The Overlooked History of Christmas

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It’s that time of the year again where Christmas is once again upon us. For some a magical time of the year where family get-togethers are the norm and stuffing ones face and drinking far too much for which one cares to remember are acceptable. Where, thanks to the commercialisation by the retail industry, holidays gifts are exchanged from one person to another on a massive scale, leaving people immersed in the excitement and anticipation of the build-up to Christmas.

For the remaining population, Christmas is the exact opposite. The build up to Christmas consists of overcrowded shopping centres, traffic on the roads, Christmas advertisements (as early as September), stress of last minute arrangements, costs, even seeing family could be a bad thing, not to mention some pretty cheesy and awful Christmas songs.

But however you feel about Christmas, there is no denying that it is a unique time of the year with a unique feeling that only comes around once a year for one day. Christmas is celebrated all over the world and ‘Merry Christmas’ has a translation in over 80 languages, further adding to the wonder of Christmas.

But for this Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ there are many little known facts that get overlooked whilst everyone is capsulated in the Christmas spirit, here are some for you.

25th December is not Jesus’s birthday

nativityContrary to popular belief the 25th December is not Jesus’s birthday, although we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christ-mass day, Jesus was not actually born on this date. In fact there is no mention of Jesus Christ’s birthday in the Bible so it is not known what his actual date of birth is. There were holidays before Christmas existence dedicated to Jesus, Epiphany on 6th January and Easter, although it wasn’t until 336 A.D. that an official holiday was celebrated in honour of Jesus’s birth. One widely believed theories for celebrating the birth of Jesus on 25th December is owed to Christian writers efforts to ‘Christianise’ a Roman pagan festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, English translation: “the birthday of the Unconquered Sun”, which was celebrated on 25th December.

Santa Claus is a mixture of legendary figures

SantaSanta Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle or just Santa, whatever your name for him, you will know that familiar figure of the red and white clad, gift bearing jolly old fat man with the big white beard and Christmas hat. But many do not know the history behind this mythical legend who hails from the North Pole. The modern figure of Santa Claus originates from the Dutch figure of Sinterklass who himself is based on Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a historical Greek bishop known for his generosity and gift giving from Myra which is modern day Turkey. It is also believed that the cheerful figure of Santa Claus also has elements of the Germanic pagan god Odin who is of the ghostly pagan midwinter event of Yule. Odin was a white bearded gift bearer from the North who rode across the sky with his eight legged Sleipnir, giving out gifts to people; sound familiar? The modern day Santa Claus owes itself to Saint Nicholas, Odin as well as commercial industries.

The Christmas tree is borrowed

The Christmas tree, a decorated evergreen conifer tree, for some is the pinnacle sign of Christmas. The Christmas tree is the one thing that signifies Christmas is here. With the bright sparkling lights, decorations and tinsel wrapped around the tree finished off with an angel or bright star perched right on the top. Where presents received are kept under until Christmas day. The Christmas tree can be enjoyed anywhere from public places to the centrepiece of one’s home.

There are many customs and traditions surrounding the Christmas tree but the original concept of erecting a tree for Christmas stems from 16th century Germany. Although, like Santa Claus, the use of Christmas tree is most likely a borrowed idea from German pagan religions as well as Ancient Egyptians, Hebrews and Chinese who all also utilised evergreen trees.

Christmas Tree

So there you have it, some of the main overlooked and often rarely known facts about Christmas. Christmas day is ultimately a Christian holiday created to celebrate the birth of Christ with many elements borrowed from pagan religions to make the conversion to the Christian religion more straightforward. The original celebration has changed so much even in the last 30 years, due to commercial efforts and translations of the holiday in countries where Christianity is a minority; that inevitably has led to Christmas losing some of its religious meanings. One thing is left to say and that is, we wish you a merry Christmas!

What we could all learn about business from the Apprentice

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So the apprentice 2014 drew to a conclusion Sunday night with Australian Mark Wright being crowned champion for the sought after title of being Lord Alan Sugar’s business partner. Over the weeks we have all witnessed the candidates juggle different tasks week in-week out with Lord Sugar putting their skills to test all for that title to be the next apprentice. With a final which could have gone either way in a battle between the marketing and hosiery industries with Bianca’s ‘luxury tights’ business concept versus Marks digital marketing agency and the £250,000 investment by Lord Sugar it is undeniable that each venture would have made Lord Sugar a bit richer than he already is.

So what can we all learn from watching the apprentice?

No matter how good you think you are at something there will likely be someone who is better.

Well apart from Mark and Daniel’s so called rivalry/bromance it is clear that no matter how good you think you are at something there will likely be someone who is better. The key is what makes you different? Personality rings a bell here as can be seen throughout the process, brains will only take you so far, but it’s your personally which shines perhaps overshadowing your experience and educational background. It is a phrase most people use and it is true, people buy from people. One may have the most prestige education in the world but without personality going into business is a non-starter. When it comes to business, although education will take you places it is your ability to build relationships which will take you further and that is reflected through various successful businessmen and women such as Lord Sugar himself who did not pursue further or higher education but yet is successful in business.

Learning to work well with others could go a long way, learning to work with people you don’t like could even take you further.

Of course when it comes to business one of the most fundamental qualities is how well you interact with others. Whether you are a sole trader operating in the technical industry or in a partnership, working with others is something you cannot avoid. From sourcing suppliers to negotiating the best deals for your business you will have to interact with people. When your business starts to grow you may well have to employ people and it is these relationships that will keep your business going. It is all well to have a good concept but if no one is behind you or willing to work with or for you then you have missed the mark so it is key to learn how to deal with different people. There will be times when you have to work with people you do not like however such people may be the ones who could help achieve your goals so balancing your personal and business life will surely take you a long way.

We all have ambitions but goals not worked towards are simply dreams.

We have heard the quotes about dreaming and not achieving. Guess what it is true! If you have a business idea it is simply just that. Chances are that there are others thinking about the same idea who are probably working towards realising these goals. If you have a business idea and a passion and desire to bring this to the market then chase that dream as you may never know where it will lead you. After all it is better to try and fail than to live with regret, having that voice in your head constantly reminding you of the what if’s.

Will Skype Translator be all it’s cracked up to be? How will human translation be affected?

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In mid-2014 Microsoft announced its plans to release the anticipated Skype Translator and now in late 2014 a new video has been released to support the campaign. The video shows two school children one in America and one in Mexico conversing over skype with real time audio translation. Similarly to Apple and Google’s speech recognition software the Skype Translator is able to convert speech into text but with a twist, the speech is then translated into a different language in real time and fed back to the other party. So far the application is able to offer English to Spanish translation and vice versa in audio form and in around 40 languages in text form.

What impact will this have on learning languages?

Some may argue this is the end of learning languages. Would one want to go through the effort of studying a new language, watching countless videos, reading numerous books, understanding new dialects and having to emigrate and live in a new country just to learn a new language, when one can easily communicate in real time with someone who speaks a totally different language to them with just access to internet connection and a mobile or laptop device. This is a debatable topic one left to individual preference.

Although this new technology is ground-breaking it is highly unlikely to deter people from travelling and wanting to learn new languages the old fashioned way and surely that is not what Microsoft intended when they first brought the idea into development. In fact it would probably encourage people to travel and learn new languages as people have been for years.

Privacy issues

As reported in the Guardian one controversial factor which has stood out with the new Skype Translator is the fact that Skype will record conversations in order to continually improve the translation, voice recognition services and train the system to better learn each language. Ask yourself would you be happy for your private conversations being recorded by Skype or is this a breach of privacy not worth the use?

Overall the Skype Translator has its benefits when it comes to convenience when communicating with someone who speaks a different language to you. The application could even go as far as being a cost effective way of using translation services, however the fact that the translation is not 100% accurate like many other machine translation platforms it is highly unlikely to replace human translation anytime soon. Apart from some privacy and accuracy issues it is likely to capture a great following and be a great addition to machine translation.