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听力文稿 ( Transcript )
If pagan Rome was already celebrating the birth of Mithra on Dec 25th, it seemed natural to honor the birth of the Christ child at the same time. By the 4th century, the church made it official. Dec 25th was declared the feast day of the Nativity.
"But, it was a very short step from the feast day of the risen sun S-U-N to the feast day of the risen son S-O-N. So, in a sense, it's a very good choice that the symbolism is there because some, you know, the feast day of the unconquered son was about fertility, about birth, and so, obviously, is the Christian Christmas."
The church knew it could not outlaw the pagan traditions of Christmas, so it set out to adopt them. The evergreens traditionally brought inside were soon decorated with apples, symbolizing the Garden of Eden. These apples would eventually become Christmas ornaments. And holly, a traditional midwinter decoration was recast to represent Christ's crown of thorns.
"People already had their own agenda for this season, and that agenda was not one that was really radically changed when the names got changed from non-Christian to Christian names. The church pretty much had a policy of live-and-let-live. If people would call themselves Christians, and do lip service to the birth of the savior, then let them do anything that they wanted to do with it. But on the other hand, by assigning the Nativity to that time of year, the church really gave up the opportunity to control the way that celebration took place."
The tension between piety and revelry at Christmas would reach its logical and extreme conclusion in Puritan England: when the holiday would be considered so unchristian, it was done away with altogether.
By the Middle Ages, Christianity had largely replaced the old pagan religions of Europe. On Dec 25th, the faithful work called to Gothic cathedrals like Notre Dame and Salisbury Cathedral in England for Christ Mass, soon to be called Christmas. But out in the streets, the holiday was still more raucous than religious.
"If you went to England around Christmas time, any time before, say, 1800, you'd probably feel pretty ill at ease, you wouldn't think it was Christmas at all, while, what would you think it was, maybe Mardi gras, maybe New Year's Eve, maybe Halloween, because Christmas in old-time England was really a carnival."
words to chew: 1/ nativity: born
2/do away with: get rid of...
3/raucous: the sound which is loud, harsh and rather unpleasant. (eg.): They heard a bottle be smashed and then more raucous laughter. a raucous crowd of 25.000 delirious fans
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