Christmas traditions
christmas
from old english cristes maesse christs mass, older still, yule, from the germanic root geol. in some languages
english christmas, yule, noel
german weihnachten
finnish joulu
swedish jul
italian il natale
spanish la natividad
french noel
the traditional christmas is not a single day but a prolonged period, normally from 24th december to 6th january. this included the new year, thus increasing the festival value of christmas.
magi
from old persian language, a priest of zarathustra zoroaster. the bible gives us the direction, east and the legend states that the wise men were from persia iran - balthasar, melchior, caspar - thus being priests of zarathustra religion, the mages. obviously the pilgrimage had some religious significance for these men, otherwise they would not have taken the trouble and risk of travelling so far. but what was it an astrological phenomenon, the star...