Christmas Trivia For The Brave or Seasons Reasons

by Valis 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  Valis

  

  This quiz is a monthly feature of Harper's Magazine and since we seem to have so many brainiacs here I thought I would put you to task..They don't reveal the answers till the next edition, but I bet we could find all the answers before then...also, in the Dec 20002 Edition there is a very good account of one soldiers experience during the Gulf War...

  Season's Reasons

  1. What ancient celebration of the solstice included cnadles, gift giving, gambling and masters waiting on slaves?

  2. How did children celebrate in the Incan solstice celebrations at the Temple of The Sun?

  3. The January 6 birthday celebration for what ancient Egyptian god is also the day the Christian Church assigns to the Epiphany?

  4. What Old Testament prophecy may have helped influence the assignment of Bethlehem as Christ's birthplace instead of Nazareth?

  5. The sacrifice of what animal on a Jewish altar fomented the revolt whose miraculous success is commemorated by Hannukah?

  6. St. Nicolaus is sometimes identified as the patron saint of sailors, pawnbrokers, and what kind of women?

  7. On Christmas Eve in fourteenth-century Europe, indoor pine-tree displays were used to illustrate what Bible story?

  8. In these displays, what were the primary objects used to decorate the tree?

  9. What fruit tree is blessed with song, dance, decoration, and drink as a part of an ancient European winter tradition?

  10. What substances are the nutrmeg, cinnamon and cloves used in mincemeat pie said to symbolize?

  11. Some scholars theorize that the Hannukah story was deliberately left out of the earliest collection of rabbinical literature in deference to what regime?

  12. Until it was officialy moved to January in the sixteenth century, New Year's Day was assigned to what month of the Christian calendar?

  13. Which of the letters originally inscribed on dreidels to tell the Hannukah story is replaced with a different one on those outside of Israel?

  14. On December 25, 1914, what game are German and British soldiers said to have played together on the battlefront?

  Good luck on answering them all! BTW if you think you have all the answers you can submit them to the following address. The first person to answer them all correctly gets a year's subscription to Harpers and you get the chance to enter their annual quiz w/a first prize of a complete set of the OED.

  Quiz
  Harper's Magazine
  666 Broadway
  New York, NY 10012

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer

  
• 

  Celia

  12. Until it was officialy moved to January in the sixteenth century, New Year's Day was assigned to what month of the Christian calendar?

  April 1st.
• 

  Valis

  14. On December 25, 1914, what game are German and British soldiers said to have played together on the battlefront?

  That would be soccer I believe. I was watching the History channel the other day and they happened to mention this. There is or was a program on it that just popped up and I missed it. I have always enjoyed history so this was a great story to find. There is also a new book out and here's a review for all you history buffs..

  Celia, where did you find your answer?

  Sincerely,

  District Overbeer

  Edited by - Valis on 22 December 2002 15:2:21
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  Celia

  Valis --- Here you go ...

  Unlike most of the other nonfoolish holidays, the history of April Fool's Day, sometimes called All Fool's Day, is not totally clear. There really wasn't a "first April Fool's Day" that can be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it sort of evolved simultaneously in several cultures at the same time, from celebrations involving the first day of spring.

  The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Prior to that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration culminated on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved to January 1.

  However, communications being what they were in the days when news traveled by foot, many people did not receive the news for several years. Others, the more obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as "fools" by the general populace. They were subject to some ridicule, and were often sent on "fools errands" or were made the butt of other practical jokes.

  This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French. April Fool's Day thus developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.
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  Celia

  6. St. Nicolaus is sometimes identified as the patron saint of sailors, pawnbrokers, and what kind of women?

  I know that one too.... I think.... he is the patron saint of girls in poor families who cannot afford a dowry...
• 

  blondie

  10. What substances are the nutrmeg, cinnamon and cloves used in mincemeat pie said to symbolize?

  The gifts of the three wise men to Jesus
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  xenawarrior

  6. single or unmarried women
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  blondie

  9. What fruit tree is blessed with song, dance, decoration, and drink as a part of an ancient European winter tradition?

  Wassailing the apple tree

  http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020203/spectrum/main6.htm

  Edited by - Blondie on 22 December 2002 22:27:12
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  WildHorses

  7.

  In the fourteenth century, when hardly anyone knew how to read, churches held "miracle plays" to tell the people in villages and towns stories from the Bible. Special plays were held at special times of the year, in accordance with the early Christian Calendar of Saints. The play that was held every December 24, which was Adam and Eve's Day, was about the Garden of Eden. The play showed how Eve was tempted by the serpent, how she picked the apple from the forbidden tree and how the couple was expelled from Paradise.

  http://www3.telus.net/Balsamtrees/history1.htm

  3.

  The Egyptians celebrated this day as the birth day of their great saviour Horus, the Egyptian god of light and the son of the "virgin mother" and "queen of the heavens" Isis. Osiris, god of the dead and the underworld in Egypt, the son of "the holy virgin", again was believed to have been born on the 25th of December.

  http://www.thetruereligion.org/xmas.htm

  Edited by - Lilacs on 23 December 2002 1:2:15