Christmas 2013

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Christmas a Crime?

Which of the following countries criminalized the celebration of Christmas?

 a) England

 b) Scotland

 c) Germany

 d) Poland

The correct answer is "a". 

Between 1647 and 1660, Christmas celebrations were banned in England under the administration of Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Soldiers were ordered to patrol the streets and take any food that was being cooked for a Christmas feast. Christmas carols were banned. The only acceptable way to celebrate the birth of Christ was to attend a sermon.

Although in theory and on paper the celebration of Christmas had been abolished, in practice it seems that many people continued to mark 25 December as a day of religious significance and as a secular holiday. Semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ’s nativity continued to be held on 25 December, and the secular elements of the day also continued to occur – on 25 December. 

At the Restoration not only the Directory of Public Worship but also all the other legislation of the period 1642-60 was declared null and void and swept away, and both the religious and the secular elements of the full Twelve Days of Christmas could once again be celebrated openly, in public and with renewed exuberance and wide popular support. The attack on Christmas had failed.

But I fear Christmas is under attack in America.  The enemy is consumerism. It seems that more and more people even hate the thought of the Christmas season.  Where is the peace and joy?

Black Friday

"Black Friday" as a term has been used in multiple contexts, going back to the 19th century, where in the United States it was associated with a financial crisis of 1869. The earliest known invocation of "Black Friday" to refer to shopping on the day after Thanksgiving was made in a public relations newsletter from 1961 that is clear on the negative implications of the name and its origin in Philadelphia:

For downtown merchants throughout the nation, the biggest shopping days normally are the two following Thanksgiving Day. Resulting traffic jams are an irksome problem to the police and, in Philadelphia, it became customary for officers to refer to the post-Thanksgiving days as Black Friday and Black Saturday. Hardly a stimulus for good business, the problem was discussed by the merchants with their Deputy City Representative, Abe S. Rosen, one of the country's most experienced municipal PR executives. He recommended adoption of a positive approach which would convert Black Friday and Black Saturday to Big Friday and Big Saturday with exceptional sales.

Do I shop on Black Friday?  NO WAY!  I may sit down at my computer and order something, but there is no way that I will fight the crowds and traffic trying to find and item on sale only to find it sold out. How about you? Did you shop and did you find what you were looking for?

Thankful Thoughts--Our First Thanksgiving

"The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth" (1914) By Jennie A. Brownscombe

The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. Pilgrims and Puritans who began emigrating from England in the 1620s and 1630s carried the tradition of Days of Fasting and Days of Thanksgiving with them to New England. Several days of Thanksgiving were held in early New England history that have been identified as the "First Thanksgiving", including Pilgrim holidays in Plymouth in 1621 and 1623,

George Washington proclaimed the first nation-wide thanksgiving celebration in America marking November 26, 1789, "as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours of Almighty God"

I have much to be thankful for--parents, family and friends, living in America, the technology that has made life easier, and most of all the love of God that sustains even in times of trials.

Thankful Thoughts--Inventions

Randy Mulder's Time Machine

I grew up on the side of a rugged mountain in Wyoming.  For a long time we didn't have electricity.  Just think of all the appliances that we now use daily without a thought that weren't part of my life as a child.

There were also many inventions that I have been witness to in the last 60 years--Microwave oven, computers, color television, nuclear weapons, silly putty, kidney dialysis machine, Tupperware, mobile phones, credit cards, tetracycline, hula hoops,  Barbie dolls, VCR, laser printers, MRI's, MS Dos (my first computer language), Prozac, World Wide Web, HTTP and HTML, YouTube and text messaging. And still technology is expanding.

So I am thankful for all the things that I have access to that make life easier and interesting--things that I never had growing up.

Thankful Thoughts--God's Love

2. The Love of God by Frederick M. Lehman, 1917
3. 
   
4. The love of God is greater far
5. Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
   It goes beyond the highest star,
   And reaches to the lowest hell;
   The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
   God gave His Son to win;
   His erring child He reconciled,
   And pardoned from his sin.
6. • Refrain:
     Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
     How measureless and strong!
     It shall forevermore endure—
     The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

The last verse was penciled on the wall of a narrow room in an insane asylum by a man said to have been demented. The profound lines were discovered when they laid him in his coffin. The poem had its roots in a long Jewish poem written in the eleventh century in Germany. The Jewish poem, Hadamut, in the Aramaic language, has ninety couplets. It was composed, in the year 1096, by Rabbi Mayer, son of Isaac Nehorai, who was a cantor in the city of Worms, Germany.

Thankful Thoughts--Friends and Family

I am especially thankful for my friends and family.  I was blessed with wonderful, loving parents, and a whole bunch of siblings--each with a unique personality.  I have children who I can count on when the chips are down, and loving grand children who make me proud.  I am blessed with friends who share my artistic ideas, and a special man who is the sweetheart of my life.

I hope that you enjoy the following quotes about friends and family:

What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family. – Mother Teresa

What greater thing is there for human souls than to feel that they are joined for life – to be with each other in silent unspeakable memories. – George Eliot

A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. – William Shakespeare

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thankful Thoughts--America

This season of thanksgiving, we all are thankful for the abundance of life that we have.  We in America are so blessed that we live in a country rich with freedoms that so much of the rest of the world only dreams about. We are a prosperous, enterprising country where dreams are attainable.

The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Today this implies an opportunity for Americans to achieve prosperity through hard work. According to The Dream, this includes the opportunity for one's children to grow up and receive a good education and career without artificial barriers. It is the opportunity to make individual choices without the prior restrictions that limited people according to their class, caste, religion, race, or ethnicity. 

Thankful Thoughts--Parents

I'm sure that during the month of November, we all have thought of what we are thankful for.  I am no exception, so for the next few posts, I'm going to ponder some of those blessing that I have in my life.

I am so thankful that I had wonderful parents.  Growing up, although we were poor, we never really knew it--we were so surrounded by love.  My parents gave me a sense of worth and treated me with respect.  They listened to me, and challenged me to be the best person that I could be.  They instilled the importance of goals, honoring commitments, and living a God-pleasing life.   They did this not only by what they said but by the way that they lived.

I am thankful that they help mold me into the person that I am today.

Be an Angel

According to the Holiday Almanac today is Be an Angel Day. Be an Angel Day encourages us to do acts of kindness, and to help others.
The objective of this day is to be like an angel, and do something good or kind for someone. It encourages us to be God's servant in doing good things for others. It is intended to do something nice or kind for someone who is in need of help. The type of angelic help you can offer is not defined or limited. It can be physical, emotional, or spiritual.

Be an Angel Day is for both the giver and the receiver. If you are the receiver, make certain to express openly your appreciation. And, recognize the angel in your life as being sent from God.

This special day has strong religious roots. Jayne Howard Feldman, the creator of this day, says she was inspired by angels to create this day on August 22, 1993.

I have seen miraculous things happen.  I have seen people used of God, and perhaps they were angels.  I wrote of one amazing incident-- Christmas Miracles but there are many more.

Look around you today and see who you might bless and perhaps be an angel.