> The Government is CLOSED on
> December 25th, why is that ?
Christmas is one of the biggest holidays of the year in the U.S. and
the vast majority of stores and businesses are closed, along with
government offices.
Google the phrase "every day except Christmas" and you'll find numerous
businesses that are only closed one day a year -- Christmas Day.
It's celebrated for both religious and non-religious reasons. Many
societies throughout history have had celebrations in December; in many
cases around the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year) which
occurs in the northern hemisphere around Dec. 21.
Many scholars believe that when the early Christian church decided to
begin celebrating Jesus' birth, they didn't know which date to use (the
Bible doesn't explicity say when Jesus was born) so they probably
piggy-backed it on an existing pagan holiday in December, hoping to
transform it from a pagan holiday to a religious one. Ever since then,
Christmas has had both religious and non-religious elements.
Jim
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