Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/224217
41 maltatoday, CHRISTMAS dawn – write the many elements of their day with elegance and poise. "It's vital for BOSS Parfums to pick ambassadors that are the real representation of everything we stand for, and with Gwyneth Paltrow we truly have that. She is the true embodiment of women today, and epitomizes this strong feminine spirit complemented by BOSS JOUR Pour Femme." Guillaume Tardy, Global Director Proctor & Gamble Prestige "Sophisticated, modern, strong and exquisitely feminine, Gwyneth Paltrow is the perfect choice for BOSS JOUR Pour Femme – multifaceted in her talent, sophisticated and wildly successful in numerous personal and professional endeavors." Jordan Scott, Director BOSS JOUR Pour Femme – The Film The Concept British director Jordan Scott captures that intimate moment during the first light of day when a woman prepares for her day. With light flooding the bedroom, she calmly contemplates her choices, her every movement graceful and confident. "The light emphasizes spaciousness and openness, creating a sense of calm. This is the time she is most unadorned and seemingly vulnerable, but all we see is strength and certainty. Even as she looks through and chooses an outfit, it is with a calm register. It is as though she is choosing her future, cementing her fate – and watching her, we feel that she cannot make a wrong choice." Once she has made her selection we catch a glimpse of her reflection in the glass – she's lost in her thoughts of anticipation about the day ahead. The light gives the campaign an airy and bright feel, added to by the color template of soft white and champagne. Gwyneth Paltrow sprays a mist of the fragrance. The droplets catch the light and form a seductive haze around her while the light glints off the flacon giving it a sense of power. We see in her eyes that she is complete and ready for the day ahead. "The reveal at the end of the film is crucial to the storytelling. It is the moment that represents the perfect alignment of her emotions and her preparation. We are no longer looking at the lights through layers of glass but instead we see everything with perfect clarity. The BOSS JOUR Pour Femme flacon glows and sparkles with life. This is the final layer to our story – the ambiguity melts away and reality is solidified as the final twist is unveiled." BOSS JOUR Pour Femme – The Soundtrack The soundtrack sees the return of "Lie Down in the Darkness", performed by Moby and written by Richard Melville Hall. Calm and soft, the music builds anticipation and represents the confident and optimistic qualities of the BOSS woman - the perfect fit for both BOSS JOUR Pour Femme and BOSS NUIT Pour Femme. BOSS JOUR Pour Femme – The Wardrobe The wardrobe selected for the BOSS JOUR Pour Femme campaign reflects Gwyneth Paltrow's elegance and style through the use of a crisp white color palette. All chozsen outfits perfectly showcase the versatility of the BOSS Womenswear brand while the white echoes the feeling of optimism at the first light of day. BOSS JOUR Pour Femme – The Print Campaign Shot by renowned photographer, Guy Aroch, the print campaign for BOSS JOUR Pour Femme captures the same sophistication and feminine qualities Gwyneth Paltrow radiates in the TV copy. Her serene expression perfectly communicates the confident yet soft femininity, with a look to the camera that hints at her anticipation for the day ahead. The image is composed of a striking shot of Gwyneth Paltrow looking elegantly dressed in a crisp, clean, white dress. Alongside is a close-up detail shot of the flacon, reflecting light that showcases the stunning flacon design to dramatic effect. SUNDAY, 8 DECEMBER 2013 The History of Christmas When was Jesus born? A. Popular myth puts his birth on 25 December in the year 1 C.E. B. The New Testament gives no date or year for Jesus' birth. The earliest gospel – St. Mark's, written about 65 CE – begins with the baptism of an adult Jesus. This suggests that the earliest Christians lacked interest in or knowledge of Jesus' birthdate. C. The year of Jesus birth was determined by Dionysius Exiguus, a Scythian monk, "abbot of a Roman monastery. His calculation went as follows: a. In the Roman, pre-Christian era, years were counted from ab urbe condita ("the founding of the City" [Rome]). Thus 1 AUC signifies the year Rome was founded, 5 AUC signifies the 5th year of Rome's reign, etc. b. Dionysius received a tradition that the Roman emperor Augustus reigned 43 years, and was followed by the emperor Tiberius. c. Luke 3:1,23 indicates that when Jesus turned 30 years old, it was the 15th year of Tiberius reign. d. If Jesus was 30 years old in Tiberius' reign, then he lived 15 years under Augustus (placing Jesus birth in Augustus' 28th year of reign). e. Augustus took power in 727 AUC. Therefore, Dionysius put Jesus birth in 754 AUC. f. However, Luke 1:5 places Jesus' birth in the days of Herod, and Herod died in 750 AUC – four years before the year in which Dionysius places Jesus birth. D. Joseph A. Fitzmyer – Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at the Catholic University of America, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, and former president of the Catholic Biblical Association – writing in the Catholic Church's official commentary on the New Testament, writes about the date of Jesus' birth, "Though the year [of Jesus birth is not reckoned with certainty, the birth did not occur in AD 1. The Christian era, supposed to have its starting point in the year of Jesus birth, is based on a miscalculation introduced ca. 533 by Dionysius Exiguus." E. The DePascha Computus, an anonymous document believed to have been written in North Africa around 243 CE, placed Jesus birth on March 28. Clement, a bishop of Alexandria (d. ca. 215 CE), thought Jesus was born on November 18. Based on historical records, Fitzmyer guesses that Jesus birth occurred on September 11, 3 BCE. How Did Christmas Come to Be Celebrated on 25 December? A. Roman pagans first introduced the holiday of Saturnalia, a week long period of lawlessness celebrated between December 17-25. During this period, Roman courts were closed, and Roman law dictated that no one could be punished for damaging property or injuring people during the weeklong celebration. The festival began when Roman authorities chose "an enemy of the Roman people" to represent the "Lord of Misrule." Each Roman community selected a victim whom they forced to indulge in food and other physical pleasures throughout the week. At the festival's conclusion, December 25th, Roman authorities believed they were destroying the forces of darkness by brutally murdering this innocent man or woman. B. The ancient Greek writer poet and historian Lucian (in his dialogue entitled Saturnalia) describes the festival's observance in his time. In addition to human sacrifice, he mentions these customs: widespread intoxication; going from house to house while singing naked; rape and other sexual license; and consuming human-shaped biscuits (still produced in some English and most German bakeries during the Christmas season). C. In the 4th century CE, Christianity imported the Saturnalia festival hoping to take the pagan masses in with it. Christian leaders succeeded in converting to Christianity large numbers of pagans by promising them that they could continue to celebrate the Saturnalia as Christians. D. The problem was that there was nothing intrinsically Christian about Saturnalia. To remedy this, these Christian leaders named Saturnalia's concluding day, December 25th, to be Jesus' birthday. E. Christians had little success, however, refining the practices of Saturnalia. As Stephen Nissenbaum, professor history at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, writes, "In return for ensuring massive observance of the anniversary of the Savior's birth by assigning it to this resonant date, the Church for its part tacitly agreed to allow the holiday to be celebrated more or less the way it had always been." The earliest Christmas holidays were celebrated by drinking, sexual indulgence, singing naked in the streets (a precursor of modern caroling), etc. F. The Reverend Increase Mather of Boston observed in 1687 that "the early Christians who first observed the Nativity on December 25 did not do so thinking that Christ was born in that Month, but because the Heathens' Saturnalia was at that time kept in Rome, and they were willing to have those Pagan Holidays metamorphosed into Christian ones." Because of its known pagan origin, Christmas was banned by the Puritans and its observance was illegal in Massachusetts between 1659 and 1681. However, Christmas was and still is celebrated by most Christians. G. Some of the most depraved customs of the Saturnalia carnival were intentionally revived by the Catholic Church in 1466 when Pope Paul II, for the amusement of his Roman citizens, forced Jews to race naked through the streets of the city. An eyewitness account reports, "Before they were to run, the Jews were richly fed, so as to make the race more difficult for them and at the same time more amusing for spectators. They ran… amid Rome's taunting shrieks and peals of laughter, while the Holy Father stood upon a richly ornamented balcony and laughed heartily." H. As part of the Saturnalia carnival throughout the 18th and 19th centuries CE, rabbis of the ghetto in Rome were forced to wear clownish outfits and march through the city streets to the jeers of the crowd, pelted by a variety of missiles. When the Jewish community of Rome sent a petition in1836 to Pope Gregory XVI begging him to stop the annual Saturnalia abuse of the Jewish community, he responded, "It is not opportune to make any innovation." On December 25, 1881, Christian leaders whipped the Polish masses into Antisemitic frenzies that led to riots across the country. In Warsaw 12 Jews were brutally murdered, huge numbers maimed, and many Jewish women were raped. Two million rubles worth of property was destroyed.