Let me first start out by saying that the above coordinates
are not to the actual location. You will have to solve the
puzzle(s) in order to find the cache.
This cache officially took place on:
December 12, 2006 (12 days before
Christmas Eve. However, I have posted all of the clues so that all
future cachers can enjoy.
The word Christmas comes from the old English "Cristes maesse"
meaning Christ's Mass. The Holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus
Christ. The actual birthday of Jesus is not known; therefore, the
early Church Fathers in the 4th century fixed the day around the
old Roman Saturnalia festival (17 - 21 December), a traditional
pagan festivity. The first mention of the birthday of Jesus is from
the year 354 AD. Gradually all Christian churches, except Armenians
who celebrate Christmas on January 6 (the date of the baptism of
Jesus as well as the day of the three Magi), accepted the date of
December 25th.
In American/English tradition, Christmas Day itself is the day
for opening gifts brought by jolly old St. Nick. Many of our
current American ideals about the way Christmas ought to be, derive
from the English Victorian Christmas, such as that described in
Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."
The caroling, the gifts, the feast, and the wishing of good
cheer to all - these ingredients came together to create that
special Christmas atmosphere.
The custom of gift-giving on Christmas goes back to Roman
festivals of Saturnalia and Kalends. The very first gifts were
simple items such as twigs from a sacred grove as good luck
emblems. Soon that escalated to food, small items of jewelry,
candles, and statues of gods. To the early Church, gift-giving at
this time was a pagan holdover and therefore severely frowned upon.
However, people would not part with it, and some justification was
found in the original gift giving of the Magi, and from figures
such as St. Nicholas. By the middle ages gift giving was accepted.
Before then it was more common to exchange gifts on New Year's Day
or Twelfth Night.
Congratulations: to RoundnRound we go on the FTF. Found on
12/21/06. They were the pround finders of a $20 gift certificate to
TGI Friday's.
Clue: 1
The official White House Christmas tree in 2006, was an 18-foot,
6-inch Douglas fir presented to President and Mrs. Bush by Francis
and Margaret Botek and their children, of the Crystal Spring Tree
Farm in Lehighton, Pennsylvania.
The White House had approximately 45,000 guests that will be
touring the White House during this holiday season. The cooks will
prepare approximately, 20,000 Christmas cookies, 5,000 mini tarts,
15,000 chocolate truffles, 2,100 pounds of sweet potatoes and 100
cases of white and green asparagus. In the meat department there
will be 3,000 racks of lamb, 500 filets of beef, 4,000 crab claws
and 4,000 pounds of shrimp.
Decorations include: 4,638 red ornament balls, 1,089 feet of
garland and 17 Christmas trees total.
My question: How many Christmas wreaths were displayed
throughout the White House during the 2006 holiday season?
_ _ S
Clue: 2
The word for Christmas in late Old English is Cristes
Maesse, the Mass of Christ, first found in
_ _ Y _
Clue: 3
In
_ _ M _
, Prince Albert (originally from Germany), husband of Queen
Victoria, set up a Christmas tree at Windsor Castle in England.
From the royal court, the custom of Christmas trees spread quickly
to the middle class and then to working people. For Victorians, a
good Christmas tree had to be six branches tall and be placed on a
table covered with a white damask tablecloth. It was decorated with
garlands, candies and paper flowers.
Clue: 4
According to Jewish tradition, God gave the Jewish people
_ _ T
mitzvot - Aseret ha-Dibrot: (aka: commandments). All of the mitzvot
are equally sacred, equally binding and equally the word of God.
All of these mitzvot are treated as equally important, because
human beings, with our limited understanding of the universe, have
no way of knowing which mitzvot are more important in the eyes of
God.
Clue: 5
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is perhaps the best
of the Vacation sequels and my all time favorite Christmas
movie. If you have not seen this movie it is a must see for the
holiday’s. We always save this one until Christmas Eve.
The Griswold’s invite their relatives over for Christmas, most
of whom are annoying or overbearing and the end result is a
disaster. How many Christmas tree’s does the Griswold family
actually end up getting, during the movie?
!
Clue: 6
Alabama was the first state in the United States to declare
Christmas a legal holiday. What year was this?
_ R M _
Clue: 7
The traditional Santa Claus' suit that we know today was
developed in the
_ _ _ R
‘s. The Coca-Cola Company hired American artist Haddon Sundblom, to
redesign Santa Claus, and he chose the official colors of
Coca-Cola, red and white.
Clue: 8
Mistletoe, the evergreen plant that we kiss under at Christmas
time has long been surrounded with mystery, magic and intrigue. The
plant itself often grows on other trees and shrubs, it had long
wing-like leaves and white berries which are filled with a sticky
juice. The berries have been used to treat some ailments, but are
poisonous to humans and should not be touched by children (and some
adults too!), but the berries and leaves provide high-protein food
for many animals. Many bird species rely on mistletoe for food and
nesting material. Butterflies lay their eggs on the plants and use
the nectar as food. Mistletoe is also an important pollen and
nectar plant for bees.
There are
_, _ C R
species of Mistletoe worldwide, of which 20 are endangered! The
name 'mistletoe' originated from the observation that mistletoe
plants seemingly sprang spontaneously from the excrement of the
"mistle" (or "missel") thrush. People noticed that mistletoe plants
would often appear on a twig where these birds had left their
excrement. The "-toe" suffix was originally "tan" and meant "twig".
Mistle-toe, then, is literally the "twig of the mistle thrush."
Some 'brains' have gone further, pointing out that the very name of
the mistle thrush seems to derive from an Indo-European root for
excrement; thus they argue that mistletoe plant is literally the
"dung twig." How romantic!
Clue: 9
Today poinsettias are the most popular Christmas plant and are
the number one flowering potted plant in the United States.
The poinsettia, a traditional Christmas flower, originally grew
in Mexico, where it is also known as the 'Flower of the Holy
Night'. Joel Poinsett first brought the poinsettia plant to America
in
_ I _ _.
Clue: 10
Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in
_ _ _ H
, five years after the founding of the company.
Clue: 11
Winter Solstice (sun farthest south) is the
geometrically-defined start of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere,
though really wintry weather often arrives later. The term
"solstice" means "Sun stationary" and was applied by early
observers who noted that the Sun's rising location on the
southeastern horizon hardly shifted around this time of year. This
is the longest night of the year.
The winter solstice took place at what time?
2006-12-22 E _ : _ _ CST
Clue: 12
Candy canes are favorites of Christmas decorations amongst kids.
These red and white J-shaped candies are tasty too. It is said that
their origin lies in an event in Cologne Cathedra about 230 years
ago. It was said that one evening, the children were being very
loud and noisy at the Church and were not paying attention to the
choirmaster. In his efforts to keep them quiet and still for
Nativity ceremony, he gave them a long, white, sugar candy stick.
Since, giving out chocolates and candies at church was otherwise
considered sacrilegious; he bent these sticks on one end to make
them look like shepherds' cane who went to worship the Christ on
the day he was born and thus, attached a religious significance to
them.
In
18 A _
, a German-Swedish immigrant in Wooster, Ohio liked candy canes so
much that he put them on his Christmas tree as decorations. The
idea soon caught up and became quite a fashion. By 1900, candy
canes started coming in red stripes and peppermint flavoring and it
was said that the white color was symbolic Christ's purity while
the red symbolized the wounds he suffered. The peppermint flavoring
was said to represent the hyssop herb described in Bible for
purification. Some other interpret that the 'J' shaped candy cane
is not a cane but the letter 'J' that stands for Jesus. However,
there are no evidences supporting these views. Around 1920, Bob
McCormack from Georgia started mass-producing candy canes that came
to be known as Bob's Candies. Since then, the firm has remained the
most popular candy-cane manufacturer company in the world.
You can now rest at night knowing that you are a little bit more
knowledgeable about the holiday’s in which we celebrate.
Clue: 13
Fruitcakes are holiday and wedding cakes which have a very heavy
fruit content. They require special handling and baking to obtain
successful results. The name "fruitcake" can be traced back only as
far as the Middle Ages. It is formed from a combination of the
Latin fructus, and French frui or frug. The oldest reference that
can be found regarding a fruitcake dates back to Roman times. The
recipe included pomegranate seeds. Pine nuts, and raisins that were
mixed into barley mash. Honey, spices, and preserved fruits were
added during the Middle Ages. Crusaders and hunters were reported
to have carried this type of cake to sustain themselves over long
periods of time away from home.
North M²E.R³R¹.YCH West R²I5.TM¹.AS¹!