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下面新东方网雅思频道为大家整理了雅思口语素材：Christmas(圣诞节)，供考生们参考，以下是详细内容。
Christmas
December 25
The history of Christmas dates back over 4000 years. Many of our Christmastraditions were celebrated centuries before the Christ child was born. The 12days of Christmas, the bright fires, the yule log, the giving of gifts,carnivals(parades) with floats, carolers who sing while going from house tohouse, the holiday feasts, and the church processions can all be traced back tothe early Mesopotamians.
Many of these traditions began with the Mesopotamian (美索不达米亚) celebrationof New Years. The Mesopotamians believed in many gods, and as their chief god -Marduk (马杜克,古代巴比伦人的主神,原为巴比伦的太阳神). Each year as winter arrived it was believedthat Marduk would do battle with the monsters of chaos. To assist Marduk in hisstruggle the Mesopotamians held a festival for the New Year. This was Zagmuk,the New Year's festival that lasted for 12 days.
The Mesopotamian king would return to the temple of Marduk and swear hisfaithfulness to the god. The traditions called for the king to die at the end ofthe year and to return with Marduk to battle at his side.
To spare their king, the Mesopotamians used the idea of a "mock" king. Acriminal was chosen and dressed in royal clothes. He was given all the respectand privileges of a real king. At the end of the celebration the "mock" king wasstripped of the royal clothes and slain, sparing the life of the real king.
The Roman's celebrated their god Saturn. Their festival was calledSaturnalia which began the middle of December and ended January 1st. With criesof "Jo Saturnalia!" the celebration would include masquerades (化妆舞会) in thestreets, big festive meals, visiting friends and the exchange of good-luck giftscalled Strenae (lucky fruits).
"Jo Saturnalia!" was a fun and festive time for the Romans, but theChristians though it an abomination (深恶痛绝) to honor the pagan (异教) god. Theearly Christians wanted to keep the birthday of their Christ child a solemn andreligious holiday, not one of cheer and merriment as was the paganSaturnalia.
But as Christianity spread they were alarmed by the continuing celebrationof pagan customs and Saturnalia among their converts. At first the Church forbidthis kind of celebration. But it was to no avail (徒劳). Eventually it was decidedthat the celebration would be tamed and made into a celebration fit for theChristian Son of God.
Some legends claim that the Christian "Christmas" celebration was inventedto compete against the pagan celebrations of December. The 25th was not onlysacred to the Romans but also the Persians whose religion Mithraism(密特拉教，奉祀密特拉神的宗教，纪元后最初3世纪内传至罗马帝国) was one of Christianity's main rivals at thattime. The Church eventually was successful in taking the merriment, lights, andgifts from the Saturanilia festival and bringing them to the celebration ofChristmas.
以上就是新东方网雅思频道为大家整理的雅思口语素材：Christmas(圣诞节)，非常实用。更多资讯、资料尽在新东方网雅思频道。最后，新东方网雅思频道预祝大家在雅思考试中取得好成绩!
