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Ithat time of the year again, my most favourite time of the year, CHRISTMAS means so many different things to different people. Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. Also called: Noël, Nativity, Xmas. In ancient Rome, December 25 was a celebration of the Unconquered Sun, marking the return of longer days. The church in Rome began celebrating Christmas on December 25 in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, possibly to weaken pagan traditions. For many of us though, Christmas signifies the birth of Christ.

I went around asking a few people what Christmas meant to them and this is what they had to say;

“Christmas means a time of giving love and thanks that Jesus was born to die for our sins, It’s a time where we get together and thank the Lord. It’s also a time to show love to our families and exchange gifts.” ... Don’t miss out on God’s greatest gift to us,” says Ryan Bennet

Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God. The name ‘Christmas’ comes from the Mass of Christ (or Jesus). A Mass service (which is sometimes called Communion or Eucharist) is where Christians remember that Jesus died for us and then came back to life. –Nolwazi Nkambule

Although Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate Christmas, the new survey shows they have differing views of the holiday. Two-thirds of Christians (65 per cent) say Christmas is mostly a religious holiday, while most non-Christians see the holiday as more of a “cultural’ event than a religious occasion – Pravin Naidoo

As Jesus said in “That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” More importantly, though, Christians

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of the most incredible objects mankind has ever built is about to go into action. As a feat of precision engineering, the James Webb Space Telescope(JWST) must rank among the pinnacles of human achievement.

So precise is this instrument that the measurements of its human-created parts are on the scale of atoms, while the distances it will be able to peer into are literally from a time right after the dawn of time itself.

Between the very small, and the very far and long ago, lies the James Webb Space Telescope. A dedicated group of thousands of people have spent 25 years building it. Some have spent their entire careers on it. It has been so long in the making that many who worked on it have not lived to see it launched.

That launch is set for Christmas Eve, 2021. It wasn’t planned this way. As recently as two weeks ago, it was due to launch on 22 December. But, in fact, it are commanded in to not observe days of the year such as Christmas, for they are an abomination to the Lord God. – Kelly Bridges

So you see so many different opinions. How did christmas start? The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world. Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, early Europeans celebrated light and birth in the darkest days of winter. Many peoples rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.

In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21, the winter solstice, through January. In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire. The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days. The Norse believed that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year.

Galatians CELEBRATION 4:10-11

The end of December was a perfect time for celebration in most areas of Europe. At that time of year, most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter. For many, it was the only time of year when they had a supply of fresh meat. In addition, most wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking.

In Germany, people honoured the pagan god Oden during the mid-winter holiday. Germans were terrified of Oden, as they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky to observe his people, and then decide who would prosper or perish. Because of his presence, many people chose to stay inside.

In Rome, where winters were not as harsh as those in the far north, Saturnalia—a holiday in honour of Saturn, the god of agriculture—was celebrated. Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. For a month, enslaved people were given temporary freedom and treated as equals. Business

was originally due to launch in 2007. It was also supposed to cost a relatively digestible half a billion Dollars. Presently, the total cost is topping ten billion dollars. It is one of the most expensive space exploration projects ever.

The JWST is so special because it will provide a view of the universe that we have never been able to see before. Its primary capabilities are in the infrared range. Objects in space that are extremely far from us appear much younger, because the light from them has taken so much longer to reach us.

For reasons that have to do with the universe constantly expanding, these very distant objects are easier to see in the infrared.

CHALLENGES

But seeing in the infrared range presents many challenges. Water vapour and carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere absorb a lot of the incoming infrared radiation. Also, the atmosphere itself emits its own infrared, making detection of very far objects beyond our planet impossible.

Space telescopes overcome a lot of these barriers, and we have made infrared space telescopes before, but none on the scale of the JWST.

This telescope is extraordinary because it has been tweaked in all areas to be able to capture the most distant radiation from the earliest galaxies. Compared to other infrared space telescopes, it will be and schools were closed so that everyone could participate in the holiday’s festivities.

Also around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honouring the children of Rome. In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25. It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. For some Romans, Mithra’s birthday was the most sacred day of the year.

Is Christmas really the day Jesus was born? in the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention a date for his birth (a fact Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring (why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century.

By holding Christmas at the same time as traditional winter solstice festivals, church leaders increased the chances that Christmas would be popularly embraced, but gave up the ability to dictate how it was celebrated. By the Middle Ages, Christianity had, for the most part, replaced pagan religion. On Christmas, believers attended church, then celebrated raucously in a drunken, carnival-like atmosphere similar to today’s Mardi Gras.

Each year, a beggar or student would be crowned the ‘lord of misrule’ and eager celebrants played the part of his subjects. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and demand their best food and drink. If owners failed to comply, their visitors would most likely terrorise them with mischief. Christmas became the time of year when the upper classes could repay their real or imagined ‘debt’ to society by entertaining less fortunate citizens.

I just wanted to share a bit of Christmas history with you not say I believe it, I have my own special beliefs about this time of the year. All I can say is stay safe and smart, Christmas happens every year ;-)

Christmas now surrounds us, Happiness is everywhere.

Our hands are busy with many tasks As carols fill the air.– Shirley Sallay

positioned farther out at 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, which is four times the distance of the moon. It has the biggest sun shields and it features the largest mirror.

All this means it can operate at cryogenic-level temperatures in the region of minus 2200C. This will allow it to see those galaxies that were forming only 100 million years after the Big Bang. Put another way, the universe is understood to be 13.7 billion years old. The JWST will allow us to see 13.6 billion years back. It’s essentially a visual time machine.

The precision required for everything to work correctly is terrifying. The five sun shields it will deploy, each the size of a tennis court, are a quarter of the width of a piece of paper thick. The whole thing, including the 6.5-metre wide gold-coated mirror assembly has to be wrapped up and folded origami-style into a capsule that is only 5.4 metres wide.

178 release mechanisms, 400 pullies, 90 separate cables, 70 hinge assemblies and 400 metres of cable are needed to work exactly right and in the correct order to unfurl the telescope. These parts must all withstand several minutes of violent shaking as the rocket is launched.

You can see why we will be holding our breath over the weeks it will take to deploy and put in position, and the months before we receive any operational data. It simply must work.