Christmas Every Day

Some head-scratching posers for those who like to mix Christmas and sport.

1. In 2013 NBA teams all wore distinct new uniforms for their Christmas Day games. What were different about these?

   (a) They had sleeves for the first time.

   (b) They featured corporate logos.

   (c) They all had black arm bands to honour military dead.

   (d) They had no player numbers on the front.

2. In Australia Boxing Day is the day for sports. There is always a yacht race between Hobart, Tasmania and what Australian city?

   (a) Melbourne

   (b) Sydney

   (c) Perth

   (d) Canberra

3. Every year the Santa Claus Winter Games are held in Sweden. What is NOT a sport in these games?

   (a) Elf roping.

   (b) Chimney climbing

   (c) Porridge eating

   (d) Reindeer racing

4. In the 2013 Santa Winter Games, Canada was represented by a popular actor. Was it

   (a) Eric Peterson, who played the grumpy Oscar on Corner Gas

   (b) William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk of Star Trek

   (c) John Dunsworth, also known as Mr. Lahey of Trailer Park Boys

   (d) Steve Smith, who was Red Green of the Red Green Show

5. In 1977 the NFL held a rare Christmas Eve game, between Oakland Raiders and Baltimore Colts. It went into double overtime with the winning touchdown immortalized by a famous catch. Its nickname was

   (a) The Immaculate Reception

   (b) The Ghost to the Post

   (c) The Hail Mary to Larry

   (d) The Grab Heard Round the World

6. “The greatest hockey game ever played.” That is what they called the match-up on New Year’s Eve 1976 between the Soviet Red Army team who were touring NHL cities over the Christmas holidays and the Montreal Canadiens. What was the result?

   (a) A 3-3 tie.

   (b) Red Army 4 Canadiens 2

   (c) Canadiens 6 Red Army 1

   (d) Canadiens win 4-3 in overtime.

7. In what country is it customary to play hockey after church on Christmas?

   (a) Ethiopia

   (b) Finland

   (c) Sweden

   (d) Iceland

8. In World War I there was a Christmas truce between British and German troops with a soccer game played between the trenches. What was the score?

   (a) Germany 3-British 2

   (b) 3-3 tie

   (c) Game called on account of renewed artillery fire

   (d) British 3-Germans 2

9. In 1862 two teams made up of members of the Union Army faced off against each other in a Christmas Day baseball game in Hilton Head, South Carolina in front of 40,000 spectators. The team representing the 165th New York Volunteer Infantry had a distinctive uniform. What made them so special?

   (a) They were the first sports uniform to feature player names.

   (b) They wore red fezzes with blue tassels.

   (c) They sported blue balloon pants, or “bloomers”

   (d) They played without shirts and their numbers were written on their skin with coal dust.

10. In England in the 1500s all sports on Christmas were banned except

   (a) Football

   (b) Cheese-rolling

   (c) Competitive drinking

   (d) Archery

ANSWERS

1. Answer: D
2. Answer: B
3. Answer: D
4. Answer: C. He gave up cigarettes to train for the events and could run nearly 100 yards. The 2013 games were won by a Santa from Hong Kong.
5. Answer: B. The catch was made by Dave Casper, whose nickname was “The Ghost”.
6. Answer: A. Montreal outplayed the Soviets but Ken Dryden let in two soft ones over his left shoulder. Vladislav Tretiak was the star as Montreal outshot the Army 38-13. The photo above shows Tretiak surrounded by Pete Mahovlich and Yvan Cournoyer.
7. Answer: A. In fact the word for Christmas and the Ethiopian variety of field hockey are the same.
8. Answer: A. There is a lot of argument about the final score from different sources but everybody agrees the Germans won.
9. Answer: B. They were “Zouaves”, troops who wore uniforms like French Arab soldiers: red balloon pants, ornamental cloth jackets, white spats, and fezzes with blue tassels.
10. Answer: D

 

Christmas in Trinidad and Tobago is a time to look back on the old and prepare for the new year. The house must be given a thorough cleaning and decorated; a portion of the Christmas budget always goes to buying something new for the house at this time of year. New curtains are hung, windows are washed, furniture is recovered, long-delayed repairs are made, a new piece of linoleum is laid and the paint brush is busy. The famous Black Fruit Cake must be prepared well in advance to let the flavours be soaked up. The same is true for the home-made drinks: the plantain wine, sorrel, ginger beer and Ponche à Creme.

Christmas food is plentiful with the main course usually a ham, or perhaps a turkey, backed by sweet potatoes, pastelles, calaloo and crab, pigeon peas and rice. Extras must be oprepared for the relatives returning for the holiday from North America and visiros that are sure to drop in on Christmas and Boxing Day. Most island families will go to church for the Christmas Eve midnight service or the morning service on Christmas Day.

 The most distinctive aspect of a Trinidadian Christmas is the music of the season, parang. The term is derived from the Spanish parranda or “spree”– Trinidad was a Spanish colony until 1797 when it fell to the British. The music itself is a lively combination of Spanish and Venezuelan influences which melded over the centuries. It was customary for groups of parranderos to go from house to house singing these Christmas songs (in Spanish for the most part) and receiving hospitality in return. Like the parrandistas of Christmas in Puerto Rico they have songs to gain admission to the house and different topics to sing once they are admitted. Today the traditional acoustic instruments have given way to electrified instruments but the spirit of love for the season and hospitality remain the same. Traditionalists worry about the modernization of the art form. A new variety entitled soca-parang has emerged, praising Christmas with different rhythms and English lyrics.

Once Christmas has passed Trinidadians begin to prepare for the onset of Carnival

Fans of antique Christmas cards know Nimble Nick as the chubby little boy in a Santa Claus suit adorning the work of the Whitney company in the 1910s and 1920s. His picture is often accompanied by a little verse or the image of a similarly-clad little girl.

Gold was the first gift offered by the Magi (usually by Melchior, though some sources name Gaspar) to the baby Jesus; it symbolized Christ’s royalty.

According to a legend recounted by John of Hildesheim the gift was in the form of a golden apple that had once been owned by Alexander the Great and thirty gold coins minted by Thara, the father of Abraham. Abraham used these coins to buy his burial place; Joseph was sold into Egypt for them. They were later sent to buy spices in Sheba for Joseph’s burial; the Queen of Sheba deposited them in Solomon’s temple; and after the destruction of Jerusalem they made their way into the king of Arabye’s treasury, from whence the Magi took them. Mary lost the money on the flight into Egypt but it was found by a shepherd. Judas would sell Christ for the coins; finally, half of them would buy the burial field and the other fifteen would be given to the guards who kept watch over Christ’s tomb.

Having one’s birthday on Christmas Day is a lucky or unlucky coincidence depending on where one was born. In Eastern Europe it was generally considered bad luck to be born on the birthday of the Saviour. The Greeks traditionally believed that this was an affront to the Virgin Mother and Child and therefore children born on Christmas were likely to turn into monstrous kallikantzaroi. In order to prevent this from happening parents were obliged to singe the toenails of the new-born, lest they turn into claws, and bind the baby with tresses of straw or garlic. In parts of Poland and Germany it was feared that being born born on December 25 made a child more likely to become a werewolf — Christmas being the season of increased demonic power. In Silesia a Christmas birthday meant the child would be either a lawyer or a thief.

In Ireland, on the other hand, birth on Christmas allowed one to see the Little People and even to command spirits (a privilege also granted to those born on Good Friday.) In England it was lucky to be born on Christmas — one would never be hanged nor drowned nor troubled by spirits — and extra lucky if that day fell on a Sunday: one would be a great lord. To the Pennsylvania Dutch being born on Christmas Eve conveyed the power to understand the language of animals, for on that night beasts could speak and even predict the future. In the Vosges area of France a baby born on Christmas Eve would be a smooth talker but the baby born on Christmas would be a better thinker.

Some early-modern English almanacs, however, were more ambiguous. They seemed to agree that being born on Christmas was lucky if that day were a Sunday (lordship beckoned), a Wednesday (valour, nimbleness and wisdom were attributes), a Thursday (wise and persuasive speech were in store) or a Friday (a long and lecherous life lay ahead) but being born on a Christmas Day that fell on a Tuesday would lead to a life of covetousness and an evil end and a Saturday birth would result in death within half a year.

Modern scientists agree that being born on or near Christmas conveys a benefit, the so-called BIRG effect, or basking-in-reflected-glory. Studies in California and Israel have shown that a disproportionate number of famous people were born during the Christmas season and some have speculated that being born on Christmas might render a child special in his own eyes and those of his parents with consequent high expectations and the chance of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It also seems that more high-ranking Christian clergy than low-ranking were born on December 25, thus linking a Christmas birth with increased chance of success in the church hierarchy.

In the African-American musical tradition known as the blues, Christmas plays an important part. “Santa Claus” and “Christmas” were once code-words referring to a separated mate — Christmas-time often saw liberty for slaves to travel to different plantations to visit loved ones. More recently the words have added the connotation of sex or sensual pleasure. “I Want a Present for Christmas”, sang J.R. Summer, who was not referring to a neck-tie or socks, “you can fill up my stockings with any girl.” Count Basie’s “Good Morning Blues (I Want to See Santa Claus”) implored the gift-bringer not to bring him anything but his baby back.

John Lee Hooker’s lament here is typical of the genre:

The Swiss have a word for it: Weihnachtscholer; psychiatrists have a word for it too: Post-Christmas Traumatic Syndrome. Most people just call it the Christmas Blues, a feeling of sadness that overcomes those for whom the holiday period is a time of dysfunction instead of joy.

It must not be thought that this ailment affects only jaded moderns. An American woman’s diary from 1858 notes: “As these days come round our hearts are made Sad; we miss our loved Mother, now gone to her rest.” On Christmas Eve 1872 a widow wrote “These days are sad indeed to me. I try to conceal my feelings for the sake of those I am with.” On Christmas Day she wrote: “There many sad hearts, as well as merry ones.” In the 1901 Norwegian short story “Before the Candles Go Out” a couple struggles to be happier and to see the holiday through the eyes of their child but the wife says of her melancholy: “Do I need to tell you all over again that there’s something called Christmas Eve memories?”

Here are some reasons that have been proposed recently for the phenomenon of the Christmas Blues:

• loss of a loved one through death, relocation or broken relationship
• resentment of the commercialism of the season
• a sense of not belonging stemming from membership in a religion, such as Judaism, that does not celebrate Christmas
• anger over not being able to afford gifts for one’s family
• anger at seasonally-induced weight gain or increase in indebtedness
• homelessness, friendlessness or alienation from family or ethnic group
• guilt at not being as happy as the ideal family depicted on television
• spouse saturation syndrome: too much of one’s mate underfoot
• separation at holiday-times from one’s lover who is married to someone else

Popular music, quick to spot trends, has cashed in on the sentiment with a plethora of songs emphasizing Yule-tide depression led by Elvis Presley’s 1957 hit “Blue Christmas.” One might add “What Do the Lonely Do at Christmas?” by The Emotions, “Christmas Eve Can Kill You” by The Everly Brothers and “Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas?” by The Staple Singers.

Though Christmas is not a time of increased suicide (in fact for women suicide declines in December and January) doctors do report a rush of depressed patients after the holidays. A number of churches hold “Blue Christmas” services to assure the faithful that God continues to be present even in the midst of sadness.