Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Great Christmas Quiz - Day 8

Day 7 you were asked what exactly are swaddling clothes.


(1)It was a common belief of the day that in order for a newborn infant's arms and legs to grow straight and strong they needed to be tightly wrapped at birth. Babies were wrapped from their shoulders to their feet with long strips of cloth 4-5 inches wide and 15-20 feet long. The act of wrapping the child up so tightly and completely was called "swaddling"; and the strips of cloth were called "swaddling clothes".
Ironically, these same strips of cloth used to wrap the limbs of babies were also used for wrapping the bodies of the dead. How appropriate that Jesus' life on earth would begin this way...

(1) http://copiosa.org/christmas/swaddling.htm


Day 8 Question:

The lay him in a manger.  What is a manger?  (Bonus: What is it made of?)

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