A Christmas Cornucopia

Download or read book A Christmas Cornucopia written by Mark Forsyth and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2016-11-03 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The unpredictable origins and etymologies of our cracking Christmas customs For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas. We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas, etymologically speaking, means "Go away, Christ". Nor do we know that Christmas was first celebrated in 243 AD on March 28th - and only moved to 25th December in 354 AD. We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularising sweet wrappers. Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way.