It
wasn’t until the late fourth century that the church fathers could agree on the
date of Christ’s birth – unlike the pagan Romans, Christians tended to give no
importance to anyone’s birthday. The big day in the Christian religious
calendar was Easter. Nevertheless, eventually the church settled on 25 December
as the date of Christ’s nativity. For the Christians, it was a holy day, not a
holiday, and they wanted the period to be sombre and distinguished from the
pagan Saturnalia traditions such as gambling, drinking, and of course, most of
all, worshipping a pagan god! Read the complete article at -- http://www.historyextra.com/feature/how-did-romans-celebrate-christmas
One of Jesus’s earliest memories was no doubt watching and listening to his family when they gathered to pray the Shema at sunrise before the day’s work began and after the working work day was over at sunset . He also heard and participated in praying the Shema at their synagogue. He was surrounded by neighbors who also prayed the same prayer in their homes every day. The Hebrew word for prayer is tefilah . It is derived from the root Pe-Lamed-Lamed and the word l'hitpalel, meaning “ to judge oneself .” This surprising word origin provides insight into the purpose of Jewish prayer. The most important part of any Jewish prayer, whether it be a prayer of petition, of thanksgiving, of praise of God, or of confession, is the introspection it provides, the moment that we spend looking inside ourselves, seeing our role in the universe and our relationship to God. [1] Most of Jewish prayers are expressed in the first person plural, "us" instead of "me," an...
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