hypa ANALYSIS
hypa is famous for it's global analysis which looks at issues relating to current events and helps us fill our web pages with stuff. hypa has access to sources of information from all over the world, and from many diverse contacts. Each week we look at an issue connected to our chosen topic of the week.
The History of Christmas
The actual word 'Christmas' comes from the Greek meaning 'to commercialise'. It began in the year 587 B.C. when three wise men decided that they needed some time off work between their summer holidays and Easter. After much debate, they settled on 25 December as the day everybody should have off work.
As it turned out, this was a very good choice because it was the day Jesus would be born on, 587 years later. However, in 587 B.C. many employers did not wish to recognise another public holiday. It would not be until the year 1967 A.D. that a majority of employers would recognise Christmas as a public holiday.
Following the birth of Jesus there was a brief revival of interest in the religious side of Christmas that lasted until a fortnight after Jesus ascended to the heavens.
However, commercialisation rapidly became the dominant theme of Christmas. This mainly occurred as capitalists realised the money that could be made by developing the 'giving' aspect of Christmas. It is no coincidence that the 'celebration of giving' developed alongside the industrial revolution. This is because there were now more things to give - before the industrial revolution giving had been confined to wheat and dead sparrows.
In modern times Christmas is mostly a celebration of the card-making industry, which is commemorated by the bulk purchase of cards and the generous giving of them to people you wouldn't usually talk to if you saw them in the street.
Many so-called 'Christmas experts' predict that in the future the card-giving will slowly be replaced by the automated sending of e-mails to every person in your address book. The experts suggest that this will have the added advantage that the e-mails can be automatically deleted by the recipient's computer without the recipient actually having to read them.