In my memories, Christmas was neither complicated nor magical. In a flashback to my childhood, I just thought Christmas was a winter holiday for Christians to celebrate the birth of Jesus.
When I was a little kid, on the 25th day of December, I was so excited because a old man named "Santa" gonna came to my house a gave me a random surprise that I had wished for. When I was five, a "fake-Santa" came to my house and gave me my Christmas present. I knew that guy was a fake Santa but I still pretended to be surprised and satisfied with my Christmas present to make my mom happy. Then my family had dinner outside and took a lot of pictures beside the Christmas tree at the shopping mall. We were full of joy on this day.
Now, after reading the article on "Xmas Traditions" published on Outlook English Club's website, I felt so betrayed because most of Vietnamese people didn't know that Jesus was not even born in December 25th, but in fact, 9 months after that day. I thought that people everywhere see Christmas as a brightest day of the whole year, but in fact, the Romans marked it as the darkest and shortest day of the year, also known as winter solstice. Because the days that follow the winter solstice are brighter and loner; this date of December 25th was easily chosen in reference to the fact that Jesus is linked to the sun based on the book of Malachi in the Old Testament.
By reading the article, I came to know a cool tradition on Xmas - the Christmas stocking, which is not available in our country. This tradition made the kids feel mysterious because they didn't saw the Santa came in their house and put those presents in the socks, so they could use their imagination to make up an image of Santa Claus in their mind. In our country, you can find the Santa Claus standing right at the door and holding a present and giving it to you. This sounds boring to me because this left nothing to the imagination. Sorry, but no fun at all!
Another truth about Xmas that I did not know was the fact that the Germanic people used to worshipped oaks tree in the old days. It was amazingly diffrent from what I knew. I thought Western people only worshipped pine trees.
I find it extraordinarily interesting to know about all the truths about Christmas revealed in the article. Before reading the article, I have never heard of about the fact that Jesus was born 9 months after the 25th day of December. I did not even know that people used to worship the oaks instead of the pines, or the tradition in which they put their presents in the socks.
Sometimes, we think we know it all until we realize that we know so little!
