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The traditional English Christmas has its origins in the ninth century, when King Alfred the Great enshrined in law the importance of keeping the Church’s feasts, and commanded that there should be a holiday on Christmas Day and the twelve days that followed, for it was believed that the Magi had journeyed for twelve days to see the infant Jesus. During that period, no free man could be compelled to work. From that time, the common man has enjoyed this right to the best of his ability, while kings and nobles have indulged themselves in abundance on a lordly scale.
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