Christmas The Time Of Your Life.

Bow Down To The Creator

After six months, Umno decides it won popular vote in GE13

It must have been a busy six months at the Umno headquarters because they finally calculated and decided that Barisan Nasional, and not Pakatan Rakyat, won the popular vote in the May 5 general election.

The way Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak puts it, the Barisan Nasional (BN) won the popular vote in nine states compared to PR's four states.

And the Prime Minister also said Umno as a party got more votes than any of PR's three parties - PKR, DAP and PAS. Let's not forget Umno also gained nine more seats in Election 2013.

Christian Rescue Missions Set to Feed Thousands of Poor, Homeless for Thanksgiving

BY JESSICA MARTINEZ, CP REPORTER

Charitable organizations throughout the country have gathered resources, volunteers and food to feed thousands of families in need this holiday season while offering them a moment of celebration amid their less fortunate situations.

In Los Angeles, Union Rescue Mission (URM) started its Thanksgiving outreach event early as part of its effort to feed over 180,000 people between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Last weekend, URM fed over 3,000 individuals suffering from financial disparity from Skid Row, Los Angeles' most notorious neighborhood known for its high rate of homelessness.

Hipster Saints

Ketupat For Christmas

Malaysia has its unique style of celebrating Christmas. Christmas trees are put up by the Christians at their homes one or two weeks before Christmas. All the shopping malls of Malaysia put up with lights and decoration and welcome Christmas, the festival of joy and merry making, with much fervor and enthusiasm. The practice of singing Christmas carols for this very special occasion begins in the middle of December with the carolers going around from house to house one week before Christmas in their respective zones. Along with the carolers there is also a person dressed as Santa Claus who gives out sweets to the children. Christians dress up in new clothes and visit the church for participating in the midnight mass on the eve of Christmas.

Before the beginning of the midnight mass, sketches or plays enacted by children take place along with the singing of Christmas carols.

History of Christmas Tree

How It All Got Started

Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter. Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows. In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.

In the Northern hemisphere, the shortest day and longest night of the year falls on December 21 or December 22 and is called the winter solstice. Many ancient people believed that the sun was a god and that winter came every year because the sun god had become sick and weak. They celebrated the solstice because it meant that at last the sun god would begin to get well. Evergreen boughs reminded them of all the green plants that would grow again when the sun god was strong and summer would return.

The ancient Egyptians worshipped a god called Ra, who had the head of a hawk and wore the sun as a blazing disk in his crown. At the solstice, when Ra began to recover from the illness, the Egyptians filled their homes with green palm rushes which symbolized for them the triumph of life over death.

Early Romans marked the solstice with a feast called the Saturnalia in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. The Romans knew that the solstice meant that soon farms and orchards would be green and fruitful. To mark the occasion, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs. In Northern Europe the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life. The fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.

It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims's second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out "pagan mockery" of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against "the heathen traditions" of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated "that sacred event." In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations. That stern solemnity continued until the 19th century, when the influx of German and Irish immigrants undermined the Puritan legacy.

In 1846, the popular royals, Queen Victoria and her German Prince, Albert, were sketched in the Illustrated London News standing with their children around a Christmas tree. Unlike the previous royal family, Victoria was very popular with her subjects, and what was done at court immediately became fashionable—not only in Britain, but with fashion-conscious East Coast American Society. The Christmas tree had arrived.

By the 1890s Christmas ornaments were arriving from Germany and Christmas tree popularity was on the rise around the U.S. It was noted that Europeans used small trees about four feet in height, while Americans liked their Christmas trees to reach from floor to ceiling.

The early 20th century saw Americans decorating their trees mainly with homemade ornaments, while the German-American sect continued to use apples, nuts, and marzipan cookies. Popcorn joined in after being dyed bright colors and interlaced with berries and nuts. Electricity brought about Christmas lights, making it possible for Christmas trees to glow for days on end. With this, Christmas trees began to appear in town squares across the country and having a Christmas tree in the home became an American tradition.

Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree

The Rockefeller Center tree is located at Rockefeller Center, west of Fifth Avenue from 47th through 51st Streets inNew York City.

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree dates back to the Depression Era days. The tallest tree displayed at Rockefeller Center came in 1948 and was a Norway Spruce that measured in at 100 feet tall and hailed from Killingworth, Connecticut.

The first tree at Rockefeller Center was placed in 1931. It was a small unadorned tree placed by construction workers at the center of the construction site. Two years later, another tree was placed there, this time with lights. These days, the giant Rockefeller Center tree is laden with over 25,000 Christmas lights.