Christmas traditions and facts
- Christmas is a contraction of “Christ’s Mass,” which is derived from the Middle English Cristemasse, which in turn comes from the Old English Cristesmæsse, a phrase first recorded waa-aay back in 1038.
- Hanging stockings out comes from the Dutch custom of leaving shoes packed with food for St Nicholas’s donkeys. He would leave small gifts in return.
- Boxing Day gets its name from all the money collected in church alms-boxes for the poor.
- Robins on cards started as a joke 150 years ago when postmen wore red tunics and were named after them.
- The Christmas cracker was invented by a London sweet shop owner called Tom Smith. In 1847, after spotting French bonbons wrapped in paper with a twist at each end, he sold similar sweets with a “love motto” inside. He then included a little trinket and a “bang”. His “Bangs of Expectation” included gifts such as jewellery and miniature dolls. By 1900, he was selling 13 million a year.
- It’s technically illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day in England. In the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas pudding, mince pies and anything to do with gluttony. The law has never been rescinded.
- Why red, gold and green? Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolizes the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
- The chances of a White Christmas are just 1 in 10 for England and Wales, and 1 in 6 for Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- For a Christmas to be officially classified as “white” a single snow flake needs to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25th December on the rooftop of the Met Office HQ in London.
- Santa Claus has different names around the world - Kriss Kringle in Germany, Le Befana in Italy, Pere Noel in France and Deushka Moroz (Grandfather Frost) in Russia.
- The UK Brussels Sprouts industry (and yes, it’s Brussels sprout, not brussel sprout) is worth £650 million, and the area of the country covered by Brussels Sprouts fields is the equivalent to 3,240 football pitches.
We hope you enjoyed these interesting facts and more importantly we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year.
Team Synchro
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The 11th hour of the 11th Day
I suppose I am showing my age but I can remember watching the ceremony in Whitehall on the BBC from the age of about 8. My grandfather and Uncle both served in the first world war and I have been lucky to meet and speak to people who served in that conflict and the one that followed.
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Australia Continued ..
Taking off in the rain from London Gatwick but there are three cameras to watch it, one in the nose, one in the tail and one looking down from the underside of the fuselage.
Interesting to watch the runway disappear and the green fields of Sussex get smaller as we took off towards the west. We then turned right and headed out east on the 6.5-hour flight. Distance is around 5,500 km.
