From: ralph@eddlewood.demon.co.uk

In message <1165768713.690088.104380@80g2000cwy.googlegroups.com>,
Francis  writes

>Strictly speaking, Christmas is not a day but a season of twelve days.
>It does not begin until December 25th.  Until then, we are in the
>season of Advent which is supposed to be a time of quiet reflection,
>not of celebration.  The solstice holiday known as "Christmas day" is
>actually the Feast of the Nativity.  Virgin birth of a special person
>destined to be king is an old idea current long before the Christian
>era; see for instance Vergil's Fourth Eclogue. Christmas celebrations
>were not part of primitive Christianity and the Puritans were correct
>in recognizing that fact when they banned it.

Thanks for that, Francis. Maybe more important to the difference between
U.S. and British practice, I have discovered today, is that the modern
British style did not originate until the mid-XIXth century, when the
U.S. was already reasonably well established.

--
ralph

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