The thesis deals with the Czech Christmas spiritual music, wants to point out and pick up her beauty, popularity and popularity across the public and in the circles of the Church and in the wider public. The method is the research the available literature and handouts for this topic, which is evident in the Division of the individual chapters. The introduction will include music and history of music. In the next part we will spend Christmas spiritual music, we close its emergence, history, Christian context, familiar carols and songs and their lyrics with a spiritual focus, some of the selected authors and their works both from the past and from the present. We also in our surroundings, to learn more about the Christmas music of our neighbors, or some European countries. In the next part of the main chapters refer to the positive influence of the Christmas music on the evangelization of pastoration and also on Ecumenism - attitude to Christmas music in some churches, and on its place in the broader public. The conclusion should answer the question of why is Christmas music and in particular the Czech Christmas music so much popular and popular among both artists and in the Christian churches and the public, with an interference fit and why it appears almost as a phenomenon. Keywords Christmas,...

This dissertation argues that from 1880 to 2010 the American natural and artificial Christmas tree industries remodeled themselves after one another. Artificial tree companies modeled their products after the natural tree, hoping to make them look, smell, and feel like the real thing. As these replica trees became popular, scientists, extension agents, and farmers worked to control the natural Christmas tree crop unlike ever before. Those efforts stemmed from a desire to wrest from nature the same kind of idealized silhouettes their plastic counterparts celebrated. Both industries tried to convince the country’s consumers to buy what they were selling. Through Americans’ shifting Christmas tree experience, this dissertation highlights the evolution of particular cultural and environmental ideas. It reveals how both the natural and artificial tree industries intentionally misled the public about the ecological implications of their businesses. Further, it demonstrates that although many Americans believed that the natural Christmas tree ritual could instill the children’s youth with an appreciation of the outdoors or the value of the hard work symbolized by the felling of a tree and dragging it into the living room, by the 1960s such an outlook became contested unlike ever before. As fake tree companies promised convenience, many citizens looked upon their ersatz tree as a symbol of progress and good environmental stewardship just as others worried that modernity would alienate the nation’s youth from the wild spaces and hard work of their ancestors. This dissertation also considers how gender animated the trade by showing how farmers frequently blamed the nation’s women for their reliance on pesticides. That chemical dependency, farmers maintained, was the only way to grow the shapely trees the nation’s women supposedly demanded. Growers also trivialized the work of women within the business in an effort to bolster their own masculine image. As the crop spawned festivals in some communities, locals equated tree bodies with those of women, overtly implying that beauty was most important in both.

Three studies were conducted with Fraser fir Christmas trees to determine the variation in foliar nitrogen (N) , phosphorus (P) , potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) levels among plantation ages, sample locations within the crown, and effects due to seasonal changes. Extensive variation in nutrient concentrations existed with age of tissue collected, sample location with respect to aspect and vertical position, and normal seasonal fluctuation. Tree to tree nutrient variation indicated that greater sampling intensities are required for younger (under four years) plantations as opposed to older (over four years) plantations to achieve comparable confidence and precision levels. The data clearly illustrated that comparisons of foliar nutrient levels without regard to these sampling variables could cause erroneous diagnoses. Recommended foliar sampling practices involved sampling current-year's tissue from 2- or 3-year-old south-facing branches in October or November for routine foliar diagnoses. Another study developed a DRIS application to evaluate N, P, K, Ca, and Mg nutrition on seventy-nine trees in a 3-year-old Fraser fir Christmas tree plantation. DRIS norms and index equations from premium grade Christmas tree were developed. In contrast to most crops where growth and yield are assessed, Fraser fir Christmas tree performance was evaluated by conventional grading procedures based on tree quality. A classification model utilizing several measured growth characteristics to predict Christmas tree grade was also investigated to objectively evaluate tree performance. Satisfactory grade-prediction results using a discriminant model were obtained yielding overall correct classification rates of 80 percent. Preliminary evaluation of DRIS performance suggested that assessments of nutritional balance, rather than examination of individual nutrient concentrations, may be more useful for prescribing fertilizer to improve Christmas tree quality. / M.S.

The process of diagnosing the foliar nutrient status of Fraser fir [Abies fraseri (Pursh)Poir.] Christmas trees and prescribing fertilizers is not well understood. Agricultural researchers have established critical yield levels for agronomic crops that are objective measures of crop quality and have associated these yields with nutrient status; however, Christmas tree quality is subjective and not well associated with nutrient status. A nutrient-sensitive tree response factor that reflects tree quality is needed for a proper diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between nutrient balance and indices of tree quality and to evaluate how nutrient balance and tree quality can be manipulated by fertilizer inputs based on the Diagnosis and Recommendation Integrated System. In 1984 a factorial N, P, pH, fertilizer source, and fertilizer frequency trial was installed in northwestern North Carolina. A randomized complete block design with factorial combinations of all five factors was used. After three years, the fertilizer trial was analyzed to study the effects of fertilizer additions on foliar nutrient balance and tree quality. Several tree response factors were measured in the fall after dormancy. Statistical methods such as correlations and multivariate discriminant analysis were used to determine which response factors were correlated with foliar nutrients and which factor most governed tree quality. DRIS indices were calculated for six independent plots of different fertility treatments. Basal diameter (BD) was the strongest discriminator of tree quality and was used as a substitute for yield in the DRIS analyses. The importance of nutrient intensity was demonstrated since significant nutrient / dry matter ratios were calculated for N, P, K, and Mg. Balance was shown to be important since the indices for N, K, and Mg were a function of the four other nutrient ratios other than dry matter, and the P and Ca indices were a function of three nutrient ratios other than dry matter. Nutrient balance was also shown to be important by the significant relationship of BD as a function of the nutrient balance index (NBI). When NBI had a relatively small value, large BD trees were produced; as NBI values increased, BD decreased. Fertilizer additions that created nutrient imbalances also decreased BD, in spite of the high nutrient intensities found in the foliage. These results show that nutrient balance in Fraser fir foliage, as well as nutrient intensity, is important for producing optimal Christmas tree quality. / Master of Science

This study analyzes the evolution and impact of Icelandic mythology surrounding the Yule Lads and their family, with a specific focus on how these stories affected their beliefs and behaviors from the early 1900s to the present. These folklore figures include the thirteen Yule Lads, their mother Grýla, their father Leppalúdi, and their cat. Icelandic texts from the 13th century describe these characters as terrifying, with Grýla renowned as a cannibalistic figure in Icelandic history. The study intends to explore how stories and anxieties about the Yule Lads have evolved throughout time. The main question is how traditions and myths involving Yule Lads and Grýla have changed over the past century. What roles did these personalities play in early twentieth-century Icelandic Christmas traditions, and what changes have happened since? Additional inquiries investigate the causes of these shifts and their influence on modern Icelandic culture. The study combines historical analysis of folklore collections with present-day interviews to get insight into the cultural importance and history of these stories.

In the United States, Christmastime has become a time of tension between the holy ideals of family togetherness, childhood innocence, and goodwill towards men and commercial idolatry. Christ and Santa Claus are pitted against each other in the war on Christmas between religion and secularism instead of feasting together on ham and figgy pudding in the traditional fashion. While many would agree that the everyday realities of the Christmas season do not often live up to the ideals imposed upon the holiday, few are able to tell why this is so or even trace the roots of their discontent. In an exploration of the unique anomaly of the hierosecular American Christmas, I propose that the unique systems of Christmas belief extend beyond the usual boundaries of sacred and secular to create a complex web of different beliefs that are performed together to create the unique feeling of Christmas. From a performance theory perspective, I use performance as both traditionally theatrical and as a paradigm for understanding and expressing belief in an effort to explore the essential but elusively defined cultural signifiers of the American Christmas. Through a series of case studies focusing on various traditions of Christmas performance, I apply the performance theories of Diana Taylor, Patrice Pavis, Victor Turner and others to such Christmas staples as Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. In doing so, I propose different points for viewing Christmas and introducing new points of inquiry for questioning the meaning of Christmas, belief, and performance

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The main aim of this thesis is to find out how the Christmas holidays are represented in products of Czech visual culture. This representation could have changed in times, based on cultural influences and ideologies and in terms of particular product where Christmas was represented. We'd like to evaluate if the constant representations of Christmas which are anchored in our culture still exist. In theoretical part of the thesis we focus on historical development of displaying Christmas in Czech region. The analytical part of thesis analyses television broadcast of four Czech area-wide channels during Christmas time in 2017 and observes which cultural influences are contained in. Other part of thesis looks into visual culture and pictures. For we mainly focus on television in analytical part, another part of thesis includes information about this media and about particularity of mass media in general. For analysis of media information we've chosen a combination of two type of research: quantitative content analysis and semiotic analysis.

ABSTRACT THE FATAL LAMP AND THE NIGHTMARE AFTER CHRISTMAS: THE RICHMOND THEATRE FIRE OF 1811 By Amber Marie Martinez, Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Performance A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015 Director: Dr. Noreen C. Barnes, Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre “How strange a preface the loud laughter excited by a pantomime, to volumes of smoke and fire” (The American Standard, 27 December 1811). Building fires were not exactly uncommon back in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. When the church bells began to ring at any time other than Sunday morning, it usually meant a building was on fire. On the night of December 26th 1811, in the midst of a pantomime at the Richmond Theatre, a small flame licked a piece of a backdrop and set it on fire. Fed by the column of air in the hollows and passages of the theatre, and increased by the extremely flammable wood of the boxes, pit, and the canvas ceiling of the lower seats, the fire seemed "like a demon of wrath converging its hundred arms to the center of human life” (Burning of the Richmond Theatre, 1812). I will attempt to examine the night of the Richmond Theatre Fire, an event which shocked a city and soon after the country. 72 persons perished in the flames with more victims dying of their burns within the following days. Every part of the state held someone who lost a friend or relative in the disaster. People were unable to mention the catastrophe without exciting tears of grief. This thesis acts to remind us of one of the most tragic events in our country’s history by exploring the firsthand accounts of people who escaped the fire; a conflagration which fueled the course of religious transformation, aided to regulate laws of theatre buildings, and captivated a nation for a century, before being gradually forgotten over time.

The focus of this study is the consumer behaviour habits of adults giving of toys to children aged 11 and under as gifts. It is borne out of a need to understand why adults buy gifts for children adding to the issues on consumption practices and materialism. It begins by discussing the issues of researching with children, outlining an exploratory artwork session conducted with children prior to making a decision to use adults as the unit of assessment for the study and to take a positivist stance. The literature review chapter explores the concepts of gift-giving of toys to children by synthesising topics of consumer behaviour and gift-giving as fields of study. It considers gift-giving models and focuses on buyer behaviour when gift-giving; information sources used in gifting; whether adults are concerned about gift-giving; adults roles and motivations in gift-gifting and relationship impacts between adults and children for incorrect gifting. These themes are researched within a demographic perspective keeping in mind the consumer socialisation issues and a figure is developed to show the hypotheses for testing. The methodology takes into account both interpretivist and positivist philosophies reaffirming the reasons for a positivist choice. Semi structured interviews are used in two phases to explore adults perceptions of gift-giving in general and gift-giving of toys to children. The main data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire which developed and extended previous researchers’ items. This questionnaire was distributed across a sample section of schools within the Aberdeen City and suburbs via a homework bag method. The value of the study lies in the contribution to knowledge through the analysis of the data. Contribution was found to exist with roles and motivations in gifting where three new roles were highlighted and one discounted. For information sources the interpersonal sources were important to mothers; the internet was found to be a new source, and mass media was found to be popular with a lower educated strata giving rise to issues for TV advertising policy. Differences existed between gifting at Christmas and birthday times and to adults’ own and other children providing contribution to the lack of birthday gifting research and to the givers’ perspective. A number of demographics such as gender, education and marital status were found to be important in understanding this gifting behaviour, whereas age on the other hand, did not. Finally, recommendations are made to policy makers from these contributions in particular regarding information sources and the education of children.