Christmas Traditional Cache

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düg: Time 2 let it go.

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Hidden : 12/7/2018
Difficulty:
1.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: regular (regular)

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Geocache Description:




Christmas is an annual holiday commemorating the traditional birth date of Jesus Christ. The celebratory customs in the United States have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins.

ORIGINS: : Early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21, the winter solstice, through January. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire. In Rome Saturnalia, a holiday in honor of the god Saturn, was celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. Around the time of the winter solstice, Romans also observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome and celebrated the birthday of Mithra, god of the sun, on December 25.
In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention a date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring Pope Julius I decided on December 25 as the birth date of Jesus. By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced. By the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion. On Christmas, believers attended church, and then celebrated raucously in a drunken, carnival-like atmosphere similar to today’s Mardi Gras.
In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas.
Around this time, English author Charles Dickens created the classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol. The story’s message-the importance of charity and good will towards all humankind-struck a powerful chord in the United States and England and showed members of Victorian society the benefits of celebrating the holiday. Christmas provided families with a day when they could lavish attention and gifts on their children without appearing to “spoil” them. As Americans began to embrace Christmas as a perfect family holiday, old customs were unearthed. In the next 100 years, Americans built a Christmas tradition all their own that included pieces of many other customs, including decorating trees, sending holiday cards and gift-giving.Although most families quickly bought into the idea that they were celebrating Christmas how it had been done for centuries, Americans had really re-invented a holiday to fill the cultural needs of a growing nation.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Erthyne fvmrq cynfgvp wne ba tebhaq va ohfu onfr bs juvgr cbyr.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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