man and his name was Saint Nicholas. He was always ready to help the poor and often gave presents to them. On the night of the twenty-fourth of December every year, Father Christmas from some cold northern land comes down the chimney of the fireplace to put presents by the beds of children or to fill their stockings. So when children go to bed that night, they hang up their stockings, and on Christmas morning they wake up to find them full of presents. Of course, its really their parents who fill the stockings. Few documents exist which mention him, however legends of his generosity exist throughout most churches. Thousands of churches in the Middle Ages were dedicated to him. Today, Father Christmas is an imaginary figure, but nearly all young children believe in him. They think he is a happy old man wit