Merry Christmas to those who celebrate what my mom uses to call Orthodox Christmas. I wonder if that is not the correct term, but it will have to do until I can find the right term. I just looked it up. Apparently, it's tomorrow. and yes, the Internet calls it Orthodox Christmas so I guess it's right.
For me, the holiday season ends ( either today or tomorrow) with what they call Three Kings Day. Traditionally, it celebrated the Magi arriving to honor the Christ Child with gifts of gold , frankincense and myrrh. Precious gifts at that time. We always laughed about them, as we could not understand the significance- except for gold. I am sure Mary was grateful.
Someone will bring a Rosca de Reyes to work today and we will all laugh as we see if we got the baby Jesus in our piece. One year, Baby Jesus looked like he had come to the cake via Area 51. It's fun and I hope I get the baby Jesus. We bring in treats on February 2, or thereabouts. GROUNDHOG DAY!
Traditionally, either the 6th or the 7th I make sure my Christmas boxes are packed away for another year. I am always finding some little knickknack that went unnoticed, usually around the 4th of July. My house is full of.... stuff.
This year, I am determined to pare down the stuff, to donate, to recycle all that is cluttering my life. I am not going full Marie Kondo, but some of what she says is true. She's not exactly the first person to suggest what she suggests, she's just the flavor of the month on the internet.
Merry Christmas!
Naturally, the sermon yesterday was all about the Three Kings, or the three wise folks (so p.c.) and his major points were:
ReplyDeleteHOW do we know there were three? Three gifts are mentioned but we do no know - like in the movie "Love Actually," where one of Emma Thompson's sons plays the "Third Crustacean" in their nativity pageant - new characters!
AND the gifts are all a foreshadowing of Christ's passion and death. He explained why, but I didn't take it in.
When I was a children's librarian back in ye olden days, legend had it that the three whatevers stopped at the home of Old Befana and asked her help and directions, but she was too busy cleaning house (an early Marie Kondo?) She later regretted it, and spent all eternity trying to pursue them - so if you leave your shoes out, Old Befana will atone and fill them with treats.
And the little joke he made yesterday was, my last chance this year to wish you a "Merry Christmas!"
Tom