Christmas Bestselling Gifts

This is the time of year for some seasonal activities.Though most Thais are Buddhist,many are curious about some of the traditions of Christmas,just as many Christians are interested in Buddhism. So today's trivia and activities can be a chance to learn something to test your Christiam friends,See if they know what you will learn here...

Of mistletoe and magic..

Mistletoe has apparently been used as a decoration in housed for thousands of years and is also associated with many pagan rituals.
The Druids would cut mistletoe off trees in a special ceremony five days after the new moon following the winter solstice. The priests believed that the mistletoe would be come damaged if it touched the ground,so they used a special white cloth to catch it.Two white bulls were then killed and offered to the gods while prayers were said.As part of the ceremony the priests gave out mistletoe branches to the people,who beliebed they would keep them safe from evil spirits and storms.
Kissing under the mistletoe..
The tradition of kissing under the mistletoe could have come from the Viking association of the plant with Frigga,the Scandinavian goddess of love.Or it may be from the ancient velief that mistletoe was related to fertility (being able to have children.
It is thought to be correct and polite behavior for a man to remove one berry when he kisses a women.When all the berries are gone, there is no more kissing underneath that plant.
It is believed that an unmarried woman not kissed under the mistletoe will remain single for another year.

What's with Christmas stockings.?
According to a very old tradition, the original Saint Nicholas left his very first gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor girls who needed the money for their wedding dowries (money and/or property given by the family of a bride or groom to the family ofthe other when they marry).The girls had hung their stockings by the fire to dry.
Up until lately, it was traditional to receive small items like fruit,nuts and candy in your stocking,but these have been replaced in the last half-century by more expensive gifts in many homes.
The traditional of a lump of coal in the stockings of naughty children comes from Italy.

The christmas Star
The stars that appear in the sky today are the same ones that were there two thousand years ago around the time jesus was born.However,astronomers can't identify a new star that appeared anywhere near the possible time.

So could the star that led the three wise men to the manger where the birth of jesus took place have been a shooting star.? Not very likely.A meteor lasts only a few seconds or minutes at most.The wise men followed the star for weeks.

Not a comet either.Though comets can last weeks or months,modern astronomers can track them back many thousands of year and none were visible to humans at the time.

Some astronomers have suggested that if we move the birth of Jesus to the springtime of 6 BC,We can explain the star becoz the planets Mars,Jupeter and Saturn were close together in the heavens forming a triagle.
The wise men were astorlogers who studied the stars and planets and are thought to have known of the triangle and that it had appeared before the birth of Moses.Perhaps they interpreted it as a sign of another great event.This may have been the star of Bethlehem.
But whatever the astrologers say,many people still believe that the strange star did appear, and that it was simply a miracle.

Thank you for nice video at youtube.