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Christmas 2014
December 24, 2014 - January 2, 2015
Tikalon is on a year-end
holiday. The next article will appear Monday, January 5, 2015. Here are a few holiday snippets to sate your science appetite until the new year.
Left image, Photograph of Christmas cookies in Czech republic by Rémi Diligent, and right image, photograph of Polish Christmas wafers (opłatki) by Julo, via Wikimedia Commons)
Most people know the
Twelve Days of Christmas song and its
numeric progression of
gifts. One holiday
pastime in
financial circles is seeing how
the cost of these gifts changes from year to year. According to
Wikipedia, the total cost for Christmas 2014 is $116,273.06.[1]
As I wrote in the article,
Fossil Fig Wasp (December 20, 2013), the Christmas treat,
figgy pudding, dates back to
16th century England. Unlike
plum pudding, which doesn't contain
plums, figgy pudding contains
figs, and other
delectable ingredients, such as three times as many
dates, and some
dark chocolate.[2]
Frankincense is an
aromatic resin extracted from
boswellia trees. The major chemical components are an acid resin (C
20H
32O
4) and a form of
gum arabic. One of the principal chemicals that gives frankincense its distinctive
odor is
beta-boswellic acid, the structure of which is shown in the
figure. Frankincense appears to have both medicinal and psychoactive properties.[3]
For more information on the three gifts of the Magi, see the article,
Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh (December 23, 2011 - January 1, 2012).
As I wrote in the article,
Newton's Chronology (March 6, 2013), this season brings a plethora of articles about what the
real date of
Christmas should be. The only
written records are references to the reign of certain
potentates. Some
astronomers think it might be
near the time of a
conjunction of the planets,
Jupiter and
Saturn, in 7
BC.[4]
Santa Claus has become a popular part of Christmas, as have his
reindeer. As I wrote in the article,
Reindeer Ultraviolet Vision (June 2, 2011), scientists have found that the
cornea and
lens of the eyes of arctic reindeer are
transmissive at
ultraviolet wavelengths, reindeer respond to UV
stimulation, and both the
rods and cones of reindeer
eyes respond to low-intensity ultraviolet light. Since
snow-covered landscapes are nearly featureless, at least in the
visible spectrum, it makes sense that being able to see things outside the normal vision range would have an
evolutionary advantage for
animals that live in snow.[5-6]
(Photograph of Fessenden via Wikimedia Commons.)
There's been so much talk about a supposed "
War on Christmas," that many people think that there's
evil intent in using "
Xmas" to refer to Christmas. However, the "X" in Xmas is actually a transliteration of the
Greek letter, Chi (Χ), the first letter of Χριστος, the
Greek word for
Christ. Xmas, as a shorthand for Christmas, has been used for five hundred years.[8]
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References:
- Twelve Days of Christmas song on Wikipedia.
- Figgy pudding on Wikipedia.
- Frankincense on Wikipedia.
- Star of Bethlehem on Wikipedia.
- Santa Claus on Wikipedia.
- Reindeer on Wikipedia.
- Reginald Fessenden (1866 - 1932) on Wikipedia.
- Xmas on Wikipedia.
Permanent Link to this article
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