history tells us that the origin of santa claus begins in the 4th century with saint nicholas, bishop of myra (an area in present day turkey). one of the legends tells about that he acquired a fortune when his parents died while he was still in his teens. by nature olas was a generous and honest man, particularly devoted to children. he also cared deeply for the poor. he brought various gifts, money and other useful items to the houses of the poor. he did this at night, and in secrecy, so that no one knew, as he wanted no glory, he just wanted to help people. he became widely known for his generosity.
there is one famous legend about saint nicholas. the story tells of nicholas hearing one day of three beautiful sisters who lived in a miserable hut on the edge of myra. the three sisters were very poor. they could barely earn enough to keep themselves and their old mother from starving to death. when nicholas heard of their plight, he was very concerned. he decided to do something to help them.
one night, when everyone was asleep, nicholas crept through the streets to the edge of town. quietly, he tiptoed up to the hut where the three sisters lived. he climbed onto the roof and dropped three bags of gold through the hole in the roof where the smoke from the fire came out. now it so happened that the three sisters has washed their stockings before they went to bed. the stockings has been hung by the fire to dry. when nicholas dropped the gold through the smoke hole, each bag of gold fell into a stocking.
the three sisters were overjoyed to find three bags of gold in their stockings when they woke up the next morning. soon, the story began to spread. other people began to hang up stockings in the hope of finding bags of gold when they woke up in the morning. from this legend sprang the custom of hanging stockings up by the chimney on christmas eve. over the years, saint nicholas became associated with christmas.
after his death around 350 a.d. he was buried in myra, but in 1087 italian sailors purportedly stole his remains and removed them to bari, italy, greatly increasing st. nicholas#39; popularity throughout europe. his kindness and reputation for generosity and love for children gave rise to claims that he could perform miracles and devotion to him increased. st. nicholas became the patron saint of russia, where he was famous for his red cape, flowing white beard, and bishop#39;s mitre. in greece, he is the patron saint of sailors; in france he was the patron of lawyers, and in belgium the patron of children and travelers. the dutch kept the legend of st. nicholas alive. in 16th century holland, dutch children would place their wooden shoes by the hearth in hopes that they would be filled with a treat and goodies.
參考譯文
據史料記載，聖誕老人的原型是公元4世紀的聖尼古拉，他是米拉(位於今土耳其境內)的主教。有一種傳説認為在他十多歲的時候父母雙亡，給他留下一大筆財產。聖尼古拉生來就是個慷慨正直的人，尤其喜愛孩子，還很關心窮苦人，給窮人家裏送去各種禮物、錢以及其他有用的物品。他一般都是在夜裏祕密地做這些事，這樣就沒人知道，因為他並不想獲得什麼讚頌，只是想幫助別人。很快，他就因自己的慷慨而廣為人知。
有一個關於聖尼古拉的'著名傳説，講的是有一天，尼古拉聽説在米拉鎮邊界上一所簡陋的小屋裏住着美麗的三姐妹。她們非常窮，賺錢很少，幾乎難以保證自己和老母親不被餓死。尼古拉聽説了三姐妹的悲慘境況後非常擔憂，決定幫助她們。
一天夜裏，當大家都入睡後，尼古拉躡手躡腳地穿街走巷，來到了小鎮邊界。他悄悄地踮起腳走到三姐妹住的小屋旁，爬上屋頂，把三袋金子順着房頂爐火冒煙的洞口扔了下去。而三姐妹上牀前恰巧剛洗完自己的長襪，把它們掛在爐火旁烘乾。就在尼古拉把金子透過煙囱扔下去時，每袋金子分別落入了一隻襪子中。
第二天一早，三姐妹醒來，發現她們的長襪裏竟然有三袋金子，她們欣喜若狂。很快，這個故事便流傳開來。其他人也開始把襪子掛起來，希望第二天早上醒來也能發現一袋袋的金子。聖誕夜那天把襪子掛在煙囱旁的習俗就是由這個傳説而來。多年來，人們就把聖尼古拉與聖誕節聯繫在了一起。
聖尼古拉在約公元350年去世後，被葬於米拉;但據稱在1087年，意大利水手們偷走了他的遺骨，轉運到了意大利的(東南部港市)巴里，從而大大提升了聖尼古拉在整個歐洲的知名度。他的善良、慷慨以及對孩子的喜愛都讓人們認為他會施魔法，人們更加熱愛他了。聖尼古拉成了俄羅斯人的守護神，在那裏，他以身披紅斗篷，留着飄逸的白鬍須，戴着主教法冠而聞名。在希臘，他是水手的守護神;在法國，他是律師的庇佑人;在比利時他則是孩子和旅行者的保護神。荷蘭人一直都傳頌着聖尼古拉的傳説。在 16世紀的荷蘭，孩子們會把他們的木鞋放在壁爐邊，希望裏面會裝滿禮物和糖果。
Rise and shine on Christmas morning! The children are always the first ones to wake up, some even do at four. Present wrappers everywhere!
They look into their presents with a big smile on their face and oh dear….I hope no one’s disappointed. I feel sorry for anyone that got pink underwear. Children play while dinner is prepared by the adults. The Christmas dinner are usually eaten together by relatives.
The tradition of Christmas pudding and roosters are usually eaten with deserts afterwards. The rest of the day is usually games and fun before the good days all come to an end.
Very long has not related! Recently fortunately? How studied? Thesuch long time not and you relate very are really embarrassed! Whenare you coming China? My father ,my mother and I all very much thinkof you! Christmas day is drawing near, has not fluttered in the snow andice,
The Christmas tree not long is also high,
The Christmas colored lantern has not shone,
The turkey has not been baked,
The sock has not hung up the window,
The gift has not prepared before,
Wishes your * Merry Christmas *
Again comes China time records comes my family place guest weto welcome you very much the arrival.
the chinese spring festival and the western christmas-
evely nation has its own folk festivals. Those festivals give people a chance to be away from their regular work and everyday worries to enjoy themselves and to develop￥ kindship and fiiendship. The spring festival is the chief holiday in china while christmas is the most important redletter day in the western world.
the spring festival and christmas have much in common. Both are prepared hefiorehand to create a joyous atmosphere; both offer a family reunion with a square feast: and both satisfy the children with new clothes, lovely presents and delicious food. However, the chinese spring festival has no religious background while christmas has something to do with god and there is santa claus with white heard to bring children presents. The westerners send each other christmas cards for greetings while the chinese people pay a call on each other.
nowadays, some of the chinese youth has begun to celebrate christmas, following the example of the westerners. Perhaps they do so just for fun and out of curiosity.
I like Christmas, it is just like our Spring Festival.
Maybe the Spring Festival is much more important and interesting than Christmas, but I like Christmas Day better. Because we can spend time with our friends and classmates during Christmas. When it is snowy, Christmas becomes much more lovely, just like in fairytales. I can imagine I am in a fairytale, the girl who sold the matches is my friend, the ugly duck becoming more and more beautiful and so on. What a beautiful place! So we can also call Christmas “Snowy Lovely Day.”
On Christmas Day, shops are red and green. There are so many Christmas cards, Christmas hats, Christmas dolls and many colourful things. So shops look very beautiful. We can give a card or a doll to our friends and say “Merry Christmas.” By the way, I think studying can also become much more stmas is coming, it also means a new year will come. Let’s study harder to welcome
Evely nation has its own folk festivals. Those festivals give people a chance to be away from their regular work and everyday worries to enjoy themselves and to develop￥ kindship and fiiendship. The spring festival is the chief holiday in china while christmas is the most important redletter day in the western world.
the spring festival and christmas have much in common. Both are prepared hefiorehand to create a joyous atmosphere; both offer a family reunion with a square feast: and both satisfy the children with new clothes, lovely presents and delicious food. However, the chinese spring festival has no religious background while christmas has something to do with god and there is santa claus with white heard to bring children presents. The westerners send each other christmas cards for greetings while the chinese people pay a call on each other. nowadays, some of the chinese youth has begun to celebrate christmas, following the example of the westerners. Perhaps they do so just for fun and out of curiosity.
Christmas is a Christian holiday held on December 25 which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Eastern Orthodox Churches, which use the Julian Calendar to determine feast days, celebrate on January 7 by the Gregorian Calendar. Both dates are merely traditional and neither is thought to be the actual birthdate of Jesus. Christs birth, or nativity, is said to fulfill Old Testament prophecies concerning the coming of a messiah, or savior.
The word Christmas is derived Middle English Christemasse and from Old English Cristes m? is a contraction meaning "Christs mass". The name of the holiday is often shortened to Xmas because Roman letter "X" resembles the Greek letter Χ (chi), an abbreviation for Christ.
In Western countries, Christmas has become the most economically significant holiday of the year. The popularity of Christmas can be traced in part to its status as a winter festival. Many cultures have their most important holiday in winter because there is less agricultural work to do at this time. Examples of winter festivals that are believed by some to have influenced Christmas include the pre-Christian festivals of Yule and Saturnalia.
In Western culture, the holiday is characterized by the exchange of gifts among friends and family members, some of the gifts being attributed to Santa Claus (also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, and Father Frost). However, various local and regional Christmas traditions are still practiced, despite the widespread influence of American, British and Australian Christmas motifs disseminated by film, popular literature, television, and other media.
The classroom was decorated very beautiful, the window is full of stars, like the stars. This is in preparation for the class team activities in the afternoon.
Class meeting began, violin, guitar, hulus play, and word games. But these are not neutral, the teacher buy cake is interested students do, the appearance of the students eat cake to make people more surprised. That is, some even cracked a joke to the teacher.
Though Christmas party was finished, but still very happy!
I like Christmas, it is just like our Spring Festival.
Maybe the Spring Festival is much more important and interesting than Christmas, but I like Christmas Day better. Because we can spend time with our friends and classmates during Christmas. When it is snowy, Christmas becomes much more lovely, just like in fairytales. I can imagine I am in a fairytale, the girl who sold the matches is my friend, the ugly duck becoming more and more beautiful and so on. What a beautiful place! So we can also call Christmas “Snowy Lovely Day.”
On Christmas Day, shops are red and green. There are so many Christmas cards, Christmas hats, Christmas dolls and many colourful things. So shops look very beautiful. We can give a card or a doll to our friends and say “Merry Christmas.” By the way, I think studying can also become much more interesting.
Christmas is coming, it also means a new year will come. Let’s study harder to welcome the new year!
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