Home » The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints » Sunday Preparation - Talks & Lessons » Lesson on Christmas (The notes I collected in preparing for a Sunday School lesson on Christmas)
| Lesson on Christmas [message #352] |
Fri, 16 December 2011 21:18  |
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Dragon
Messages: 499
Registered: June 2010
Location: Earth
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Santa Claus:
Saint Nicholaos 5 Dec 270 6 Dec 343, Feast on Dec 5th to honor him. Well known for giving anonymously to others, finding different ways to give without being seen.
Miracles: Brought 3 children back to life after they were chopped up as ham; Bought wheat for the hungry from merchants passing through. If they did not deliver the right amount they would be punished. When they did deliver the wheat, the weight had not diminished.;
He helped an elderly man who had no dowry for his three daughters. He tossed three bags of gold through the window. Each bag was tossed in the night before the daughters came of age. The man laid in wait to catch his benefactor and confronted him. In some stories he dropped the gold down the chimney, in others a bag landed inside a stocking hanging over the fire.
Dutch: Sinterklaas, Also confused with Odin, the God of the Norse, who flies on an eight legged reindeer and delivers presents to the good Vikings on the Winter Solstice.
First mention of 8 reindeer and sleigh is in the poem "T'was the Night Before Christmas" written in 1822
wikipedia.org
Why December 25th?
Seeing that pagans were already exalting deities with some parallels to the true deity, church leaders decided to commandeer the date and introduce a new festival. cira 273
Pagan celebrations of the Sun or Sun God already used the 25th or nearby dates. christianitytoday.com Elesha Coffman
Christmas Tree
The forefather to the Christmas pyramid was the "Lichtergestelle" (literally: thing on which lights are set). They were constructions made of four poles, decorated with evergreen boughs, tied together at the top and lit with candles.
The modern Christmas tree . . . originated in western Germany. The main prop of a popular medieval play about Adam and Eve was a fir tree hung with apples (paradise tree) representing the Garden of Eden. The Germans set up a paradise tree in their homes on December 24, the religious feast day of Adam and Eve. They hung wafers on it (symbolizing the host, the Christian sign of redemption); in a later tradition, the wafers were replaced by cookies of various shapes. Candles, too, were often added as the symbol of Christ. In the same room, during the Christmas season, was the Christmas pyramid, a triangular construction of wood, with shelves to hold Christmas figurines, decorated with evergreens, candles, and a star. By the 16th century, the Christmas pyramid and paradise tree had merged, becoming the Christmas tree.[18]
wikipedia.org
The 3 Kings or Magi (sometimes the 12 Kings)
Magi is a term, used since at least the 4th century BC, to denote a follower of Zoroaster, or rather, a follower of what the Hellenistic world associated Zoroaster with, which was in the main the ability to read the stars, and manipulate the fate that the stars foretold. The meaning prior to Hellenistic period is uncertain. - wikipedia.org
It is about 500 miles from Babylon to Jerusalem. A caravan of camels covers 10 to 25 miles on each day the weather permits them to travel. Thus the journey took between one month and 4 months.
The Star
Helaman 14:5 And behold, there shall a new a star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you.
Matt 2:2 Saying, a Where is he that is born b King of the Jews? for we have seen his c star in the east, and are come to d worship him.
3 Nephi 1:21 And it came to pass also that a new a star did appear, according to the word.
Early in the evening of June 17, 2 B.C., the brightest planets in the sky, Jupiter and Venus, merged into a dazzling "star" near the western horizon, according to calculations of modern astronomers. In countries to the east of what was then the kingdom of Judea, observers could have seen the fused planets as a beacon in the direction of Jerusalem.
Astrologers associated Jupiter with the birth of kings and Venus with fertility. The meeting of Jupiter and Venus took place in the constellation Leo the Lion, which the Old Testament of the Bible specifically associated with the Jewish people. And it happened near the brightest star in Leo, Regulus, most closely identified with kingship.
There has not been a brighter, closer conjunction of Venus and Jupiter in Leo so near to Regulus in the 2,000 years before or since. - http://newsinfo.iu.edu/OCM/packages/bethstar.html
Venus passes Jupiter at about 2' arc per hour. The eye has a resolution of 1' arc so the two will appear as one only for a little more than 1 hour. http://www.bogan.ca/astro/occultations/2bcocclt.htm
It is exactly 42 weeks between June 17, 2 B.C. and April 6th, 1 B.C.
- Dragon
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