Every Christmas season I publish this quiz because some of the questions and answers still, after all these years, bring a chuckle or two. If memory serves no one has ever clicked a like button on this quiz, but I like it so here it is again:
- Handel a German-born baroque composer wrote the oratorio Messiah.
- King David and Jesus were born in Bethlehem.
- The wise men were three kings from the orient.
- Ockham’s Razor is a favorite stocking stuffer for Dad.
- The little drummer boy was the last visitor to the manger.
- According to legend the Gordian knot is used by elves to tie Christmas ribbons.
- January 6 the traditional date for the Feast of Epiphany celebrates the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ.
- On December 25 pagan Romans celebrated the festival Natalis Invicti Solis (“Birth of the Unconquered Sun”).
- A bright star appeared above the manger.
- Yin and Yang like Cheech and Chong are Chinese Christmas songs.
- Hanukkah overlaps the Christmas season.
- Immanuel means “God with us.”
- Mary rode a donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.
- A yarmulke is a gentle breed of camel often used in Christmas pageants.
- Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem because of a decree by Caesar Augustus.
- According to Luke there were cows and sheep in the stable where Jesus was born.
- The wise men were late for the birth of Jesus.
- Planning places to visit during the Christmas season is called predestination.
- Three gospels describe the events surrounding the birth of Jesus.
- Mary and Joseph lived in Nazareth before marriage and during Jesus’ Childhood.
- The appearance of the angel of the Lord filled the shepherds with joy.
- The Magi outwitted Herod.
- Ramadan occurs during the Christmas season.
- Santa Claus calls a carelessly attached bicycle tire a prayer wheel.
- Yom Kipper is a smoked herring Jews eat during Hanukkah to atone for sins.
Here are the answers:
- True: Handle spent most of his career in England although he was German-born. At the conclusion of the first performance of the Messiah the audience stood with King George II establishing a Christmas tradition. Cynics believe that the King stood because he wanted to stretch his legs, relieve his gout or go to the bathroom. Christians know he stood because the music reflects that “God is the master of us all.”
- True: 1 Samuel 17:21; Micah 5:2-5: Luke 2:10-12
- False: The Bible fails to give the number of wise men. No evidence indicates they were kings.
- False: The principle that explanations should be kept as simple as possible is known as Ockham’s razor after William of Ockham, a fourteenth century English philosopher.
- False: The Bible makes no mention of a little drummer boy. The lyrics of the song tell the apocryphal story of a young boy who plays his drum for the newborn Jesus. The music and lyrics written in 1958 have become a holiday classic.
- False: A Phrygian king tied the Gordian knot. According to legend whoever loosed it would rule all Asia. Alexander the Great undid the Gordian knot by cutting it with his sword.
- True: Epiphany commemorates the birth of Jesus. Later James Joyce coined the phrase “epiphany” for the sudden revelation of the essential nature of a situation.
- True: The Roman Church established December 25 as Christmas Day in 336 AD.
- False: The star appeared above the house where Joseph’s family was living (Matthew 2:9-11).
- False: The Chinese contend that yin and yang are two forces in the universe. Yin is the passive, negative force; and yang, the active, positive force. Cheech and Chong were two hippie comedians famous for their marijuana smoking antics in the 1960s. You would not want to find your daughter under the mistletoe with them.
- True: Hanukkah a festival in Judaism that occurs each December commemorates the Jewish victory over the Syrians in the second century BC. Celebrants light a candle in a holder called a menorah each night for a week in memory of candles that burned without oil for a week when the Temple was rededicated.
- True: Matthew 1:23
- False: The Bible contains nothing about Mary riding a donkey. She probably walked.
- False: A yarmulke is a skullcap worn by Jewish men as a sign of reverence.
- True: Luke 2:1-5
- False: There is no mention of cows and sheep in the Biblical account.
- True: The wise men arrived a few years after Jesus was born (Matthew 2:1). Jesus may have been about two-years old when the Magi arrived (Matthew 2:7, 11, 16).
- False: Predestination is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God.
- False: Only Matthew and Luke mention the birth of Jesus.
- True: Luke 1:26 & 2:39
- False: The shepherds were terrified (Luke 2:9).
- True: The Magi refused to tell Herod they had found Jesus as he requested (Matthew 2:13).
- False: Muslims are obliged to fast in the daytime during the holy month of Ramadan that comes in the spring.
- False: In Buddhism worshippers turn a prayer wheel, a cylinder with prayers written on it.
- False: Yom Kippur a Jewish day of fasting to atone for sins comes in autumn.