About History Bookazine's third edition delves into festive folklore, exploring peculiar traditions and advent rituals. Dive into the captivating history of holiday celebrations and discover the digital edition for a truly immersive experience.
HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS • Season’s greetings! If you’ve always wanted to know more about Christmas and its wealth of traditions, these pages are packed with intriguing info and festive folklore. From the secret history of Santa to the names of the Three Wise Men, from mistletoe to Mary, explore the history of Christmas.
History of Christmas
The Story of the Nativity • The birth of Jesus is one of the best known stories in the world, but what does the Bible really say about it?
Genealogy of Jesus
Why Bethlehem?
Pagan Origins • Christmas might be a uniquely Christian celebration but its traditions owe a lot to the pagan people who inhabited the western world long before the birth of Christ, and their festivals to celebrate the winter solstice
Sol Invictus
The bleak midwinter
In the Bleak Midwinter • Christmas is celebrated on 25 December, so that must be Jesus’s date of birth. Or is it?
Son of God • What did it mean to be the son of God? In the 4th century, Christians had to answer that question definitively
Celebrating Advent • Uncover how the way we celebrate the lead-up to Christmas has changed over the years
Christmastide: The Days of Christmas • Christmas is not just a single day in the church calendar but the start of a period of celebration for Jesus’ birth
The Start of Christmas • Waking up on Christmas morning to piles of gifts is just the first event that marks the opening of Christmastide
12 Days Carol
Pranks and Boy Bishops • The middle days of Christmastide are less celebrated than the others but contain some of the stranger traditions of the season
A Great Epiphany • The 12 days of Christmas come to a close with Epiphany, but not before many more celebrations have taken place
When is Christmas?
And Call Off Christmas! • How the puritans decided Christmas was both popish and pagan
How Dickens Made a Modern Christmas • The festive season would not be the same without the influence of one of Britain’s most famous authors
Reviving Christmas
The Three Kings • The three ‘kings’ of the nativity are instantly recognisable, but who were they? Where did they come from? Where did they go?
The Three Gifts
Holly and Ivy • We drape them around our fireplace, form them into wreaths, decorate our tables with them – there’s even a Christmas carol devoted to the two plants
Under the Mistletoe • A kiss under the mistletoe is a Christmas tradition, but why is this strange plant associated with midwinter festivities?
The Glastonbury Thorn • Legend says this Christmas-flowering hawthorn in one of Britain’s most spiritually important places was miraculously planted by Joseph of Arimathea
Wassailing • Wassailing This pagan ceremony is still a beloved festive tradition
The Mari Lwyd • A horse’s skull paraded from door to door might not sound very festive, but in South Wales, it’s a favourite yuletide tradition
Plays Take Centre Stage • How the Christmas tradition of medieval mummers’ plays went on to inspire some of your favourite festive pantomimes
Ireland’s Wren Day • From collecting money to instigating brawls, the Irish tradition of Wren Day marks the day after Christmas Day
Animal Magic • How the nativity’s bowing donkey, and sinister folktales, led to the legend that animals gain supernatural powers each Christmas Eve
The Legend of the Pavuchky • Spiders adorn the Christmas trees of many Ukrainian...