Seasons Greetings from Your HVAC Specialists!

Take Our Quiz to Test Your Holiday Knowledge

Along with total indoor comfort, it’s all about family and friends, good food and forever memories this time of year. Find out how much tradition trivia you know by answering a few easy questions below. Or better yet, impress your Aunt Martha with your holiday expertise next time she won’t stop talking about her Chihuahua’s sciatica at the dinner table! These are all great conversation starters.

What was tinsel originally made of?

Back in 1610 Nuremburg, Germany where tinsel was first used, long strands of extruded silver and other metals decorated holiday trees. The metals reflected the lit candles that also adorned their branches. By the 1950s in the United States, companies used lead foil instead (!!) for the popular garlands. Thankfully, by the late 1960s manufacturers began to make modern tinsel from polyvinyl chloride.

When did people first start celebrating New Year’s Eve?

Pre-Christian Rome celebrated January 1 as the Festival of Janus, god of gateways and new beginnings. That’s where we get the month of January, as well. In the Gregorian Calendar of Christendom, New Year’s Day traditionally marks the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus, a holiday still observed by the Lutheran and Anglican churches.

Since the 1900s, people all over the world have celebrated December 31 as an opportunity to usher out the old and welcome the new with fireworks, parties, parades and even polar bear swims.

What’s the most recorded holiday song ever?

In terms of the modern Christmas canon of music, Silent Night is the most recorded carol. More than 733 copyrighted recordings have been registered since 1978. The popular “Joy to the World” comes in second, with only 391.

Written in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber and Joseph Mohr in their little Austrian town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, UNESCO declared it an intangible cultural heritage in 2011. The story goes that Gruber was a humble schoolteacher and church organist for the little town. After river flooding had destroyed the church organ, Gruber needed a melody someone could play on the guitar alone accompanied by a chorus for their Christmas Eve performance.

There is a Silent Night Museum in Salzburg, documenting the history of a carol that has also been translated into 140 languages.

What is eggnog, anyway?

Homemade eggnog is a punch made from milk, sugar, whole eggs, and cream. It is also sometimes mixed with brandy, rum, whiskey or bourbon. Served warm or cold, it is referred to as “Lait de Poule” in France: literally, “hen’s milk.” According to Babson College professor (of eggnog?) Frederick Douglass Opie, “the term is a combination of two colonial slang words — rum was referred to as grog and bartenders served it in small wooden mugs called noggins. The drink first became known as egg-n-grog and later as eggnog.”

From all of us at Air-Tro, we wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Get the HVAC specialists the San Gabriel Valley trusts for all their heating and air conditioning needs, since 1969. Call us today at (626)357-3535.