Talk:Christmas Eve

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Christmas Eve article.
Article policies
This article is within the scope of WikiProject Holidays, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Holiday-related topics. If you would like to participate, you can edit this article, or visit the project page, where you can see a list of objectives or join the project.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the Project's quality scale.
(If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)

Should we be adding when presents are opened in more countries? In Iceland there are also opened on Christmas Eve evening, but if we would begin adding this the list could go on forever. What do you think? --Martewa 12:27, 9 Dec 2004 (UTC)

I would like to point out that Christmas Eve is also referred to as the eve before Christmas. Some people think of it as the day before Christmas, but to many, it is the EVE, not day, before Christmas. It is celebrated in the afternoon by many. Yes, it is still the day before Christmas, but please add that it is the eve mostly.


Most people in Sweden actually open their presents on Christmas Eve and not Christmas Day.


I live in Sweden. In 2001 I opened the Christmas presents on Christmas Day.

Maybe it shouldn`t tell about present opening, but when christmas are celebrated - i.e. I believe that most people in Latvia (I`m Latvian), except for traditionaly ortodoxal people, celebrates on Christmas eve and next two days are only to visit relatives and friends, presents are trivial - I usualy get them on christmas eve from my family and from relatives on first or/and second christmas, but sometimes I get them before christmas or even in next year and when I was very little I used to get presents bouth in christmas and new year -- Xil - talk 22:00, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Why does Midnight mass redirect here?

--58.104.11.118 07:24, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, looks like someone put a redirect on Midnight mass because someone else added the article and only put in (basically) "mass celebrated at midnight!". Are there any other occurrances of midnight mass in the Christian calendar other than on the Christmas Eve / Christmas day transition? I'm pagan so I don't really know personally. --Syrthiss 13:36, 3 December 2005 (UTC)
In Catholicism, at least, since we're speaking of a Midnight Mass...The Midnight Mass is immediately associated with Christmas Eve. I cannot recall any other time that phrase is used except for the Midnight Mass of Christmas Eve. --Penta 05:00, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
Excellent. Thanks! --Syrthiss 15:42, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

In Colombia we usually open the gifts at Midnight on Christmas Day, there we tend to celebrate more the 24 than the 25th since everyone has a hangover from all the parties. Also when I was a child, it wasn't Santa Claus that brougth the gifts to the children, it was Baby Jesus, if the kid had gone to sleep before midnight, the parents usually placed the gifts in their beds, so when one woke up, one dreamt that baby Jesus put the gifts himself in the bed, at midnight also, its when one put the Baby Jesus figurine in the Nativiy Set. (Raniya 23:40, 24 December 2005 (UTC))

I am changing the Midnight Mass pages to disambiguation pa<ges (there are movies and books with the same name), and changing all the ones that apply to this particular Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, to Christmas Eve instead. Antmusic 16:04, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Is Christmas Eve' the entire day before Christmas Day, or just the evening before?

Is Christmas Eve' the entire day before Christmas Day, or just the evening before?

Eve is short for evening, Christmas eve is NOT the day before Christmas, merely the evening before. The article needs to be revised. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.105.198.172 (talk) 02:19, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

An interpretation of "The day of christmas Eve'" could just mean the day in which Christmas Eve' (providing that Christamas Eve' is just the evening) falls on. As in one could say "the day of analogue switch-over", this doesn't mean that the enitre day is called 'analogue switch-over', it means that this is a day in which a channel three region's analogue transmitter closes consumer transmisions, so I'm thinking that "The day of Christmas Eve'" is just refering to the day in which Chrismtas Eve' falls upon.

Though I'm also thinking Christmas Eve' is the entire day.

Does anyone know? Which one is it? Rob Del Monte 02:36, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

I believe that Christmas Eve can refer to the day or evening of 24 December. However, if you take the etymology of the word 'eve', it comes from a 12th Century variant of the word 'even' which is archaic for evening. Chris Buttigieg 10:18, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Structure

This article needs some structure! I suggest headings: * Religious observence * Food * Gift giving * Other celebrations, although an alternative would be to structure it by country (as many of the paragraphs currently are). If nobody comments, I'll go ahead and make the changes. LachlanA 02:29, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Working day/holiday

It'd be interesting to include information on whether or not Christmas Eve is considered a (public) holiday or if people generally work on this day. That's what I came looking for. I know in Belgium it's a normal workday, in Sweden it is not. Kanaman 18:29, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

In Australia, it is a normal work day unless Christmas day and Boxing day holiday fall on a Friday/Saturday thus causing the public holiday for Friday to be moved to the Thursday. Only a very religious minority do anything on Christmas eve, and that would only be a midnight mass or a carols by candlelight event. The majority of the population of Australia are secular and only nominally put themselves down as being part of a church on census forms because that was the church their grandfather said they belong to, yet are most likely never to of been to a church nor their parents before them except in the Australia tradition of going to church for a wedding or a funeral. Baptisms or Christenings are rarely observed by most families in Australia.Petedavo talk contributions 23:06, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The importance of Christmas Eve in different countries

I have been told (and as such cannot verify) that in some countries, Christmas Eve is the time in which people celebrate and Christmas Day itself is treated as a workday. The article itself talks about a Christmas Eve feast which does not occur where I live (Australia) and people can work on Christmas Eve. I have been told Americans make a greater deal out of Christmas Eve than Christmas Day. Are the differences that marked, and can they be encyclopedically catalogued? 220.101.56.250 (talk) 11:29, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jul/Yule

The article gives off the impression that only Norway and Iceland have 'jul' or 'yule', with festivities of Christmas predominantly taking place on the 24th. As far as I know Denmark and Sweden have this arrangement too. --Joffeloff (talk) 00:09, 26 December 2007 (UTC)