Dec 25 2021 - Christmas Day and the Reveal

 

This is Christmas Day - the day of the big reveal.  What was that day?   Scholars have tried to figure this out and the closest that can be determined and not debunked is somewhere in the month of September.  We know now that the date of December 25 was established overtly by the Roman Catholic Church, and became the most significant of the Christmas traditions. There is much writing about the stories that became traditions rather than having a source in the Bible.   For example, the popular Nativity Scene is said to have started in the seventh century, and then made really popular by St. Francis of Assisi who set up a Nativity in his town where "miracles' were said to happen - healing sick animals, etc. I guess that culminated in the Saint aspect. The paintings of the Nativity reveal got more and more ornate over time.  One painting has a peacock that peers over the top of the manger to catch a glimpse of Jesus. One visual representation of Christmas settled on Three Wise Men/Kings/Magi along with the Star of Bethlehem.  The visual depictions over the centuries have developed to include camels (not likely say the historians) and how many kings remains unknown. Our gift-giving at Christmas is generally traced back to the gifts of the Three Wise Men to the infant Jesus.   That's a tradition many people appreciate. We'd have to zig-zag to get to Santa where the tradition follows another track.  I did find this excellent Santa joke: The 3 stages of man: He believes in Santa Claus. He doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. He is Santa Claus.   It is a rainy day here today so I went to last year's archives and found a snowy orchard scene on John Street followed by Millie the puppy racing about in the snow.

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April 12 2020 - And It's About Eggs

What about eggs?  How did eggs get to be part of Easter? The Christian interpretation of the egg is that it represents Jesus' emergence from the tomb and resurrection. But eggs have been a symbol of new life since ancient times.  The ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians and Hindus all believed the world began with an enormous egg.  It is called the world egg, cosmic egg or mundane egg.   Some primordial being comes into existence by 'hatching' from the egg, sometimes lain on the primordial waters of the Earth.  The very earliest idea of 'egg-shaped cosmos' comes from Sanskrit scriptures. It continues through all ancient societies and into modern mythology and cosmology. With that long history of sacred celebration, what have people done with eggs that make the Guinness World Records stand up and pay attention?  Many irreverent things, all involving many people and many eggs. Largest egg structure - 48,230 eggs forming a pyramid. Largest East egg hunt - 501,000 eggs that were searched for by 9,753 children Largest Easter egg tree - 82,404 painted hen eggs Largest decorated egg - 49 ft 3 inches tall and decorated Most people dyeing eggs - 582 in Redmond, Washington Tallest chocolate Easter egg - 34 ft 1.05 inches I didn't colour eggs for Easter, but I did colour hosta leaves to create this  Nature's Impressions abstract.

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Black and Orange

Orange and black on Halloween:  orange symbols warmth and autumn and black represents cold and winter.  Is that it?  Yes, it seems to be. Things were simple in ancient times.   "Roughly 2,000 years ago, the Celts' calendar year began on November 1, coinciding with the end of harvest season and the beginning of winter. They believed their new year's eve was a time when spirits of the departed returned and priests could make more accurate predictions about the future, according to History.com. Thus, they built bonfires and wore costumes to deter malicious ghosts. " This explanation comes from www.womansday.com The transition of note is moving from jack o' lanterns made of potatoes and turnips in Ireland, to being made of pumpkins after Irish immigration to North America.  Wikipedia has a picture of a creepy traditional Irish Halloween turnip lantern on display in the Museum of Country Life, Ireland.  It looks like a mummy. The Association for Consumer Research has an article titled: "Halloween As a Consumption Experience".  It was published in 1992.  The article is HERE.  It has specific stories about parents forcing their children into costumes of the parents' choice. Here's my favourite - a very creepy story: "Walking through the Caravelle Square Mall, I noticed a large TV stand on wheels that apparently had a fish tank attached to it, judging from the seaweed on and inside the tank. Curiously, as I approached the tank, I saw something move inside. As I stepped closer, the owners of the tank turned it toward me. A sign read "Our Pet Goldfish." Inside the tank to my surprise was a small child whose movement was restricted by a large goldfish costume. The costume covered the child from head to toe with only his face visible. These parents had dressed their child up like an animal and were now treating him like one. The child thrashed around in the tank trying to break free from the costume much like a dog does when covered by a blanket. The child screamed and cried. He tried to get out of the tank only to learn that the tank walls were too high for him. After a while, the child was released from his cage, and his parents entertained questions on the design from other interested parents. Asked for a picture by a bystander, the parents quickly dumped the child back into the tank. The child wailed out and sobbed uncontrollably until the mother said, "Be a good boy and let the nice woman take the picture." On the calming side, we have a beautiful view of the Little Cataraqui Creek Conservation Area.

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Home for the Holidays vs Burning Goat

The sentiment expressed at Christmas is that there's no place like home for the holidays.  About 2 billion people in 160 countries (out of 195) consider Christmas to be the most important holiday of the year.  If one lived in Qatar, Mongolia, China, Tunisia, Morocco, or Egypt, there are no public holidays or official celebrations of Christmas.   For those 2 billion celebrating, here are a few famous Christmas traditions include: Giant Lantern Festival, Philippines This is held in the city of San Fernando which is known as the christmas Capital of the Philippines.  Gavle Goat, Sweden A 13 mere-tall Yule Goat has been built in the centre of Gavel's Castle Square for Advent since 1966.  This has turned into a 'burning goat festival' where the goat has been burned down successfully 29 times.  This sabotage activity isn't covered in the website. St. Nicholas' Day, Germany This occurs on December 6 and treats like coins, chocolate, oranges and toys are placed in the shoes of good children.  Father Christmas comes on the traditional day.  St. Nick brings along Knect Ruprecht (Farmhand Rupert) who carried a stick or small whip to punish any children who misbehave.   Christmas in Rockefeller Center The lighting of the iconic tree in the heart of New York City  is the 86th annual "Christmas in Rockefeller Center." The evening has festive musical performances from Diana Ross, Tony Bennett and Diana Krall, Brett Eldredge, Darci Lynne Farmer, John Legend, Martina McBride, Pentatonix and Kellie Pickler, plus a special appearance by Howie Mandel. You can watch a boring segment on it here.  Perhaps the Diana Krall and Tony Bennett performance is not shown as it was reported that the two missed cues and trampled one another during "I'll be Home for Christmas"  and "The Christmas Song". Cavalcade of Lights, Toronto This first took place in 1967 to show off the new City Hall.  The square and Christmas tree are illuminated with more than 300,000 lights starting November 24th. They shine until the New Year.  The 2017 display is here. (I think - it seems to go into Japanese Gift wrapping a little too quickly).  Our pictures today look at the sculpture outside the Grimsby Library - a set of cubes on angle.  It is Klosso Eloul's sculpture 'Double is One'.  His work is throughout Ontario at art galleries, and in Toronto.

Making Memories of Christmas Past

Are there some new Christmas traditions?  Christmas has a great tradition of 'memories past', stories of longing for childhood activities gone by.  There's good news out there:  here are some new ideas that can form family traditions and set the foundation for 'memories past'. 1. Matching family pyjamas The entire family will look adorable in their festive jammies - plus it'll make for a super cute photo-op in the morning! 2. The reverse Advent Calendar Something has to be put into the 'calendar box' each day and it gets donated to a food bank or charity at Christmas 3. Tic-Tac candy cane plants Plant mint Tic-Tacs in a tub of sugar and get the kids to 'water' them with glitter every day.  Then replace them with candy canes which have magically 'grown' 4. Capture the magic Upload a picture of your living room, kitchen, hallway (wherever you keep the tree) and the folks at Capture the Magic allow you to superimpose Santa into the snap! 5. The Christmas Box This box contains small Christmas-themed gifts, decorations and activities for the family to do over the month 6. Elf on Shelf The elf gets moved around every night and has to be found in the morning 7. North Pole Breakfast   December 1st or whichever day the Christmas tree gets decorated, the family has an all-treats breakfast.  Pictured here are strawberry Santas.   There are lots of great new traditions - looks like Christmas will continue to be a heart-warming time of year for young families.

Christmas traditions

Yesterday's newspaper had a front page picture of the rowing Santas of Venice - a yearly tradition.  Would it be considered bizarre?  Nothing as bizarre as these traditions: My brother Brian, might not be pleased to find out that the Emperor Moth is the subject of a Christmas treat in South Africa.  It is a deep-fried delicacy on Christmas Day.  That might be more a matter of cultural norms.  Catalonia seems to achieve true weirdness:  In Catalonia they include the figure of the Cagier in their nativity scenes - a small figure of a defecating man.  They also have the pooping log.  It is decorated with a face and blanket, and on Christmas Eve the log is placed halfway into a fire and beaten with sticks.   I remember the Venezuelan tradition of roller-skating to Mass from last year.  And Italy, the heart of Roman Catholicism doesn't have Santa - it has Befana (a kind old witch) on the Fifth of January.  No confusing what Christmas is about there. In Guatemala they sweep out their houses, create a huge pile of dirt, put an effigy of the devil on top, and then burn it. In Slovakia, the most senior man of the house takes a spoonful of looks pudding and throws it at the ceiling - the more that sticks, the better. Read all 35 at foxnews.com  The lists of weird traditions ranges from 7 to 35 in the internet retrieval list. I am sure there are more than 35. The foxnews article excluded the world's oldest Christmas Tree - it is at Wrest Park in Bedfordshire, planted in 1856.  It was planted outside and then potted up each year to be in the house.  It is permanently outside now because of its size: a truly weird choice for a Christmas tree - a giant redwood. There's a competing oldest Christmas tree with there world's record.  Janet Parker of Chippenham Wiltshire, UK puts up the same artificial tiny pine tree each year, purchased in 1886 - possibly from Woolworths.  It fits in a teacup sized pot. And what about the tradition of Christmas cards?  What makes it weird? The first Christmas card depicted a small child drinking wine.  It was sent in 1843. We know about the New Year's plunge in icy water, but there's swimming in Hyde Park's Serpentine Lake on Christmas morning.  Playwright J.M. Barrie donated a prize cup to the tradition in the early 1900's, solidifying its place in tradition. In contrast to all this seemingly crazed behaviour we depict the beautiful Lotus flower today.  These pictures were taken in the botanic garden Lotusland, in Santa Barbara, CA.

Did You Go A-Mothering?

We haven't left Mother's Day yet.  We found out about Mother's Day in the US. It is very different from Mothering Day in England.  In England it is celebrated far earlier in the year.  From Wikipedia: Mothering Sunday is a holiday celebrated by Catholic and Protestant Christians in some parts of Europe. It falls on the fourth Sunday in Lent (For Orthodox Christians in Europe and elsewhere, the fourth Sunday in Lent remembers St. John of the Ladder). Secularly, it became an occasion for honouring the mothers of children and giving them presents.  During the sixteenth century, people returned to their mother church, the main church or cathedral of the area, for a service to be held on Laetare Sunday. This was either a large local church, or more often the nearest cathedral. Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone "a-mothering", although whether this term preceded the observance of Mothering Sunday is unclear. In later times, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. It was often the only time that whole families could gather together, since on other days they were prevented by conflicting working hours, and servants were not given free days on other occasions. By the 1920s the custom of keeping Mothering Sunday had tended to lapse in Ireland and in continental Europe. In 1914, inspired by Anne Jarvis's efforts in the United States, Constance Penswick-Smith created the Mothering Sunday Movement, and in 1921 she wrote a book asking for the revival of the festival; Its widescale revival was through the influence of American and Canadian soldiers serving abroad during World War II ; the traditions of Mothering Sunday, still practised by the Church of England and Church of Ireland were merged with the newly imported traditions and celebrated in the wider Catholic and secular society. UK-based merchants saw the commercial opportunity in the holiday and relentlessly promoted it in the UK; by the 1950s, it was celebrated across all the UK. The Wisteria are showing colour on Yates Street in St. Catharines so will be blooming in the 2 weeks.

It's Almost a New Year

A New Year

In order to realign the Roman calendar with the sun, Julius Caesar had to add 90 extra days to the year 46 B.C. when he introduced his new Julian calendar. The Julian calendar closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most (!) countries around the world use today. As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honour the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future.  The move to the Gregorian Calendar took place starting in 1582 and was adopted country by country.  There's a schedule here: 

http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/gregorian.php

What are the unusual New Year's traditions - Spain's 12 grapes seems to make the top of the list for many. In Spain they eat 12 grapes at midnight - one for each stroke of the clock and for the coming 12 months ahead.  They have to be eaten in 12 seconds for the new year to have good luck.

There are six common profiles of those who've been (mostly) successful achieving this feat:

1. Zen Master – Neatly lines up the grapes and methodically eats them one by one, while meditating on the sound of the 12 chimes. Starts the New Year fully in the moment.
2. Full Frontal – Embraces the New Year with gusto by shoving all of the grapes in their mouth at once. Worries about swallowing them later.
3. False Starter – Anxious about getting all 12 grapes down, starts eating the first one before midnight strikes, which doesn’t count and is said to bring bad luck.
4. Reina Isabel – Prepares grapes in advance by cutting them in half. Eats them with a fork from a plate. Eating the grapes by halves may be less authentic, but it is the best method for small children, and for anyone worried about looking like a slob.
5. Exhibitionist – Also known as “el chulo.” Sees grape eating as another extreme sport, or just a chance to show off. Starts the New Year with an ego boost, by throwing the grapes in the air and catching them in their mouth. Requires secret pre-New Years’ Eve practice.
6. Drunken Style – Makes an effort to eat the grapes but cracks up, starts talking, drinking, hugging or otherwise gets distracted midway through the 12 grapes. This is, needless to say, what happens most often. Happy New Year

The most famous ritual in the U.S. is the dropping of a giant ball in New York City's Times Square. Dillsburg Pennsylvania drops a pickle in celebration of the stroke of midnight.  

The Twelve Days Tradition

Our Christmas Traditions - The Twelve Days of Christmas

I find out that the 12 days of Christmas were not the catechism in code taught to Roman Catholics in England during the time they were not permitted to practice their faith openly.

In fact, this was a well-known in nursery rhyme in the 1800's and published in books at the time.  Just the same, they are interesting and creative biblical interpretations.  Here they are: 

* The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

* Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments

* Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.

* The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John.

* The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

* The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

* Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit - Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

* The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

* Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit-Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

* The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

* The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

* The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

Our selected image today comes from the Toronto Botanical Gardens, Wilket Creek in winter 2014.

What About Our Christmas Traditions!

Our Christmas Traditions
Today we celebrate Christmas traditions - not our own, but those we might not know about.

In Japan, the vast majority is not Christian, yet there is a celebrated Christmas tradition - a trip to KFC and the greeting "Kentucky for Christmas".

In the Ukraine, they will sometimes decorate their trees with spider webs. This is based on a Ukrainian folk tale of a widow's family so poor they had no money to decorate their tree.  A spider took pity on them and spun a web in gold and silver around the tree.

In Iceland it is "Beware the Yule Cat" - a Christmas fiend that terrorizes the countryside targeting those who didn't receive new clothes for Christmas.

In the Czech Republic, carp is the celebrated Christmas dinner. This is followed by the saving of a dried (cleaned) scale from the Christmas fish which is kept in one's wallets for luck over the coming year.

Have a great Christmas Day today.

Colours of Christmas

Christmas Eve
We in Canada have the distinction of Santa's address: Santa Claus, North Pole, Canada H0H 0H0.  It has been designated Santa's postal code sine 1982. I wondered where this is in relation to our postal code system so looked it up and found out it would be Montreal.  

Since the postal code system has 'H0' set up to represent a tiny or rural village ('0') inside of the city of Montreal or Laval ('H'), H0 codes are quite rare and a seasonal allocation of H0H does not appear with any other normal postal codes.

Would Montrealers receive their gifts first? What time does Santa starts delivering and what route he takes.  These questions can be answered by going to the norad tracking website.  You can stay up late tonight and tune into Santa's ride: 

http://www.noradsanta.org

Our images today celebrate the two of the traditions of Christmas colours.  Red is associated with the apples on the Garden of Paradise tree, with the blood of Christ and with the robes of Bishops - St. Nicholas took on these colours. Blue is said to be associated with Mary.  In medieval times blue dye was more expensive than gold, so Mary was often painted wearing blue to show she was important.