Christmas 2012!

[crisipicada]

For those who are here, I wish you all good tidings, merrier Christmas to come.

Remember, we celebrate Christmas, because Christ is the gift to us from God. So we must accept His gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ. This is the greatest gift a person could receive in his life.

[Edwin]

Yes, Crisi, it is "Tidings of great joy" when God gave his Son to come into the world for our salvation so that we can have the forgiveness of sins and eternal life! Living in bondage to sin is a terrible thing, and it is like we are prisoners of our sinful selves, but Jesus came to deliver us from that, to set the captives free! We can be thankful for Jesus, God's gift to us. Merry Christmas to all, and yes, please accept God gift of Jesus and salvation to us!

[crisipicada]

I will be spending my Christmas at home. Our work will end on 22nd of December and resume on 26th. That would be a long vacation at home. I will have enough time with my family and niece and nephews. My sisters and cousins will spend Christmas at home, too. I will do a lot of planting fruit trees and vegetables since they are all wash away during the typhoon Pablo. I will do a lot of cooking experiment at home because my niece and nephews will be there. I really love to cook for them. Of course my favorite sports with them is basketball. So i will play with them.

[Edwin]

Crisi, that will be nice for you to have that long Christmas vacation to spend at home with your family! You will no doubt be entertaining with your guitar and piano, huh? I would love to listen to you play myself! I am sorry about what Pablo did to you, and you will enjoy planting those fruit trees and vegetables, huh! Basket ball, wow, you will have your exercise, huh? My older sister and her husband brought a couple of walnut trees from California when I was in high school. They survived well, did well, and I dug up starts from the nuts seeding new trees and moved them to our house in Okanogan. I started 3 of them, and 2 wonderful trees survived. I started some of them at the other house between the 2 towns, and then the sqirrals planted lots of them, and I had nut trees growing all over. I planted them too close to the house not meaning to leave them there, and I had to destroy a number of them to keep them from damaging the buildings. I brought lots of them up here where we live now, but I could not get a single one of them to live here, because the weather is too severe and they freeze out in the winter. I managed to get a nice walnut tree started at the other house between the towns. Our uncle started a black walnut tree right underneath the apricot tree. When it was about 4 or 5 feet tall, I transplanted it, and now it is 20 or even 30 feet tall, huge! I love those black walnuts, but they are hard to crack. You have to have a good hammer, and then be careful that you don't mash the shell, mixing it with the nut meat. I remember when I was just 3 or 4 years old using a carpenter's hammer to crack the black walnuts and eat them at my Dad's shop. Someone had given them to him, because we did not have one of those trees there. Carol got a few mixed nuts so that we could crack and eat them during the holidays, and when I was growing up we got lots of them, and I remember cracking and eating them until I didn't care to eat anymore, and I think it made me less hungry for dinner and supper as well!

[mystic]

I should wish a happy coming Hanuka to all.

For who does not know, Jews have a parallel feast to Christmas, which is called Hanuka, or Feast of Lights. It is custom to light a candle and put it near the window for the entire night, during all the 8 days of the feast. They say you can distinguish a Jewish home if you walk around during this time of the year and look on the windows from the street.

The story of Hanuka is preserved in the books of the First and Second Maccabees and it is about the rededication of the Second Temple. It is an eight day holiday which begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev. It marks the miraculous victory of the Jews, led by the Maccabees, against Greek persecution and religious oppression. In addition to being victorious in war, another miracle occurred: When the Maccabees came to rededicate the Temple, they found only one flask of oil with which to light the Menorah (candelabra). This small flask lasted for eight days.

Somebody relates Hanuka also to Enoch, who was one of the only 2 people in the Bible who did not know death, but were taken by God directly while in life. Enoch became an angel (somebody says the angel Metatron) and flew away directly to heaven. His body just disappeared from earth.

Jews use a cross of a lunar/solar calendar. Thus, the period does not always coincide with Christmas. This year (5773 since the beginning of the world, i.e. 2012-2013 DC) Hanukah begins at nightfall of December 9, 2012, and ends on December 16, 2012.

[Edwin]

Mystic, your post made me think of this song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas." Someone offered this information. I have often heard this song, and we have sung it on occasion as well, but I never did know the background or the meaning of it. The words are very interesting, and spark curiosity as to what they actually mean. It was interesting to find this information.

The Origin of the Twelve Days of Christmas
You're all familiar with the Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" I think. To most it's a delightful nonsense rhyme set to music. But it had a quite serious purpose when it was written.

It is a good deal more than just a repetitious melody with pretty phrases and a list of strange gifts.

Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829, when Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England, were prohibited from ANY practice of their faith by law - private OR public. It was a crime to BE a Catholic.

"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the tenets of their faith - a memory aid, when to be caught with anything in *writing* indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged, or shortened by a head - or hanged, drawn and quartered, a rather peculiar and ghastly punishment I'm not aware was ever practiced anywhere else. Hanging, drawing and quartering involved hanging a person by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to death; then the party was taken down from the gallows, and disembowelled while still alive; and while the entrails were still lying on the street, where the executioners stomped all over them, the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the remaining torso.

The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith. The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, much in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."

The other symbols mean the following:

2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed

The Twelve Days of Christmas differ very little from other religious celebrations, in that they give us a reason to celebrate and exchange gifts.

Initially, people carefully meted out their gifts during the course of the twelve days, as Drennon's song reflects, to avoid a glut of presents on Christmas Day.

This old-fashioned approach to gift-giving eventually gave way to today's practice of exchanging gifts on Christmas Day.

[Edwin]

In our church that we grew up in Advent was not emphasized, celebrated, or even very much observed. When we started attending the Free Methodist Church we were introduced to the idea of Advent. Different churches observe it in varied ways. What happens in our church is that each Sunday of Advent beginning the first of December, a candle is lit on each of those Sundays and a scripture is read having to do with the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is kind of a nice observance.

On the Catholic Forum, I found this information:

There are loads of good Advent Carols about. Do you know any of these?
Lo, He comes with clouds descending
On Jordan's Bank
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus
Hark! A Thrilling voice is sounding
The Angel Gabriel from Heaven came
Alma Redemptoris Mater
Veni veni Emmanuel

Incidentally I always preferred Advent Carols to Christmas ones for no particular reason.

Luthern Hour Ministries offers this information:

.
What is Advent?

The Church divides the year into different seasons that emphasize the life of Christ and the life of the Church. Beginning on Sunday December 2nd, 2012, we will enter the season of the Church year called Advent. Advent is a four-week season of preparation and anticipation leading up to Christmas, on December 25th, 2012 and continuing to Epiphany January 6th, 2013.

The focus of Advent is two-fold. On the one hand, we prepare to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came into the world as both God and man so that our sins might be forgiven. On the other hand, we anticipate the day when Jesus will return to Earth and bring an end to this world. Those will be scary days, but we can look forward to the end of the world with hope because through faith in Jesus, the end of this world will mean the beginning of a new life with Christ for eternity.

Advent, then, is a time for us to repent and believe. Knowing that Jesus was born to forgive our sins, we repent (admit our failures to God) and believe that we are forgiven because of the death and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf. Also, knowing that Jesus is coming back, we repent and believe that when He returns, He will give us eternal life.

[mystic]

I'm not familiar with Christian English songs. You can imagine that we have such a variety here in Italy, that you never need to listen to something in another language. From what I remember from my youth, I loved songs in Latin (Adeste Fidelis, etc.).

I can say that culture in Italy is pretty much dead now. So, it became very hard to find choruses, and even priests, if it is for that. There is no generational interchange, and there are old priests who run even 7 churches in different towns, because of the lack of priests.

So, even church music changed a lot. Since you don't have the people to keep tradition, they substitute the organ with a guitar, the chorus with some paid modern singers, and what comes out is not exactly what I would expect from church music. It's a new modern style. Somebody likes it, somebody not. When I hear the drums, I think that the devil entered the church, and it has little to do with the old angelic choruses.

Well, it's not everywhere so. Just a common trend. I was fortunate to conduct 3 choruses in my life. One was a real church chorus. One was for the church recreational structures. Then I moved town, and didn't conduct anymore.

[Smiley]

This is what my friends say while lighting the menorah: Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Ha-Olam, she-asah nissim la-avotaynu bayamim ha-hem bazman hazeh.
There is another blessing as well but I don`t have it handy.

[Edwin]

The Christmas music that we have comes in a quite a variety. Most of the Christmas Caroles, songs, hymns are quite old, having been sung for generations. They tend not to write new Christmas music, but someone might rewrite something to sound a little different, so we have some with different tunes, but the same songs as far as the words and title goes. Then we have quite a few Christmas songs about Santa Clause, the reigndeerl, even winter scenes and actions. We have songs about Christmas trees, and we also have songs about people's experiences with Christmas. There is "Frosty the Snow Man, Rudolf the Red Nose Reigndeer.

What has happened in our Christian churches with the music, is that forever people sang mostly out the church hymn/song books, and there are some very old songs that were write by people who have been dead for many years. Song books would be found in book racks on the back of the church pews. It was very common to sing 3 hymns/songs in a church service and then have prayer, the preaching, and then people started writing Choruses and singing them in church along with the other songs. A few years ago many of the churches went to singing modern choruses, many of which we don't even know, read from the over head projector. No one has written music to go by, but they follow a worship team as the team sings the songs, and eventually most every one learns them. The church song books sit in their racks without being used, and I think it is a shame that they have been abandoned. Some use some of the old hymns and rewrite them so they are still recognizable, but different, and I am happy when they do that. I would rather have the old ones as they are written, but when they are recognizabe as the hymns that they are, I am happy with that.

The old church hymns/songs had some really great music, and they had some very good thoughts. They had some depth of meaning. I got a letter which was sent out to all the Assemblies of God ministers from our top leader in our headquarters from Springfield. He expressed his concern that a lot of what is being sung in the churches today has very little depth and very little real meaning. A lot of what is being sung is quite repeatitive, and the deep spiritual truths are not being sung. Instead they might be singing about the way they feel And they will sing the same line over and over and over again. I would like to see the music express real spiritual truths and have some meaning for the spiritually hungry sould who come to church. I think if they are going to sing this modern stuff, they should dust off the old hymnals, and mix those new songs with some of the old ones that have real meaning!