There are several colors which are traditionally associated with Christmas. This site uses Red, Green and Gold. But why do we have them and what do the colors represent?
Most the colors and their meanings come from the western/northern European traditions and customs, when Christmas is in the middle of winter and it’s dark and cold.
Green
Christmas Holly
Evergreen plants, like Holly, Ivy and Mistletoe have been used for thousands of years to decorate and brighten up buildings during the long dark winter. They also reminded people that spring would come and that winter wouldn’t last forever!
The ancient Egyptians used to bring palm branches into their houses during the mid-winter festivals.
In many parts of Europe during the Middle Ages, Paradise plays were performed, often on Christmas Eve. They told Bible stories to people who couldn’t read. The ‘Paradise Tree’ in the garden of Eden in the play was normally a pine tree with red apples tied to it.
Now the most common use of green at Christmas are Christmas Trees.
Red
As mentioned above, early use of red at Christmas were the apples on the paradise tree.
Red is also the color of Holly berries, which is said to represent the blood of Jesus when he died on the cross.
Gold
A Gold Five-Pointed Star
Gold is the color of the Sun and light – both very important in the dark winter. And both red and gold are the colors of fire that you need to keep you warm.
Gold was also one of the presents brought to the baby Jesus by one of the wise men and traditionally it’s the color used to show the star that the wise men followed.
Silver is sometimes used instead of (or with) gold. But gold is a ‘warmer’ color.
White
A Snowflake
White is often associated with purity and peace in western cultures. The snow of winter is also very white!
White paper wafers were also sometimes used to decorate paradise trees. The wafers represented the bread eaten during Christian Communion or Mass, when Christians remember that Jesus died for them.
White is used by most churches as the color of Christmas, when the altar is covered with a white cloth (in the Russian Orthodox Church Gold is used for Christmas).
Blue
Mary Being Visited By The Angel
The color blue is often associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus. In medieval times blue dye and paint was more expensive than gold!
So, it would only be worn by Royal families and very rich people. Mary was often painted wearing blue to show she was very important.
Blue can also represent the color of the sky and heaven.
Purple
During Advent, purple and sometimes blue is used in most churches for the color of the altar cloth (in the Russian Orthodox Church red is used for advent).
Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi announced the final squad list of the defending champions that will take part in the impending Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021, which is scheduled to kick off on January 9th, 2022.
Algeria won the last edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt 2019. The Desert Foxes also won the FIFA Arab Cup, which was held in Qatar this month.
Algeria’s final list includes 28 players, led by the English Premier League stars Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City and Said Benrahma of West Ham, as well as the best player in the FIFA Arab Cup, Yassine Brahimi, and best goalkeeper Rais Mbolhi.
Algeria plays in Group E of the Africa Cup of Nations 2021, besides Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone. They will start their title defending campaign by facing Sierra Leone at the Japoma Stadium in Douala on January 11, 2022.
Squad
Goalkeepers: Rais Mbolhi (Al-Ettifaq, Saudi Arabia), Mustafa Zaghba (Damac, Saudi Arabia), Alexandre Oukidja (Metz, France)
Victor Osimhen who earlier in the week declared himself fit for the challenges at the Africa Cup of Nations has been named by interim head coach Augustine Eguavoen as one of the 28 players for the tournament.
Also in the roaster is returnee, Odion Ighalo who had earlier retired from the team but made a sensational come-back in the closing glee of the World Cup qualifying group stage.
With just two weeks to the tournament, NFF’s director of communication, Ademola Olajire on Christmas Day released the list of Nigerians for the 33rd edition of the African premier sports competition.
In the list are Wilfred Ndidi and Ahmed Musa who will most likely be the most international capped player at the tournament.
Musa’s international appearances officially stand at 102 matches. Nigeria, a record third-place winners of seven will be attempting a fourth victory at the competition.
The three –time winners will confront seven-time and record winners Egypt, Sudan and debutants Guinea Bissau with venue in the northern town of Garoua, and a mouth-watering clash with the Pharaohs in the group opener on Tuesday, 11th January means the Eagles must hit the ground at blistering pace.
Former Nigeria captain Eguavoen, who coached the Super Eagles to third-place finish at the finals in Egypt 15 years ago, has selected four goalkeepers, nine defenders and five midfielders.
Though a hard-tackling defender in his playing days, Eguavoen possibly have an attacking philosophy going into the African Cup of Nations. He has invited 10 strikers.
In his first stint as Super Eagles’ coach, he amassed a whopping 10 goals in just three matches against Libya, Algeria and Zimbabwe in 2005.
His list indicates a return to the group for former U17 World Cup –winning captain Kelechi Nwakali, forward Emmanuel Dennis and 2016 Olympics star Sadiq Umar.
All invited players, bar the UK-based crew, are expected to arrive in camp in Abuja on 29th December, with the UK-based players expected to start arriving on Monday, 3rd January.
SUPER EAGLES’ SQUAD FOR 33RD AFCON CAMEROON 2021
Goalkeepers: Francis Uzoho (AC Omonia, Cyprus); John Noble (Enyimba FC); Daniel Akpeyi (Kaizer Chiefs, South Africa); Maduka Okoye (Sparta Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Midfielders: Frank Onyeka (Brentford FC, England); Joseph Ayodele-Aribo (Galsgow Rangers, Scotland); Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester City, England); Chidera Ejuke (CSKA Moscow, Russia); Kelechi Nwakali (SD Huesca, Spain)
Forwards: Ahmed Musa (Fatih Karagumruk, Turkey); Samuel Chukwueze (Villarreal FC, Spain); Victor Osimhen (Napoli FC, Italy); Moses Simon (FC Nantes, France); Sadiq Umar (UD Almeria, Spain); Taiwo Awoniyi (Union Berlin, Germany); Odion Jude Ighalo (Al-Shabab Riyadh, Saudi Arabia); Alex Iwobi (Everton FC, England); Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester City, England); Emmanuel Dennis (Watford FC, England)
The word Carol actually means dance or a song of praise and joy! Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived.
Christmas, remembering the birth of Jesus, then started to be celebrated at the same time as the solstice, so the early Christians started singing Christian songs instead of pagan ones.
In 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called “Angel’s Hymn” should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. Another famous early Christmas Hymn was written in 760, by Comas of Jerusalem, for the Greek Orthodox Church.
Soon after this many composers all over Europe started to write ‘Christmas carols’.
However, not many people liked them as they were all written and sung in Latin, a language that normal people couldn’t understand.
By the time of the Middles Ages (the 1200s), most people had lost interest in celebrating Christmas altogether.
This was changed by St. Francis of Assisi when, in 1223, he started his Nativity Plays in Italy.
The people in the plays sang songs or ‘canticles’ that told the story during the plays.
Sometimes, the choruses of these new carols were in Latin; but normally they were all in a language that the people watching the play could understand and join in!
The new carols spread to France, Spain, Germany and other European countries.
The earliest carol, like this, was written in 1410. Sadly only a very small fragment of it still exists.
The carol was about Mary and Jesus meeting different people in Bethlehem. Most Carols from this time and the Elizabethan period are untrue stories, very loosely based on the Christmas story, about the holy family and were seen as entertaining rather than religious songs.
christmas decorations
They were usually sung in homes rather than in churches! Traveling singers or Minstrels started singing these carols and the words were changed for the local people wherever they were traveling. One carols that changed like this is ‘I Saw Three Ships’.
When the Puritans came to power in England in 1640s, the celebration of Christmas and singing carols was stopped.
However, the carols survived as people still sang them in secret. Carols remained mainly unsung until Victorian times, when two men called William Sandys and Davis Gilbert collected lots of old Christmas music from villages in England.
Carols were sung as folk songs in places like pubs but they often weren’t thought of as ‘proper’ or ‘nice’ songs by the middle or upper classes.
Before carol singing in places like churches became popular, there were sometimes official carol singers called ‘Waits’.
These were bands of people led by important local leaders (such as council leaders) who had the only power in the towns and villages to take money from the public (if others did this, they were sometimes charged as beggars!).
They were called ‘Waits’ because they sang on Christmas Eve (This was sometimes known as ‘watchnight’ or ‘waitnight’ because of the shepherds were watching their sheep when the angels appeared to them.), when the Christmas celebrations began.
Also, at this time, many orchestras and choirs were being set up in the cities of England and people wanted Christmas songs to sing, so carols once again became popular in churches and concert halls.
Many new carols, such as ‘Good King Wenceslas’, were also written in the Victorian period.
New carols services were created and became popular, as did the custom of singing carols in the streets. Both of these customs are still popular today!
One of the most popular types of Carols services are Carols by Candlelight services.
At this service, the church is only lit by candlelight and it feels very Christmassy! Carols by Candlelight services are held in countries all over the world.
The most famous type of Carol Service might be a Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, where carols and Bible readings tell the Christmas Story.
Anthony Joshua has been called out by Zhang Zhilei
Anthony Joshua is eyeing up a fight against Tyson Fury after his Oleksandr Usyk rematch but Chinese heavyweight Zhang Zhilei could be a potential opponent.
Anthony Joshua is facing another stern test in his quest to unify the heavyweight division, with undefeated Chinese boxer Zhang Zhilei calling out the Brit insisting he wants to fight him in Beijing in 2022.
Zhilei stands at a mammoth 6ft 6in and has a current undefeated record of 23-0-0.
Having recently defeated American Craig Lewis within six minutes on the undercard of George Kambosos’ win over Teofimo Lopez, he is keen to seek revenge on Joshua following their previous contest.
Joshua defeated Zhang in their amateur days as he waltzed towards a gold medal with victory over the him in the quarter-finals at the 2012 Olympics in London.
As reported b FightMag, the 38-year-old would relish any chance to face off against the 32-year-old again.
“The venue is there, the Bird’s Nest holds 100,000, so we have it all. Beijing and Shanghai are the biggest cities, very economically developed and boxing in China is growing.
“The sports fans there like boxing, they like AJ, so if we can make it happen it would be huge for boxing.”
With plans already being drawn up for the rematch between Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk later next year, the heavyweight division hots up once again given the ongoing current conflict between both Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte.
But with Zhang also part of Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing – the same promoter Joshua has – a battle between the two may be targeted at some point.
Joshua remains keen on an all-British bout against Fury but will have to win back his belts from Usyk first.
Ethiopia first training session at Yaounde Amadou Ahidjo annex stadium Sunday evening
The delegation from Ethiopia is the first to land in Cameroon among the 23 teams expected to join the hosts at the Africa Cup of Nations expected to begin on January 9.
The Ethiopians arrived Yaounde on Sunday. They also had a feel of the Ahmadou Ahdijo Stadium.
They are expected to open their Africa Cup of Nations account with a clash with Cape Verde on 9 January at the Stade d’Olembe in Yaounde.
They are in Group A along with the hosts, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Cape Verde.
The first recorded ‘candy stick’ comes from 1837 at an exhibition in Massachusetts in the USA.
They started as straight white sugar sticks and a few years later the red stripes were added.
The first time they are documented as being called ‘candy canes’ comes in 1866; and their first connection to Christmas comes from 1874.
Early recipes had them as simply ‘sugar’ flavored. But we’re now used to them being flavored with peppermint or wintergreen.
Christmas decorations
Around 1920, Bob McCormack, from Georgia, USA, started making canes for his friends and family.
They became more and more popular and he started his own business called Bob’s Candies. Bob McCormack’s brother-in-law, Gregory Harding Keller, who was a Catholic priest, invented the ‘Keller Machine’ that made turning straight candy sticks into curved candy canes automatically!
In 2005, Bob’s Candies was bought by Farley and Sathers but they still make candy canes!
A story, that’s rather nice but probably isn’t true, says that German a choirmaster, in 1670, was worried about the children sitting quietly all through the long Christmas nativity service.
So he gave them something to eat to keep them quiet! As he wanted to remind them of Christmas, he made them into a ‘J’ shape like a shepherds crook, to remind them of the shepherds that visited the baby Jesus at the first Christmas.
Sometimes other Christian meanings are giving to the parts of the canes. The ‘J’ can also mean Jesus.
The white of the cane can represent the purity of Jesus Christ and the red stripes are for the blood he shed when he died on the cross.
The peppermint flavor can represent the hyssop plant that was used for purifying in the Bible. However, all of these meanings were added to Candy Canes after they had become popular.
Footballers heading to next month’s Africa Cup of Nations finals will be allowed to play for their clubs until Jan. 3, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) said on Sunday.
Many were set to miss matches because of the rule that dictates clubs must release players 14 days before a continental championship or the World Cup.
But CAF has agreed to allow players whose clubs have matches between Dec. 27 and Jan. 3 to play them before joining up with their national squads for the Cup of Nations finals, which kick off in Cameroon on Jan. 9.
That will come as a relief to English clubs who had been due to lose their African players by the official release date of Dec. 27, although some had made individual arrangements for players to stay with them for as long as possible before the start of the tournament.
“This decision is taken in the spirit of goodwill and solidarity with the affected clubs in recognition of the fact that they, like all members of the football community, have been adversely affected by the onset of the COVID pandemic,” said a FIFA letter sent on Sunday to the World Leagues Forum and the European Leagues grouping.
Both organisations have been critical of the timing of the Cup of Nations in the middle of the club season in Europe, where the majority of players involved the tournament play their club football.
But FIFA said that CAF had decided to offer relief to clubs.
“It is also assumed that a spirit of mutual cooperation remains between CAF and all relevant stakeholders in this regard, including related to the release of players and the provision of sporting exemptions to travel and quarantine restrictions if required in the future,” added the letter from FIFA deputy general secretary Mattias Grafstrom.
The timing of the Cup of Nations finals has long been a bone of contention for club managers, and future tournaments are scheduled to played in mid-year.
Manchester City held off an unlikely Leicester comeback to clinch a ninth successive Premier League win in thrilling style and move six points clear at the top of the table.
It looked like the defending champions had wrapped up the points after only 25 minutes as they led a depleted Foxes side 4-0, with a penalty apiece by Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling on top of strikes by Kevin de Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan.
Leicester had other ideas, however, with three goals in the space of 10 second-half minutes from James Maddison, Ademola Lookman and Kelechi Iheanacho giving them hope.
A header by Aymeric Laporte restored order and gave the home side much-needed breathing space, before Sterling’s second made sure of the points late on, but what had started out as a walk in the park will be remembered as a much sterner test for the league leaders.
Foxes hit by early onslaught
With second-placed Liverpool not in action after a Covid outbreak forced the postponement of their game with Leeds, this was a chance for Pep Guardiola’s side to open up a significant gap on their nearest rivals, and they were quickly into their stride.
The Foxes had already been fortunate to survive some fierce early pressure when they allowed De Bruyne time to bring down Fernandinho’s hoisted pass into the area and he made no mistake with a precise finish.
Mahrez made it 2-0 from the spot soon afterwards when Youri Tielemans hauled down Laporte at a corner and Gundogan added a third after Kasper Schmeichel could only palm Joao Cancelo’s cross into his path.
Sterling added a fourth after just 25 minutes, stepping up to take the penalty himself after Tielemans had chopped him down, and with the home side in such ruthless mood, it appeared it was just a case of how many more goals would follow.https://emp.bbc.com/emp/SMPj/2.44.10/iframe.htmlNo manager or tactics could stop nine-goal thriller – Pep Guardiola
Instead, it was Leicester who provided the sparkling attacking play after the break, and for a while a remarkable fightback looked on the cards.
The Foxes’ first goal was down to a slip by Oleksandr Zinchenko, allowing Maddison to dart clear, exchange passes with Iheanacho and slot home.
Iheanacho set up their second goal too, this time sliding Lookman clear to fire past Ederson, before getting on the scoresheet himself to continue his side’s comeback.
Ederson did well to tip Maddison’s shot onto the bar but the rebound fell kindly for Iheanacho, who made no mistake from close range.
That stunned everyone inside Etihad Stadium, including the travelling Leicester fans who had been chanting in jest about winning 5-4 when their first goal had gone in.
Manchester City’s wobble did not last long, however, with Laporte rising to nod home Mahrez’s corner five minutes later, and Sterling was in the right place to turn in a Ruben Dias knockdown before the end of a remarkable match.
A surprise to see Manchester City lose control
won’t get the violins out – Brendan Rodgers
Manchester City have torn plenty of defences apart in recent weeks – going into this game they had scored 24 goals during their run of victories, including a 7-0 thrashing of Leeds – so their latest display of scintillating attacking play was not exactly a surprise.
What was unexpected was the response that followed from a Leicester side missing many of their regulars because of injury, and how easily they found a way through their hosts.
Guardiola’s side have the best defensive record in the country, but for a spell in the second half they were left chasing shadows and ended up conceding as many goals in 10 minutes as they had in their previous eight league games.
Leicester could have had more too – their manager Brendan Rodgers leapt into the air when Marc Albrighton headed wide from close range with the score at 5-3, because he thought it was in.
The Foxes have had a difficult season so far, with a lack of consistency and continuing defensive issues even before this latest bout of injuries, but they at least gave their supporters something to sing about on an entertaining afternoon.
The home fans probably appreciated the second-half drama a little less, but this was a reminder at the halfway point of the season that that they cannot always expect everything to go their way.
England suffered another batting collapse to undo the excellent work of their bowlers as Australia edged closer to winning the Ashes on a dramatic second day of the third Test in Melbourne.
James Anderson claimed 4-33 as England fought back admirably in the first two sessions of the day, dismissing Australia for 267, to trail by 82 after the first innings.
But in a hostile final hour on a difficult pitch, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Scott Boland produced a devastating spell of fast bowling as England stumbled to 31-4 at stumps.
Starc had Zak Crawley caught behind and Dawid Malan lbw in consecutive balls to leave England reeling at 7-2.
Haseeb Hameed, who battled to overcome the opening burst from Starc and Cummins, edged behind off debutant Boland.
Jack Leach came in as nightwatchman but was bowled by Boland without offering a shot two balls later.
England captain Joe Root played and missed and saw a couple of edges fall short of the slips but he survived to reach the close on 12 not out and his fifth-wicket partnership with Ben Stokes on day three will be crucial.
However, while another top order failure will take up much of the conversation, this was more a reflection of phenomenal, at times unplayable, Australian bowling.
The day had started almost as dramatically as it ended. The England players were forced to wait before travelling to the ground.
Both sets of teams will do PCR tests before the start of the third day’s play on Monday.
A victory, or draw, for Australia will see them retain the Ashes given they lead the best-of-five series 2-0.
Unplayable Australia run riot
England’s batting has come under scrutiny in every innings of the series so far.
But while their first-innings 185 all out was woeful, with several batters gifting their wickets away, Monday’s late collapse was very different.
Starc and Cummins were a gladiatorial presence – the Melbourne Cricket Ground their coliseum.
They had the ball swinging, bouncing and seaming and the inexperienced Hameed and newly-recalled Crawley stood little chance.
It was ruthless, hostile, and often uncomfortable. It was also compelling viewing in front of a raucous Melbourne crowd.
Cummins was unlucky to go wicketless but alongside Starc he built the pressure perfectly to allow the latter to have Crawley caught behind before pinning the Malan lbw with the most marginal of decisions – the ball clipping the bail on top of leg stump on review after he was given out.
Hameed somehow survived. He ducked and dodged and he hung on.
However, the introduction of Boland lifted expectation levels further in the stands and the Victorian, playing on his home ground, rewarded the fans in his only over.
Inspired by Starc and Cummins, the 32-year-old found the exact same nagging line and seam movement to tempt Hameed into edging behind before Leach looked utterly baffled as he lost his off stump trying to leave the ball on length.
Root and Stokes have the unenviable task of saving the Test, series and urn when play resumes at 23:30 GMT on Monday.
Anderson leads England fightback
Where would England be without James Anderson?
Their saviour on so many occasions, he produced another masterclass of swing and seam at the MCG to give England a fighting chance.
Such is Anderson’s genius that he managed to extract swing and seam movement even with the ball at nearly 70 overs old.
The wickets of David Warner and Steve Smith would normally be the most crucial in Anderson’s tally, but this time it was under-pressure opener Marcus Harris who provided England with stubborn resistance.
Anderson bowled a phenomenal pre-lunch spell of six overs, five maidens with one wicket for just a single run.
Root held his star man back after the lunch break and it proved to be a masterstroke as Anderson, when he did return, plugged away at Harris’ off stump, eventually enticing a loose drive that the captain himself gratefully accepted at slip.
After Adelaide, Root said he wanted his bowlers to be braver with their lengths. Anderson did just that, pitching the ball noticeably fuller and enticing false shots with regularity.
The fact he did not end up with another five-wicket haul is remarkable.
Anderson has bowled a much fuller length in this match
Bowlers shine among the chaos
The day concluded in such dramatic fashion it would be easy to forget that England’s bowlers put in a superb shift for most of the day to engineer a relatively comfortable position by the end of Australia’s innings.
It may have taken three Tests but England finally seem to have chosen the right bowling attack.
Anderson found some seam and swing, Root held on to three catches at slip, Robinson troubled batters outside off stump and Wood steamed in to consistently reach speeds in excess of 90mph.
And left-arm spinner Jack Leach overcame a quiet start to add to his Test wickets tally, despite some questionable fields and bowling spell timings from his skipper Root.
But, given the context of a low-scoring game, the 48 runs added by Cummins, Starc and Boland for the final two wickets may prove every bit as crucial as their later contribution with the ball in hand.
‘Test cricket at its absolute best’ – reaction
BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew on Test Match Special: “England’s bowlers did a fantastic job of getting England back in the game. All they needed and wanted was for England’s batters to stand up. But they didn’t – they fell over again.
“What an hour that was. I’m still coming down from it. It was Test cricket at its absolute best and brutal.”
Former Australia bowler Glenn McGrath on TMS: “England have their toughest batsmen out there. Root and Stokes will have to put on a big partnership tomorrow but it’s a long way back for England here.”
England bowler James Anderson speaking to TMS: “It’s a very disappointing finish to the day. It wasn’t easy to bowl Australia out but it was a good effort to do so. It was a challenging hour from Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc at the end but you expect that from world-class bowlers.
“It’s been a frustrating tour so far. We are working hard and trying to put things right. We hit our areas with the ball but it was a frustrating end to the day.”
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
