Faith on Auction.

Who will reap the Fruit?

Who will reap the Fruit?

Kerala Education Rules

You can download complete Kerala Education Rules here. Click on button below.

The Fox and The Grapes - Grapes are Sour.

കിട്ടാത്ത മുന്തിരി പുളിപ്പാണ് . 

New Age BEGGARS caught on TAPE.

New Age BEGGARS caught on TAPE!!

An Interview with Hon. Bishop of CSI-NKD

The Jamakkaran Says it All.

What is New Year?

New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome. With most countries using the Gregorian calendar as their main calendar, New Year's Day is the closest thing to being the world's only truly global public holiday, often celebrated with fireworks at the stroke of midnight as the new year starts. January 1 on the Julian calendar currently corresponds to January 14 on the Gregorian calendar, and it is on that date that followers of some of the Eastern Orthodox churches celebrate the New Year.

ANCIENT NEW YEARS

The celebration of the new year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, the Babylonian New Year began with the first New Moon (actually the first visible cresent) after the Vernal Equinox (first day of spring).

The beginning of spring is a logical time to start a new year. After all, it is the season of rebirth, of planting new crops, and of blossoming. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

The Babylonian New Year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison. 

The Romans continued to observe the new year in late March, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun. 

In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the new year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the new year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.

THE CHURCH'S VIEW OF NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS

Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the New Year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year's Day was no different. New Years is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations. During the Middle Ages, the Church remained opposed to celebrating New Years. January 1 has been celebrated as a holiday by Western nations for only about the past 400 years.

Gregorian / Christian New Year: Christian or Gregorian New Year falls on January 1st. Countries following the Gregorian Calendar celebrate the New Year on this date. Gregorian Calendar is a modification of the Julian Calendar established by the Roman Emporer, Julius Caesar in 46 BC. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII of Rome, abolished Julian Calendar as it was slightly long and caused vernal equinox to drift backwards in the calendar year (January 1 to December 31). Gradually Gregorian Calendar gained acceptance in several countries across the world as it created a balance between seasons and calendar.

Jewish New Year: New Year for Jewish people is the most important event. Month of September and October (according to the Gregorian calender) are for welcoming the New Year. Everybody is in high spirits and mood of the festival. Festival celebrations begin with Rosh Hashanah and ends with Yom Kippur. Good health, long life and prosperity for all is the New Year wish of every Jewish. A grand New Year celebrations takes place and lot of enthusiasm can be seen on the faces of all Jewish. There are many religious believes associated with the celebrations of New Year. It is on this day, God recreates fate of his creatures. The origin of Jewish New Year can be traced from the holy Bible which is celebrated over a thousand years. The Jewish New Year takes place in the month of Tishri that are months of September and October according to the Gregorian calender.

Parsi New Year: Jamshedi Navroz is the Parsi New Year. It usually falls on 21st March. Parsi New Year was named after the legendary King of Persia, Jamshed who started the Parsi Calendar. As per the Parsi mythology, universe is recreated on this day and life with all its glory is cherished. Navroz means spring and is believed Mother Nature casts her spell by dressing up like a young bride. Thus, Navroz gives a new vision to everyone's life. Parsis celebrate the day with jollity and mirth.

Hindu New Year: Hindu New Year is celebrated according to the Hindu Lunar Calendar- Panchanga. The popular name of the Hindu New Year is Vikram Samvat. In the Indian Calendar, seasons follow the sun, months follow the moon and days both sun and moon. This era of Vikram Samvat began in 57 BC. To correspond with the solar calendar, 57 years are subtracted from the Hindu Year. Thus, the New Year begin with the first day of Kartik Maas following Deepawali Amaavasya.

Islamic New Year: Islam has a lunar based calendar with 354 days. The New Year date also changes every year as the Islamic Calendar is 11 days shorter than the solar calendar. Maal Hijra or Islamic New Year is celebrated on the first day of Muharram (first Islamic month). The word Muharram also means respect. It is more of a cultural event than a New Year celebration. People welcome the New Year with peace and prayers.

Sikh Nanakshahi New Year: Baisakhi Festival, also called Vaisakhi, holds great importance for the Sikh community and farmers of Punjab. Baisakhi falls on April 13 or 14, the first day of the year according to the Nanakshahi Calender. Sikhs also celebrate this day in honor of their tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh. Baisakhi commemorates the day when the Sikh Guru eliminated caste differences and founded Khalsa Panth in1689. For the large farming community of Punjab and Haryana, Baisakhi marks the harvest time. Farmers celebrate it with immense fervor as they are loaded with cash at this time. Men and women run over the fields shouting "Jatta aayi Baisakhi".

Celtic New Year: Celt is a community of people in European countries speaking Celtic languages (mainly Indo-Europeans languages). These people celebrated various festivals and the most important amongst them was Samhain, the Celtic New Year. 'Samhian' is the word for November in the Irish language. November 1 is the Celtic feast of Samhain. This Celtic New Year is named after Sama - the Aryan God of Dead. Samhain in Gaelic (Scottish language) means "summer's end". Samhain begins with An Geamhradh (the beginning of the dark winter) and ends with Am Foghar (the Celtic harvest). Some other names are also associated with the Celtic New Year:

• The Third Harvest
• All Hollows Eve
• The Day of the Dead
• And the famous Halloweens Day.

Bahai New Year: Bahai New Year occurs on the date of vernal equinox. It is usually celebrated on 21st March every year. Bahai people have their own nine months calendar of nineteen days. Naw Ruz is also called 'The Day of God' , 'Yawmu'llah' or 'the Day of the Point'. This day begins at the sunset rather than midnight. So, New Year celebrations also began on the evening of March 20th. This festival is most popularly celebrated by the Iranians and Zoroastrian community. Naw-Ruz falls in the month of Bahá. It is also associated with, 'Him Whom God shall make manifest, the Promised One of the Bab'. The remaining 18 days of the month are associated with eighteen Letters of the Living. This indicated that the Bab wanted Naw Ruz festivities to encompass the nineteen days of the month of Baha. Naw-Ruz is a feast day as it follows the tradition of strict fasting.

Buddhist New Year: New Year occurs on different days in different countries following Buddhism. New Year in Theravadin countries, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Lao is celebrated for three days from the first full moon day in April. In Mahayan countries, New Year celebrations starts on the first full moon day in January. These countries celebrate the day according to their ethnic background and culture. People of China, Korea and Vietnam celebrate it in the month of January or early February while Tibetans usually celebrate a month later. New Year is the time to hope best from the coming year. People reflect upon their past and rectify all their mistakes. It is observed with same spirit and gaiety in most of the countries. 

Let Heaven And Earth Rejoice And Sing

Let us celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer.

Xmas vs Christmas

Christmas is also sometimes called Xmas. Some people don't think it's correct to call Christmas 'Xmas' as that takes the 'Christ' (Jesus) out of Christmas. But that is not quite right! In the Greek language and alphabet, the letter that looks like an X is the Greek letter chi / Χ (pronounced 'kye' - it rhymes with 'eye') which is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Christos.

The early church used the first two letters of Christos in the Greek alphabet 'chi' and 'rho' to create a monogram (symbol) to represent the name of Jesus. This looks like an X with a small p on the top:

The symbol of a fish is sometimes used by Christians (Ichthys, sometimes spelled Ichthus, or Ikhthus, from Koine Greek: ΙΧΘΥΣ is the ancient and classical Greek word for “fish.” In English it refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs, the ends of the right side extending beyond the meeting point so as to resemble the profile of a fish, used by Early Christians as a secret symbol and now known colloquially as the “sign of the fish” or the “Jesus Fish.”   

ΙΧΘΥΣ (Ichthys) is an acronym for “Iēsous Christos, Theou Yios, Sōtēr, which translates into English as “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior”.  According to tradition, ancient Christians, during their persecution by the Roman Empire in the first few centuries after Christ, used the fish symbol to mark meeting places and tombs, or to distinguish friends from foes.) 

This comes from the time when the first Christians had to meet in secret, as the Romans wanted to kill them (before Emperor Constantine became a Christian). Jesus had said that he wanted to make his followers 'Fishers of Men', so people started to use that symbol.

When two Christians met, one person drew half a basic fish shape (often using their foot in the dust on the ground) and the other person drew the other half of the fish. The Greek word for fish is 'Ikthus' or 'Ichthys'. There are five Greek letters in the word. It can also make up a sentence of Christian beliefs 'Ie-sous Christos Theou Huios So-te-r' which in English means "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour". The second letter of these five letter is X or Christos!

So Xmas can also mean Christmas; but it should also be pronounced 'Christmas' rather than 'ex-mas'!

The small letters in the

image are the alpha and omega

The labarum, as a monogram

engraved on soldiers' shields,

 is a military emblem.

For Christians, it is a Christogram

(or Chrismon) and reminds them

 of the fight is against evil.

LATVIA – Home for First Decorated Christmas TREE

Riga's first christmas tree 1510

 Why do we have a decorated Christmas Tree? In the 7^th century a monk from Crediton, Devonshire, went to Germany to teach the Word of God. He did many good works there, and spent much time in Thuringia, an area which was to become the cradle of the Christmas Decoration Industry.

Legend has it that he used the triangular shape of the Fir Tree to describe the Holy Trinity of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The converted people began to revere the Fir tree as God's Tree, as they had previously revered the Oak. By the 12th century it was being hung, upside-down, from ceilings at Christmastime in Central Europe, as a symbol of Christianity.

The Queen's Christmas tree at

Windsor Castle published in the

Illustrated London News, 1848,

and republished in Godey's Lady's

Book, Philadelphia in December 1850

The first decorated tree was at Riga in Latvia, in 1510. In the early 16^th century, Martin Luther is said to have decorated a small Christmas Tree with candles, to show his children how the stars twinkled through the dark night.

Finland has Santa Claus. Russia has traditional handmade Christmas ornaments. Germany has Christmas markets. But arguably the most well-known of Christmas traditions -- decorating the Christmas tree -- may have its origin in Latvia. And it's all but unknown.

A Christmas tree for

German soldiers in a

temporary hospital in 1871.

In the past, there have been stories about Martin Luther walking in the woods near Riga and he created the first Christmas Tree. But actually, the Riga tree reference and the Martin Luther Tree reference are two different occurrences. The Martin Luther Tree was not the Riga Tree. In fact, little is known about the original Riga tree other than the fact that it was attended by men wearing black hats, and that after a ceremony, they burnt the tree. The Martin Luther walk in the forest, believed to actually in Northern Germany and his lighted tree actually occurred several decades later.

In Latvia as in all of northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun as a part of pagan activities where people were living their life as they had done for hundreds of years before.  In all societies, there were people who filled the roles of judge, doctor, diviner, mage, mystic, and clerical scholar - they were the religious intelligentsia of their culture. These people often used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees and gathering around a large bonfire. The legend says that the first Riga tree in 1510 was decorated with paper flowers and burnt on the bonfire after the ceremony; most probably, with a toast for the future, with steins held high!

According to Countess Maria Hubert von Staufer of the organization Christmas Archives International based in the England, "Riga is very important in the History of the Christmas Tree".

In 1584, the pastor and chronicler Balthasar Russow wrote of an established tradition of setting up a decorated spruce at the market square where the young men “went with a flock of maidens and women, first sang and danced there and then set the tree aflame”. In that period, the guilds started erecting Christmas trees in front of their guildhalls: Ingeborg Weber-Kellermann (Marburg professor of European ethnology) found a Bremen guild chronicle of 1570 which reports how a small tree was decorated with "apples, nuts, dates, pretzels and paper flowers" and erected in the guild-house, for the benefit of the guild members' children, who collected the dainties on Christmas Day.

The plaque is engraved "The First New Years

Tree in Riga in 1510", in eight languages.               

Town Hall Square in riga, developed in the middle of the 13th century, was initially a marketplace. Various celebrations, dances, games, tournaments, performances of mysteries, carnivals and parades took place there. The main function of the Square, though, was the administration of the city: the rules and orders of the Town Council were read out there.

Next:-  X'mas Vs. Christmas

some of the Photographs, drawings and content used with permission of:  The Home of the First Christmas Tree (R) Organization --  www.FirstChristmasTree.org