In Spanish, Christmas is called Navidad. The term comes from the Latin "nativitas" which means "birth". In the middle of the 4th century, at the suggestion of John Chrysostom and St. Gregory of Nazianzus, it was customary for the church to celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25th. This was symbolic, since the Bible does not give a specific date for the birth of Jesus.
In the old days, Christmas trees were often decorated with candles and apples.
Candles represented cleansing and light, and apples represented abundance. Gradually, new decorations appeared. The most popular decorations are:
bells that symbolize joy and protection,
stars that attract happiness in the family,
balls, which, like apples, symbolize abundance.
Every Christmas, Spanish families put socks on the fireplaces in the hope that Papa Noel will appear at night and fill them with gifts.
The tradition of leaving socks on the fireplace was born thanks to the legend of St. Nicholas, which tells how the saint helped a bankrupt family to marry homeless daughters. According to legend, Saint Nicholas threw gold coins down the chimney and they fell into the socks that the girls hung up to dry.
During the First World War, on Christmas night in 1814, German and British soldiers, tired of battle and blood, sang Christmas carols to each other on the front lines. At dawn, the Germans left the trenches and approached the Allied positions, congratulating them on the holiday. Seeing unarmed enemies, the British got out of hiding and began to shake hands. The soldiers gave each other symbolic gifts: cigarettes and food that they had with them.