RULES

• 15 questions• All the questions have some connection with

Christmas in one way or the other .• Some questions are multipointers .• No negatives• The decision of the quizmaster is Final

REFERENCE whychristmas.com

ARE U READY ?

Q1.

• This word is derived from an Old French word meaning dancing to songs in circles.

• (These were sung especially in the Pagan Festival at the Winter Solstice celebrations)

• Which popular word associated with Christmas am I talking about ?

ANSWER

• Carol

Q2.

• The Greek word for Christ is ‘Christos’ .• The first letter in Christos is the Greek

alphabet ‘Chi’.• Chi is the 22nd Greek Alphabet• What did the use of this Greek word over time

create (or donate) to the Christmas Festival ?

ANSWER

• The tradition of writing Xmas for Christmas !!• The Greek letter Chi looks like the English

alphabet X .

Q3.• The observance of this day started in UK about 800 years

ago ,during the Middle Ages.• It was a custom to keep Alms boxes, collection boxes for the Poor

in churches & other places of importance .These boxes were opened on this day & their contents delivered to the poor.

• It was also traditional that servants got the day off to celebrate Christmas with their families.

• Before the Second World War, it was common for working people such as milkman & butchers to travel round their delivery places & collect their Christmas tip.

• The day is a public holiday in UK, Canada, Australia & NZ.• The day is called ?

ANSWER

• Boxing Day

Q4.• According to Folklore, a German Choirmaster in 1670 was

worried about children sitting quitely all the long Christmas service.

• So he gave them something to eat to keep them quiet !!!!• As he wanted to remind them of Christmas, he made them

shape like a Shepherd’s crook ,to remind them of the shepherds who visited the christ child.

• They soon became popular & spread from Germany to the rest of the Europe.

• About what confectionary associated with Christmas am I talking about ?

ANSWER

• Candy Cane

Q5.• A Christmas Carol (Image next slide) by Charles Dickens

was published in 1843 in London.• It tells the story of a bitter old miser named X & his

transformation into a gentler kindlier individual after visitations by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley & the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present & Yet to Come.

• The novella also popularised a phrase (which is believed to have been used for the first time by an English Admiral in an informal letter in 1699).

• Identify X & the phrase

ANSWER

• X – Ebnezer Scrooge• The phrase is “Merry Christmas”

Q6.• The Christmas decorations are kept in most countries only till the

evening of January 5th.• That night is a day of celebration.• In the past,people held large parties – during these parties,the roles in

the society were reversed with the servants being served by the rich people.

• William Shakespeare wrote a Comedy around 1601-1602 to be played during this festive day. The performance came a little late ,on the candlemas (The observance of Presentation of Jesus at the temple) in 1602.

• The name of the Comedy is the same as what the festive day was called..

• Name the Comedy.

ANSWER

• The Twelfth Night• January 5th is the 12th

Day following Christmas .

Q7.• Stephen was born in 1947 to a British family in London .He

emigrated to Toronto ,Canada with his family & at the age of 2,he was diagnosed to have X at the hospital for sick children.

• In 1952,the family returned to London to visit their relatives & during this trip,Stephen was admitted to hospital.

• A sample of his blood was sent to an institution in Oxford ,where a new discovery was made from this sample.

• Stephen worked as a taxicab driver for some years & as a medical photographer for some years.

• He developed AIDS & died in 1993.• What is X & what was the discovery made ?

ANSWER

• X – Hemophilia • Christmas Factor (This

coagulation factor is deficient in Hemophilia B otherwise known as Christmas Disease)

• Patients have bleeding manifestations.

Q8.• This poem was first published on December 23rd ,1823.It was

reprinted frequently with no name attached.• Only in 1837,it was attributed in print to Clement Clarke Moore,an

American Professor of Oriental Literature ,Divinity & Biblical Learning.

• The poem,which has been called “arguably the best known verses ever written by an American “ is largely responsible for some of the conceptions of Santa Claus from mid 19th century to today & has had a massive impact on the history of Christmas gift giving.

• It became a popular poem which was set to music & recorded by many artists.

• The poem is ?

ANSWER

• A visit from St.Nicholas

Q9.

• Santa Claus is long considered a resident of North pole.• On 23rd December 2008, Jason Kenny,the Minister of

Citizenship, Immigration & Multiculturalism formally awarded ……… citizenship to Santa.

• He declared ,• “The Government of …….. Wishes Santa the very best

in his Christmas eve duties & wants to let him know that as a ………. Citizen, he has the automatic right to re enter ….. once his trip around the world is complete”

• FITB

ANSWER

• Canada

Q10.

• Perhaps he is the most famous celebrity who passed away on a Christmas Day.

• He was an English actor.• His middle name was ‘Spencer’.• The cause of his death was a stroke which he

sustained during his sleep.• Who is he ?

ANSWER

• Charlie Spencer Chaplin

Q11.

• X,winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1990,named as the TIME Magazine’s person of the Year twice,in 1987 & in 1989,was the President of Y till 25th of December 1991.

• X quit his post on the Christmas day & Y was officially dissolved.

• X & Y ?

ANSWER

• X – Mikhail Gorbachev• Y - USSR

Q12.• 3 countries have banned Christmas celebrations this year ( in

2015).• One is an African Muslim nation – they banned Xmas celebrations

because of two reasons : (1)All the citizens are Muslims & Xmas has nothing to do with Islam ; (2) security .• The second country ,an Asian nation, predominantly Muslim,

banned Christmas trees & gift giving in schools .It is not so far from India.

• The 3rd country is a Southeast Asian country- the head of the country is one of the richest man in the planet.

• The 3 countries are ?

ANSWER

• Somalia• Tajikistan• Brunei

Q13.• Sir Henry Cole was an English civil servant & inventor who

facilitated many inventions in commerce & education in the 19th century Britain.He is sometimes credited with the design of the world’s first postage stamp, the Penny Black .

• John Calcott Horsely was an English painter. John Horsely was commissioned by Henry Cole to design something in 1843.

• But it caused some controversy as it depicted a small child drinking wine.

• But the community loved the idea & soon “what they designed” became popular.

• What did they design ?

ANSWER

• The first Xmas Card

Q14.• According to the Julian Calendar,X was born on a Christmas day (December

25,1642) at a hamlet in the county of lincolnshire.• His name was the same as that of his father.His father,a farmer ,died 3 months

before his birth.His mother remarried – he disliked his stepfather.he often threatened his mother & stepfather that “he would burn them & the house over them”.

• He was removed from the first school ,his mother wanted him to be a farmer but X hated it.He joined the school upon compulsion by his mother & master – motivated partly by a school yard bully,he became a top ranked student !!

• The English poet Alexander Pope was moved by the accomplishments of X & wrote the famous epitah :

“Nature & nature’s laws lay hid in night ; God said Let X shall be & all was light.• Id X.

ANSWER

• Isacc Newton

Q15.• Jose Feliciano,a Puerto Rican singer songwriter is the one

who wrote this macaronic Christmas song in the 1970s.• The song starts with Spanish lines (it’s the traditional

Christmas /New Year greeting in Spanish)• It is one of the most downloaded & aired Christmas songs in

the USA & Canada.• The song has been recorded numerous times & adapted to

various languages and also released as remixes.• A very popular version was released by Boney M in their

Christmas album 1981.• The song is ?

ANSWER

• Feliz Navidad

THANK YOU !!!!!!