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Winter solstice celebrations reach again to ancient Rome, to the Saturnalia, a well-liked vacation that celebrated Saturn. The concept one ought to honor an agricultural god throughout the sowing season made sense in a society dependent on seasonal shifts. This celebration coincided with the winter solstice, that just about invisible moment when the Earth tilts ever so slightly towards the sun at the low level of the darkest season. The time period "Yuletide" refers partly to the pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon feast of the winter solstice, a time to placed on a "Yule log" and create gentle and warmth within the bleak of midwinter. There are various similar traditions, comparable to Yalda, an Iranian celebration of solstice that has roots in the historic religion of Zoroastrianism. What happened to our new Roaring '20s? The Christian observe of Christmas goes again to the lottery conclusion early fourth century, during the reign of Roman emperor Constantine (the primary leader of Rome to convert to Christianity), when for the primary time we hear a few celebration of Christ's birth on December 25. But what concerning the earlier 300 years? Did nobody pay any consideration to the child Jesus? Almost no one did, it seems. The earliest writings in the new Testament are by St. Paul, who never referred to the beginning of Jesus in Bethlehem. There is not any mention of Christmas wherever in his letters. To place it bluntly, Paul didn't pay much attention to the biographical points of Jesus. He was an Easter Christian, targeted on the crucifixion and the resurrection. The Gospels had been written lengthy after the demise of Jesus, and only two of them point out Christmas. Mark, the earliest Gospel, is silent on the topic. So is John, the most recent Gospel. Only Matthew and Luke inform the story, and their variations are totally contradictory. In Matthew, Jesus is swept away by his frantic dad and mom to Egypt to hide out from the wicked King Herod, who has been killing younger kids to be able to do away with a potential rival for his throne. It's a tale of panic and flight, with Jesus as a refugee. In Luke, we get a kinder, gentler Christmas story, with shepherds in the close by fields maintaining watch over their flocks by night. Eight days after the birth, as was customary, the infant was taken to Herod's Temple in Jerusalem for consecration. Scripture states. It's a very completely different kind of narrative from the scary one in Matthew! In my opinion, as a practising Christian, this celebration is about incarnation itself, what the poet Robert Frost known as the penetration of spirit into matter. Join CNN Opinion's e-newsletter. I do love the concept of incarnation: "Carne" is the Latin phrase for "flesh" or "meat" (as in chile-con-carne!). The spirit of the universe -- the phrase "logos" in Greek, translated within the Bible as "the Word" -- has to turn out to be flesh to develop into visible. And so the spirit penetrated matter. Became visible in the youngster known as Jesus. And Jesus became the human face of God. That is how I see Christmas, interpretive essay outline in any case: a sacred time that is more than simply a celebration of a child's start in a manger -- however lovely that story could also be. For me, it is about making the invisible visible. It's about showing love -- by giving gifts, in fact -- perhaps the obvious and typically tedious means to express deep affection. Yet it's extra importantly about making oneself present to others. This is the most effective gift one can give, and for Christians this gift is symbolized in the Christ little one, this literal token of the figurative mild that bathes us all at this time of yr.

At one level Holt brought up the view held by many Americans "that this thing seems like it's over." At one other point he channeled a more cautious standpoint, asking, "Are you afraid that some states and cities are shifting too quickly to loosen indoor mask mandates?" Through the questions, Holt was giving voice to different constituencies. Utterly missing from Biden's answers: Any sense of the "Urgency of Normal," a phrase that doubles as the name of an advocacy group led by health professionals who need to restore pre-Covid norms for kids. Rising case counts and struggling emergency rooms created a way of urgency in March of 2020 and again in December of 2021. But the situation has reversed itself now. Returning to regular deserves the identical sort of urgency. CNN found "a large partisan divide on the subject of worrying about the current state of the pandemic," with 76% of Democrats "anxious" versus 43% of Republicans. As David Leonhardt of The new York Times has observed, people who find themselves higher-protected in opposition to the virus also are typically more anxious concerning the virus, although they've much less to fret about. This jumble of feelings was what Holt was getting at. His Biden interview was pegged to the Super Bowl, which NBC will televise on Sunday. Portions of the interview will air on Sunday's pre-sport show in what has grow to be one thing of a presidential tradition. The Super Bowl itself will reflect America's difficult relationship to Covid after almost two years of pandemic restrictions. Sofi Stadium will be at full capability, however attendees "must present proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a unfavourable PCR check inside 48 hours of the event or a unfavorable antigen take a look at within 24 hours of the occasion," according to native information reviews. What are the best ways to speak about Covid? A "model new CNN analysis reveals that the Covid knowledge relied upon by public well being officials to make selections is defective -- and it has been that means from the beginning of the pandemic," Jake Tapper stated on "The Lead" on Thursday. ABC's Anne Flaherty wrote.