Eine Weihnachtsbiographie

Gestern Abend habe ich die letzten Seiten von Hercule Poirot ausgelesen. Diese Geschichte kannte ich noch gar nicht, aber wie immer hat sie mir sehr gut gefallen. Nächstes Jahr werde ich mir definitiv noch ein paar Romane mit dem belgischen Meisterdetektiv zulegen.

 

In der U-Bahn habe ich dann heute mit einer Biographie über Weihnachten begonnen. Das erste Kapitel beleuchtet die religiöse Geschichte und zieht sich etwas dahin. Ich hoffe, das Buch wird noch etwas spannender... aber da es nicht so viele Seiten hat, sollte ich bald fertig sein.

 

Weihnachtslektüre Nummer 4:

 

 

Judith FLANDERS
Christmas

A Biographie

Description: Christmas has been all things to all people: a religious festival, a family celebration, a time of eating and drinking. Yet the origins of the customs which characterize the festive season are wreathed in myth.

 

When did turkeys become the plat du jour? Is the commercialization of Christmas a recent phenomenon, or has the emphasis always been on spending? Just who is, or was, Santa Claus? And for how long have we been exchanging presents of underwear and socks?

 

Food, drink and nostalgia for Christmases past seem to be almost as old as the holiday itself, far more central to the story of Christmas than religious worship. Thirty years after the first recorded Christmas, in the fourth century, the Archbishop of Constantinople was already warning that too many people were spending the day not in worship, but dancing and eating to excess. By 1616, the playwright Ben Jonson was nostalgically recalling the Christmases of yesteryear, confident that they had been better then.

 

In Christmas: A Biography, acclaimed social historian and best-selling author Judith Flanders casts a sharp and revealing eye on the myths, legends and history of the season, from the origins of the holiday in the Roman empire to the emergence of Christmas trees in central Europe, to what might just possibly be the first appearance of Santa Claus – in Switzerland! – to draw a picture of the season as it has never been seen before.