Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to this lesson on Festivals in Christianity.

My name is Miss Kendrick and in the lesson we are going to be looking at Christmas and Easter.

We're going to be looking at why they're celebrated and how they're celebrated.

Now, in the UK these festivals are quite familiar to a lot of people because when you go to the shops around Christmas and Easter, you see lots and lots of advertisements linking to these holidays.

But we might not always know exactly what Christians believe about them and what their origins are and why they're celebrated.

So hopefully by the end of this lesson, you'll have a better understanding of why these are such important festivals for Christians today.

Just to be aware as well, these are not the only festivals celebrated by Christians.

There are other points in the year that are festivals as well, and that are celebrated.

But we're just focusing on Christmas and Easter today, as these are probably the biggest Christian festivals or at least the biggest ones in the UK.

So we're going to look at why and how Christmas is celebrated.

Why and how Easter is celebrated.

And then we're going to do your favourite, which is examination practise.

You are going to need a pen or pencil and a different coloured pen or pencil because it's always really useful to write in our corrections.

And you're going to need some paper as well to write your answers.

So my first question is, what do you think of when you think of Christmas? I've got a picture here which might offer some clues for you.

Maybe what do your family do around Christmas, if you celebrate it? I wonder if you've got some of the same ideas that I do.

I've got quite a lot on my mind come up because Christmas makes me think of quite a lot of different things.

So I've got Christmas tree, carols, nativity plays, lots of food with family and friends, lights, turning on Christmas lights is often a big thing in towns, isn't it? And it makes you feel really Christmasy.

Seeing those Christmas lights come on.

Obviously presents is the focus of Christmas for a lot of us.

I wonder if you've written down church and I've put a question mark for that, because for Christians, it will be part of their practise often to go to church on Christmas day.

But for a lot of non-Christians, that might be quite surprising.

And this is where we're going to start looking at some of the key Christian beliefs that are in Christmas.

We're going to start by having a quick recap of the Christmas story.

And if you want to know more about the Christmas story, then you might want to take part in the incarnation lesson in the Christian Beliefs unit.

But for now I'm going to give you a quick recap and maybe it will test your memory of nativity plays and things like that.

If you were ever involved in any, when you've been in primary school.

So one of the first things that we've got happening in the Christmas story is the annunciation.

Now the word annunciation is a little bit like the word announce, and it is the event in which Christians believe that the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would become pregnant and have a baby.

And that her baby would just be any ordinary child, but that he will be called God with us.

And Gabriel tells Mary to call her baby, Jesus.

Now at this point, Mary is engaged to Joseph and she is a virgin.

And so obviously she's got some questions about how she's going to become pregnant.

And the Angel Gabriel says that she is going to be made pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now, when Joseph finds out that Mary is with child, he obviously has some concerns and he plans to divorce her quietly.

Now I said that they were engaged because in this time engagement was a much more formal stage in a relationship than it is in our culture today.

In our culture today, someone breaks off an engagement, I guess the couple might break up or something like that, but nothing legal has to take place.

Whereas in Jesus' time an engagement was a bit more of a legal process and required a divorce to end it.

And so that's why Joseph is thinking about divorce.

However, he has a dream in which God tells him to not be afraid to marry Mary as she is with child through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So he marries her and there is a census and they travel to Bethlehem, which is his birth town, the town of his family, Joseph's family.

And when they get there, because there's so many people there, there's no room in the end.

And they end up staying with the animals which were probably in the lower room of a house.

And here, the time comes for Mary to give birth.

And she wraps her baby Jesus in some cloths and she lays him in a manger.

Now in the nearby fields, shepherds were watching their flocks by night and all of a sudden this incredible host of angels appears in the sky and they start to sing glory to God.

And they tell the shepherds, "Do not be afraid for the King, the Prince has been born and the shepherds are amazed because they were the lowest in society.

They would not have expected angels to come and proclaim this good news to them.

And so they go and find the house in which Jesus and Mary and Joseph are staying and they worship him.

Sometime later, wise men, magi, come from the East, following a star which rests above the house in which Mary and Joseph and Jesus are staying.

And they bring gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And these gifts are deeply symbolic.

Gold represents the idea that Jesus is a King.

Frankincense was used to worship God, it was a type of incense that was used in the temple.

So the frankincense represents the idea that Jesus is God and should be worshipped.

And finally, they bring myrrh which is perhaps the strangest gift of all.

Because myrrh was used to embalm dead bodies.

And it represents this idea that Jesus came to die.

And my fun fact about the wise men is that we often think of there being three wise men, actually in this picture, there's sort of three, but there could be more off shot.

The Bible never actually said how many wise men there were.

But there's a tradition, there were three wise men because there are three gifts.

So what you're going to do now is you're going to pause the video and you're going to see how much of this story you can write down.

Now, I don't know about you, but one of my favourite things about Christmas, is singing Christmas carols.

They are probably the thing that makes me feel most Christmasy and gives that sense that the holiday is coming and that you've got all those lovely things to look forward to.

But I wonder if you've ever really thought about the lyrics of Christmas carols.

Now, a lot of Christmas carols and ones that you might know quite well, have a huge amount of meaning in them.

And they're so useful in that way, because we often know them, don't we? Because songs are quite easy to remember.

So they're going to be really useful for you in terms of your examinations, because you could quote lines from carols that talk about Jesus, and they also give a very good outline often of Christian belief.

And so we're going to have a quick look at some of the lyrics of "HARK! the Herald Angels Sing" 'cause I absolutely love this Carol, because it's got so much in it about Christianity.

Now, the version we're looking at here has got some slightly older language than a version that you might know, but that doesn't matter too much 'cause I'm going to explain it as we go along.

So we've got "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" I'm not going to sing it to you.

I know that's deeply disappointing.

Glory to the newborn King.

So straight away, we've got the idea that Jesus is a King.

He's earth a mercy mild, God and sinners reconcil'd.

So here we have this belief that Jesus was born so that God and humans could be reconciled.

The word reconcile or reconciliation means to get back into a good relationship.

If you've fallen out with a friend and you forgive each other and you're friends again, you could say you have reconciled.

So straight away, we've got this belief that Jesus' birth was for a purpose so he could reconcile God and humanity.

So the next bit we have got offspring of the virgin's womb.

So here we have this belief in the prophecy that the virgin will give birth and have a son.

So Christians believe that Jesus' birth was foretold in the old Testament by some prophets.

Offspring just means child of the virgin's womb.

So showing that Jesus' birth is miraculous.

I think this is my favourite bit.

Veil'd in flesh the Godhead see.

Now, do you remember the word incarnation? The word incarnation means God become flesh.

And Christians believe that Jesus was God who took on human form.

So this is where we have this idea of veil'd in flesh.

If you have a veil you're being covered by something, aren't you? So here God is in flesh, the Godhead see.

So the Godhead is another term for the Trinity.

And for Godhead see there's this idea that God is human.

Hail th' incarnate deity.

So we've had the word incarnation already.

It means God become flesh.

And deity just means God.

Pleas'd as man with men t'appear.

Sometimes you might hear to dwell.

So that just shows the idea that Jesus became human to dwell on earth with men, with humans.

Jesus our Emmanuel here.

Emmanuel means God with us.

And we'll just do this last bit.

Mild he lays his glory by.

There's this idea that Jesus gave up the glory of heaven to become humble and to become human.

Born that men no more may die.

So again, we've got this Christian belief that Jesus came so that people could be saved from their sins and Christians traditionally believe the consequence of sin is death.

So if they're saved from their sin, men no more may die.

They won't die anymore.

Born to raise the sons of Earth, born to give them second birth.

So again, this links to Christian beliefs in the resurrection.

Many Christians believe they will be physically resurrected on the day of judgement and go to heaven.

Isn't there just so much in this song and you've probably sung this at some point or at least heard it when you've been going around at Christmas time.

I wonder if you've ever noticed before how much there is going on here.

But this is expressing that key Christian belief.

And this is why Christmas is so important to Christians.

Because they believe that it is the moment in which God became humans to save humanity from sin.

And so this is why Christmas is celebrated today.

This is why the birth of Jesus is something that causes worship for Christians all over the world.

So what you're going to do next, is you're going to see if you can explain the belief that Christians celebrate at Christmas, okay? So you're thinking about the belief in the incarnation, the belief that God took on flesh to save humans from sin.

Pause the video and see if you can get down your answer.

So we're going to have a look now at how Christians celebrate Christmas.

And some of these ideas are going to be really familiar to you.

Some might be less familiar to you.

The first term we're going to start with is Advent.

So many of you might have had an Advent Calendar or a chocolate calendar at some point.

But Advent is not just about counting down to Christmas for Christians, it is a season in itself.

And there are a few key points for it.

Number one, during Advent, on each Sunday a candle will be lit at church and they will represent important things in Christianity, such as the patriarchs.

So the important people like Abraham and the prophets, those people Christians believe talked about Jesus' coming.

One represents Mary.

Is this one that represents John the Baptist as well.

The season of Advent is all about preparing your heart so that you can be ready for Jesus has come into the world.

And it also looks forward to the future coming of the kingdom of God as well.

So there's quite a lot that Advent represents for Christians.

Next, there'll be lots of nativity scenes or plays.

So actually my picture here is a nativity scene.

So some people might include that as part of their Christmas decorations, you might see them outside churches sometimes.

Or you might have been in a nativity play at some point in your life as well.

Lots of schools or churches we'll put them on.

Another thing that churches will often do is have a midnight mass or a midnight service on Christmas Eve.

So this is a late night service that is all focused on bringing in Jesus.

So the anticipation of Christmas day and worshipping Jesus as well should add in there carol services as well.

They will often take place in a couple of weeks in the run up to Christmas and lots of people who aren't Christians might go to carol services as well.

And another thing I don't have my list is Christingle.

So Christingle services are for children and they will put together an orange with a candle in and some fruit and things.

And that represents Jesus being the light of the world.

On Christmas day, many Christians will go to church and this is for a celebration.

So again, they'll sing lots of carols, they might tell some of the Christmas story, they'll often have a slightly shorter service, but again, to go and wish each other happy Christmas and to celebrate the incarnation.

Carols I've already talked about.

So lots of singing carols in the Christmas season, and we looked at "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" and finally gifts.

Why are gifts given at Christmas? Well, Christians would say that in Jesus becoming incarnate, God gave the greatest possible gift to the world.

And in that gift we have Jesus' life and teachings, his miracles and they would say through his death on the cross that would make salvation possible.

So those are reasons why Christians would say it's good to give gifts at Christmas because they believe God has given the greatest gift.

So what we're going to do now is we're going to play a little game of what is missing, because it's always good to have these examples to hands and a really good way to make sure you remember them is to make sure you can identify which ones are gone.

So I'm going to give you a moment to have a look at them.

You can pause the video for a little while and then some are going to disappear and you need to decide which ones are missing.

I would encourage you to say it out loud, if you want to, you have to shout at the screen or anything like that, or just say in your head, or you could even write it down.

Okay, I think you've probably had long enough now, especially if you paused the video.

So what is missing? So we were missing midnight mass on Christmas Eve there and carols.

That time it was Advent and gifts, what's missing this time? So again, it was midnight mass and church on Christmas day.

Again, Advent and nativity scenes or place.

And that's the last one.

So the next thing you're going to do is you're going to pause the video and you're going to see the task on the slide.

I don't think I could guess why we're talking about Christmas without mentioning this guy, Father Christmas, or Santa Claus as if we're feeling a little bit American today.

Now, obviously for many, many people, Father Christmas is a really, really big part of Christmas.

And in my telling of the Christmas story and things like that, I have not mentioned him at all.

So I'm just going to tell you really briefly where the tradition about Father Christmas comes from, and you might want to look it up in a bit more detail.

So Father Christmas originates from the person of Saint Nicholas.

So Saint Nicholas was a historical person.

He was a Christian and he was known for being charitable and for giving money to people who were really destitute, who didn't have any money at all.

And so, because he was so charitable and gave gifts, then this tradition around him grew up in which we slowly get this idea of him coming at Christmas and giving gifts.

The reason why he's dressed in red is because he, because of Coca-Cola, actually, not because he ever wore red himself or well, maybe he wore red sometimes, but I don't think he wore that outfit all the time.

And the names have sort of changed over time.

So Santa Claus comes from Saint Nicholas.

So Santa comes from the word saint.

Klaus comes from Nicholaus, Nicholas 'cause you can sort of see how these names have changed.

That was an incredibly brief history on Father Christmas.

You could find out a lot more information if you did a little bit of research, which I encourage you to do.

I'm just mostly mentioning him 'cause I know he's obviously a huge part of the magic when it comes to Christmas, isn't it? But he is not the main reason why Christians celebrate Christmas.

And many Christians will go through the Christmas season and barely mention Father Christmas or Santa Claus at all.

So he has been mentioned.

Next thing.

We are going to talk about Easter.

So Easter might not be as big in your mind as Christmas because when it comes to shopping and things like that, music and seasons outside of Christianity Easter is probably just associated with some nice bank holidays and some school holidays as well.

But actually Easter is incredibly important and some Christians might even say it's more important than Christmas.

So what we're going to do is we're going to have a bit of a mind map to see what you think of when you think about the Easter season.

I'm going to give a quick summary of the story of Easter.

And then we're going to see what Christians do today to celebrate the Easter season.

Okay, here's my mind map.

I've already talked about a holiday and I'm here I've got things like chicks and bunnies.

You see lots of chicks and bunnies in the shop around Easter time, not actual ones, normally pictures of them.

There's the idea of new life, which isn't completely outside of the Christian idea, that is part of the Christian idea, but it might not be the focus for some.

Again I've got church with question mark 'cause lots of Christians will go to church a lot more in the Easter season because of the days that happened in Holy week, we've got the idea of spring.

So that's often very associated with the idea of chicks and bunnies and new life because everything's growing and lots of animals have their babies and things like that.

And we've got Easter eggs, which is probably the focus for a lot of people because they are made of chocolate.

But what we're going to do is we're going to look at the story in the Bible of Easter.

And then we're going to see what Christians do today, that links specifically with these beliefs.

So the first day is Palm Sunday.

And this is actually the first day of Holy week, not the first day of Easter.

And I'll talk about that a little bit more in a moment, but Holy week is the week leading up to Easter.

So in the Bible story, Palm Sunday is the day in which Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey.

And people celebrated his coming, they waved Palm trees, Palm leaves, not the whole tree, they laid down their cloaks on the ground so that his donkey could walk on it.

They were praising Jesus and excited that he'd come into Jerusalem.

And today many churches will celebrate Palm Sunday by having Palm Crosses.

So they are little crosses that sort of woven out of palm leaves and they might have precessions and things like that.

Now we're not completely skipping Monday to Wednesday because Christians do believe things happened on those days like Jesus turning over the tables of the money lenders in the temple.

But we are going to focus on Maundy Thursday just so you don't have information overload.

Now Maundy Thursday Christians believe that Jesus had the last supper with his disciples.

And this is where we get the tradition of communion, where Jesus broke bread with his disciples and shared out the wine and said, "This is my body given for you do this in remembrance of me." The gospel narrative also talks about Jesus washing his disciples feet and being betrayed by his disciple Judas.

He goes into the garden of Gethsemane to pray, and then he is arrested.

On good Friday we have the story of Jesus' crucifixion.

So Jesus is trialled and sent to be crucified and he's beaten and mocked and spat at and stripped and hung on a cross to die.

And Christians believe that when he gave up his spirit and died, that the temple, not the whole temple, the curtain and the temple that separated the Holy of Holies, the place where God's presence rested from the rest of the people was torn in two.

So there's this idea that when Jesus died, God and humans were reconciled.

Just like we had in that line on "HARK! Herald the Angels Sing".

So Good Friday is the day in which Christians remember the crucifixion and it's called Good Friday because of the belief that that is the day on which it became possible for human sin to be forgiven.

And finally we have Easter Sunday.

Now Easter Sunday is seen as a huge celebration because Good Friday is seen as a time of mourning and a time of repentance, whereas Easter Sunday celebrates Jesus' resurrection.

So the gospel stories say that Jesus' disciples and the women like Mary went to the tomb and found it empty.

And then Jesus appeared to his disciples for a period of 40 days.

Now Christians will celebrate Easter Sunday, They celebrate the empty tomb.

And this is actually one reason why Christians go to church on a Sunday, normally in the week, because they would say that every Sunday remembers Jesus' resurrection.

So what you're going to do is you're going to pause and you're going to see how much of this story you can get written down.

I did tell you that I was going to just be a bit clear about the difference between Holy Week and Easter Sunday and the Easter season, just to make sure we're really, really clear.

So Holy week is the week that runs up to Easter, which includes Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and good Friday and Holy Saturday as well.

And Easter Sunday is not seen as part of Holy week.

It is the first day after Holy Week.

But it's in the first day of the Easter season.

And the Easter season last 50 days until Pentecost and Pentecost is when Christians celebrate the giving of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church.

So that's another festival.

I did tell you at the beginning of the lesson, that there were others, Pentecost is one of them.

So just to be clear, that's the difference between Holy Week is these bits up here and Easter Sunday is the first day in the season of Easter.

So that means that certain liturgies and things like that will be used throughout that whole season.

So for example, one liturgy is, do you remember liturgy is the set press that lots of Christians use like Anglicans, Roman Catholics.

So the bicker will say, "Alleluia, Christ is risen." And the congregation will reply, "He is risen indeed, alleluia." And they'll say that every Sunday in the Easter season.

So you can see how some practises and liturgies will last for more than just Easter Sunday.

So how else is Easter celebrated? So on Good Friday, Christians might spend an hour at the cross.

So that means they might have a special service, that's really reflective where they think about the story of Jesus' crucifixion, and they pray and spend time meditating on what they believe Jesus did.

Links to that as the stations of the cross.

So you'll see this in some churches, some who have these sort of sessions that all the time.

So they might have a piece of artwork or lots of statues and things like that.

And these stations tell different parts of the story of the day of Jesus' crucifixion.

So for example, moments, when the gospel record that he fell and he was helped up, or when he talked to his particular disciples, the moment when he died and things like that.

So some Christians might formally go through the stations of the cross and say prayers at each one and spend time at each one, reflecting on the story.

I've already talked about some special liturgy that might be used around that time, so set prayers that are specifically for Holy week and Easter, we've got a Paschal candle.

So that's going to link actually to the Easter Vigil, which I'm going to tell you about in a bit more detail.

So some churches will celebrate the Easter Vigil and they'll do that on the night of Holy Saturday.

And part of this is lighting the Paschal candle.

Now on Maundy Thursday, the night on which Christians believe Jesus was arrested all of the church, will be darkened by extinguishing all of the candles and all of the lamps.

And this represents the darkness of a world without God.

At the opening of the Easter Vigil on the evening of Holy Saturday, a new fire is lit and blessed.

and it will be the Paschal candle that is lit at that moment.

And the priest will say words a little bit like "Christ yesterday and today, the beginning in the end, the Alpha, the Omega to him belongs all times and all the ages." And incense is often used as well, which remember that links to the stories about Jesus' birth and things like that, and the candle itself represents Jesus being the light of the world, coming into the world.

Typically the people worshipping in the Easter Vigil then process around the church, led by the Paschal candle.

And it will be raised regularly during this wealth raised three times during this procession.

At the end of this procession, the candle will be blessed as well.

So that's quite a lot of detail as well, but that sounds like a really solemn service, doesn't it? And it would really put Christians in the mind of this story and these beliefs about Jesus' death and resurrection.

Easter eggs.

I'm sure you're wondering when I was going to talk about these.

Now I have my very own special painted Easter egg here and spit like the ones we have on the pictures.

Now you might wonder, where did this tradition of having chocolate Easter eggs come from in the first place? Now I've already talked about spring being a time of new life.

So obviously lots of birds and other animals are having their babies.

And obviously therefore eggs are going to be a sign of new life.

But the tradition of having eggs around Easter is very symbolic.

So traditionally Christians would dye Easter eggs red.

So firstly, you'd have to, it's called sucking eggs and you put a little hole in the bottom and then the top and you blow and all of the insides come out.

If you might've ever heard the phrase, teaching your granny to suck eggs, that means to teach someone to do something that they already know.

So if you've ever done that before, it's very messy, but good fun and so the egg is hollow.

So once the egg has been emptied of its contents, then the eggs would either be painted or dyed red.

And patterns would often be painted on them as well.

And you can see the one in the picture.

And my one here has a cross on it.

Now this is because the red of the egg represents Jesus' blood.

And obviously you've got the cross on that representing his crucifixion.

Now, if you were to ever feel an egg, it feels a little bit Stony, doesn't it? Probably not as cold as a stone.

But this symbolises the sealed tomb.

And the idea that Jesus was buried, but the egg is empty.

And this symbolises the idea of the empty tomb, which means that it's going to link to the brief that Jesus resurrected from the dead.

Obviously at some point in history, some bright spots decided to make these out of chocolate and sell the and obviously that was incredibly popular.

But now you know where the tradition of painting Easter eggs and having Easter eggs comes from.

So that is another thing that Christians will often do around Easter is paint eggs or give each other eggs.

So we're going to pause now, so you can answer some of the questions about how Christians celebrate Easter.

Then we're going to have some quickfire questions and then we will be done.

All right.

I hope you've got your brain switched on and I hope you are willing to say your answers to the screen.

I don't care if you feel silly, it's always good to be learning.

And it makes me feel less silly to think that some of you are actually talking back to me.

So which of the following do Christians do to celebrate Christmas? One, two, three, sing carols.

Just to be clear, Christians will sing songs around Easter, but they're not called carols.

Which of the following do Christians do to celebrate Easter? Paint eggs.

Which of the following is not part of Holy Week? Easter Sunday.

So that is the first day after Holy Week.

How long does the season of Easter last? It's 50 Days.

What event is not part of the Christmas story? Father Christmas gave Jesus gifts.

Sadly, the gospel story doesn't say anything about Father Christmas.

What event is not part of the Easter story? Jesus became an angel.

I just made that one up completely.

So Christians believed traditionally that Jesus was fully human and fully God, not an angel.

Which of the following is not something Christians do to celebrate Easter? Tell the story of Jesus' birth.

Which of the following is not something Christians do to celebrate Christmas? So they will not blow out all of the candles in the church.

Which one of the following gives the best explanation of why Christians have Easter eggs? To represent Jesus' blood and the empty tomb.

Thank you so much for taking part in this lesson.

I hope you've learned a lot more about Christmas and Easter and how Christians celebrate it and why it's so important to so many Christians.

Now you can go and do your exit quiz.