Advent BlogThis is a 2003 Christmas Advent blog with an RSS feed. If you subscribe to it, you'll get one Christmas-related story or factoid a day from now until the holiday!Wed Dec. 4: Who Started Decking The Halls- December 21, 2003 The practice of decorating with greenery during a winter festival dates back to the Roman Empire, and was a way to scare evil spirits away: The halls of the Romans were decked with boughs of laurel and green trees, with lighted candles and lamps; for the hovering spirits of darkness were afraid of the light... -- from 4000 Years of Christmas The practice was part of the Saturnalia, a Roman festival that lasted from around December 15 through January first, and was marked by reveling,...http://www.cadence90.com/blogs/christmas.html#107198230654694457 Wed Dec. 3rd: Christmas and the Psychologist- December 4, 2003 In her article on stress and the holidays, Jane Brody points out that: it is no surprise that many people get sick or experience flare-ups of chronic illnesses while struggling to cope with the stress-inducing demands of the holiday season...Of course, doctors have long known that stress brings on an outpouring of hormones from the adrenal glands. These are the chemicals that aid survival the "fight-or-flight" hormones that throughout evolution enabled us, and other animals, to defeat or...http://www.cadence90.com/blogs/christmas.html#107051212364699430 Tue., Dec. 2nd: Christmas and the Economist- December 3, 2003 What does the dour science have to say about Christmas Plenty, as it turns out: in the US, the financial impact of Christmas is so great that it outweighs the power of even the largest tax cuts, and by itself provides profitability for thousands of American businesses -- including some of the largest ones. Economic output during December is a whopping 17% higher than at the rest of the year, making Christmas a make-or-break season for the economy as a whole. Investment bank Credit Suisse...http://www.cadence90.com/blogs/christmas.html#107041097072715435 Mon., Dec. 1st: Christmas and the Sociologist- December 1, 2003 Holiday rituals, perhaps more than anything else, reveal vast quantities of information about a society and the values of that society. Sociologists haven't missed out on the gold mine that Christmas represents: The sociology of Christmas shopping habits is being studied by graduate students at the University of Sussex in the UK. Christmas also reveals us to be even bigger procrastinators than we might have originally thought: 1 in 5 do all shopping in the week before Christmas. Christmas's.http://www.cadence90.com/blogs/christmas.html#107020803013382661 |