Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue
Welcome to the Yuletide edition of SOSNSBSB! Properly, I should probably do this OT two weeks from now, but I'm feeling Christmasy today. Maybe I'll make it a series of three, possibly include some other traditions.
Something/Someone Old
My Something Old this week is the season of Advent.
Advent apparently goes back to the 4th century. It's the liturgical season just before Christmas. Nowadays, it's a preparation for the birth of the Christ child. In fact, you could see it as the celebration of Mary's pregnancy. I was a Protestant, so not much was said about that where I went to church, and it took me years to realize that another word for "preparation for birth" is, in fact, pregnancy.
However, it turns out that Advent did not always anticipate the birth of Christ.
Scholars believe that during the 4th and 5th centuries in Spain and Gaul, Advent was a season of preparation for the baptism of new Christians at the January feast of Epiphany, the celebration of God’s incarnation represented by the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:1), his baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist (John 1:29), and his first miracle at Cana (John 2:1). During this season of preparation, Christians would spend 40 days in penance, prayer, and fasting to prepare for this celebration...
https://www.christianity.com/christian-life/christmas/what-is-advent.html
Well, that sounds like a blast.
But wait, it gets better.
By the 6th century, however, Roman Christians had tied Advent to the coming of Christ. But the “coming” they had in mind was not Christ’s first coming in the manger in Bethlehem, but his second coming in the clouds as the judge of the world.
The end of the world! Now there's a cheery focus for a holiday. Awesome.
It was not until the Middle Ages that the Advent season was explicitly linked to Christ’s first coming at Christmas.
I don't say this often, but thank God for the Middle Ages.
According to a few sites I've read, now Christians are supposed to unite the two comings of Christ--the birth in the manger and the return at the end of the world--in their celebration of Advent:
the church, during Advent, looks back upon Christ’s coming in celebration while at the same time looking forward in eager anticipation to the coming of Christ’s kingdom when he returns for his people. In this light, the Advent hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” perfectly represents the church’s cry during the Advent season:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appears.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.
Personally, when I was a Christian, I didn't spend a moment at Advent thinking about the Second Coming or the end of the world, reprobate that I am. I certainly didn't see it as a time of fasting and penance; more as a time of reflection. Quiet, not a lot happening (on the surface), but something big is about to happen. It was a time of mindfulness.
But then, when I was a Christian, I never spent much time thinking about the Second Coming at all.
Something New
Although I'm not generally a Mrs. Jellyby type ("C'mon, kids, let's do some *charity*!"), I really like this idea for a new Christmas tradition:
Have you ever done a service scavenger hunt? This is in my top three for favorite traditions. It’s one we started just a few years ago, again when we needed something to do during the day on Christmas Eve. We broke into a few teams and hit the town for a couple of hours to see how much service we could pull off in that time. We did everything from taping quarters on vending machines and leaving dollars in the dollar store to taking doughnuts to the police station and buying needed items for the homeless shelter. Or we love to go through a drive thru and pay for the person behind us. The boys also remember fondly the year that we shoveled neighbors’ walks and the list goes on. There are endless possibilities of things to do. We have done this with other families too to make it a competition between us all. We ended with pizza and a prize for the people who did the most service! A great way to spend Christmas Eve.
https://crazylittleprojects.com/christmas-traditions/
Now, as both a procrastinator and a woman with a Latin family, I never had any problems knowing what to do on Christmas Eve. At least with my grandmother and her sisters, whose parents came from Spain and Cuba, Christmas Eve was a very big deal, bigger actually than Christmas itself. The big dinner and church service (for those who attended) were both on Christmas Eve. My memories are of going over to my Aunt Peachie's and eating roast pork, black beans, stewed yucca (not my favorite) and a traditional Christmas chicken soup. For dessert we'd eat some turon, both hard and soft, cheddar cheese, and guava paste with jelly. Then we'd open some presents in the light of her spectacular artificial silver Christmas tree. It had a light which shone upon the tree with a circular piece of colored plastic that revolved in front of it, turning the silver Christmas tree blue, pink, or green.
But I love the idea of the service scavenger hunt. The examples she gives impress me with their lack of ostentation. Going through a drive through and paying for the person behind you is a top-notch example of doing good without showing off or expecting thanks.
Something Borrowed
My Something Borrowed is the Christmas tree.
I have gone on at length in this series about how Christianity borrowed pagan traditions and rituals and repurposed them, joining them to different moments from the life of Christ. I'm not going to grind that axe again, but I did find out something curious about the Christmas tree. It's doubly borrowed: borrowed by the Christians from northern European pagans, and borrowed from the Germans by Queen Victoria!
Long before the advent of Christmas—and even before the birth of Christ—ancient civilizations embraced evergreen boughs, wreaths and garlands as symbols of eternal life amid the darkest days of the winter solstice. From these pagan roots sprouted the modern Christmas tree. The first
recorded display of a decorated Christmas tree has been traced to Riga, Latvia, in 1510
https://www.history.com/news/the-royal-roots-of-the-american-christmas-tree
It wasn't the Yuletide tree that was new--it was the act of decorating it, although there were older customs of attaching coins and food to the tree to symbolize one's hopes for bounty in the coming year. There were not, however, gorgeously crafted ornaments until some folks in eastern Europe got the idea. The custom became popular with Protestant elites in Germany. But as late as the nineteenth century, many, including most Americans, were not convinced:
Most 19th-century Americans found Christmas trees an oddity. The first record of one being on display was in the 1830s by the German settlers of Pennsylvania, although trees had been a tradition in many German homes much earlier. The Pennsylvania German settlements had community trees as early as 1747. But, as late as the 1840s Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans.
It is not surprising that, like many other festive Christmas customs, the tree was adopted so late in America. To the New England Puritans, Christmas was sacred. The pilgrims’s second governor, William Bradford, wrote that he tried hard to stamp out “pagan mockery” of the observance, penalizing any frivolity. The influential Oliver Cromwell preached against “the heathen traditions” of Christmas carols, decorated trees, and any joyful expression that desecrated “that sacred event.” In 1659, the General Court of Massachusetts enacted a law making any observance of December 25 (other than a church service) a penal offense; people were fined for hanging decorations.
https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees
It's hard to imagine people better suited to take the joy out of everything.
Ironically, what convinced America to embrace the Christmas tree was Queen Victoria.
Victoria had German blood coursing through her veins, and German traditions thrived in the British royal palaces. Queen Charlotte, Victoria’s grandmother and the German-born wife of King George III, had erected Christmas trees at Windsor Castle as early as 1800...Three years after ascending to the throne in 1837, Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, a German import himself, and the monarch encouraged her consort to adorn Windsor Castle at Christmastime according to his boyhood customs. The prince imported firs directly from the forests of his homeland and decorated them with trinkets, toys, gifts and edibles. He hoped to pass his holiday traditions down to his royal offspring, writing in 1847, that he hoped his children’s “delight in the Christmas-trees is not less than ours used to be.”
https://www.history.com/news/the-royal-roots-of-the-american-christmas-tree
In 1848, their family customs were published in the London Illustrated News, in this woodcut entitled "Christmas Tree at Windsor Castle:"
For some reason, not just Britain, but the English-speaking world viewed Victoria as a trendsetter. Suddenly, Christmas trees were all the rage.
The Tannenbaum had truly arrived when Godey's Lady's Book published an altered version of the Victoria woodcut--with all the monarchical and foreign elements excised:
In fact, the illustration of the Victorian Christmas tree received a second life in America in December 1850 when an altered version of it appeared in the influential monthly magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book. Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of the taste-shaping publication...made some alterations to the royal family in the original woodcut in order to give the illustration a distinctively American twist. Gone were Victoria’s tiara and Albert’s sash and mustache along with boxes of German biscuits under the tree. The caption simply read: “The Christmas Tree.” The royal yuletide had been transformed into an All-American Christmas.
Take that, Cotton Mather.
Something Blue
Here is one of my favorite Maxfield Parrish paintings: blue, beautiful, and suitable for Yuletide. It's called "Winter Sunrise:"
How are you all today?
Comments
Good morning, CSMS ~~
I enjoyed the information in today's OT. Thanks for putting it together.
I don't do much for the holiday, anymore, as it is just a consumer-fest that repulses me. My grandchildren remind me that I help them all year and don't want anything, these days. For the last six years, I took them shopping for necessary clothes, shoes, jackets. Now I pay their community college tuition and they're happy.
My grown children are doing well and we all agree not to spend money on "stuff" but to spend money visiting one another. Travel is expensive, so it is a gift in and of itself.
Looking forward to the series.
Have a beautiful day, folks!
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Heh, we have quit "gifting" and weaned our friends and
relatives off of it with the lone exception of edibles except that my wife and I exchange utilitarian durable goods that we'd otherwise be buying for ourselves anyway.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Yes, we weaned people off,
too. I had two girlfriends that our gift exchange had become ridiculous. One year I said - I can’t do this anymore. I don’t want to exchange anything. We finally stopped. I think one of them kind of resented it, at first, but now we’re grateful.
My granddaughter came here yesterday to help me with an annual tradition I haven’t broken in 40 years. I make cheese logs to gift to friends and family during the holiday season. Folks have looked forward to receiving theirs, which, to me, makes it worth the effort. It was her first time making them, and she went on and on about how happy she was to learn to make them (she took a dozen home, lol). We had a joyous day.
That’s what I want to put my time, money, and energy to - spending quality time with loved ones and bringing a smile to someone who cares about and looks forward to receiving something you made for them.
We are walking a similar path, dear friend.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
You make your own cheese logs?
What a wonderful switch from the pre-made ones, of which I've never been a fan.
This is the best part about the holidays:
I make cheese logs to gift to friends and family during the holiday season. Folks have looked forward to receiving theirs, which, to me, makes it worth the effort. It was her first time making them, and she went on and on about how happy she was to learn to make them (she took a dozen home, lol). We had a joyous day.
It's one reason why I'm quietly horrified that people are starting to not have Thanksgiving dinner because "It's too much trouble. You spend all that time cooking the meal, and then you sit down and eat for an hour and it's all over." I've heard that from two or three different people. I understand why, but part of the point of Thanksgiving dinner is making the food *together*.
Of course, to do that, you have to have a kitchen capable of holding more than two people at once (as well as having the ability to buy food).
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
What I love best is the tree, the meal, and the music,
in that order.
The gift-giving was always more stress than cheer, though I did like my mom and I's small custom of quietly exchanging stockings with each other Christmas night or the day after Christmas, after all the official (compulsory) festivities were over. There was a long stretch there, after my grandfather and Aunt Peachie died in 87 and 88, where the official celebration was a kind of depressing grind. After we were done with it and had returned home, it was nice to have a cup of cocoa, turn on some quiet Christmas music, light the tree, and open our stockings.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I agree.
I was raised by depression-era folks (mom b.1908; dad b.1910). Christmas, for me, was a beautiful tree. I don’t remember gifts. My parents took my sister and I to California to see “the boys” for the holidays, every other year. We’d go to Disneyland, sometimes the Rose Parade. That was our gift.
Aunts and uncles gifted us, but we were usually opening their gifts after the holiday, as they’d leave them at my grandma’s house (we lived 2.5 hours away, etc.).
Anyway - nice to recall the memories.
"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11
Good morning CSTMS. Thanks. I think that, thanks to you, I'm
finally beginning to understand the whole advent thing, though I am still far from grokking it. My folks were xtians, who meandered from sect to sect until they found one that suited them, and they drug us kids along, but I don't recall advent being a big thing, or any thing at all. I have no idea when I first became aware of advent, through noticing and asking about advent calendars, and being told something like "they're advent calendars and people open one door or hatch or window or whatever per day". I still don't get the point of all that, but I at least have a clue what underlies it.
Now, in turn, this info:
Don't forget to remind your local Boy Scouts that mistletoe is a big nothing, just a plant parasite, unless it is harvested by the light of the full moon by virgins using golden sickles. Another variation is that it had to be harvested on the 6th night of the moon by Druid priests using said golden sickles. In at least the second variant, it was still nada until a couple of white bulls were sacrificed and appropriate prayers were said.
Out here, the desert mistletoe and some riparian oak species are spread by a somewhat spectacular member of the silky flycatcher family named the phainopepla. They are sexually dimorphic (male black, female grey) with bight red eyes, pronounced crests and large white wing patches when in flight. They are territorial in the desert, but colonial in woodlands, and imitate the calls of other species when pursued. Put a photo of one on your xmas shrub to bewilder your friends.
Your scavenger hunt calls to mind an xmas activity promoted by columnist Jon Carrol. Take a chunk of money and convert it into identical units of currency of at least a buck (1, 5, 10, 20). Wander through town and give one unit to every panhandler or busker you encounter, no questions asked and no concerns over how they will spend it. I did this one year with fives in downtown S.F. and some of the looks of astonished gratitude I received were simply amazing.
Have a great day.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
LMAO, enhydra
Don't forget to remind your local Boy Scouts that mistletoe is a big nothing, just a plant parasite, unless it is harvested by the light of the full moon by virgins using golden sickles.
CSTMS starts thinking "Hmmm. I could probably get a golden sickle (low-carat), but where can I find a virgin?"
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
What is not to love about this essay?
It even smells great, can't sniff enough of it.
Thank You.
https://www.euronews.com/live
Thank you for the kind words, mimi. :-)
More to come!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I bookmarked this open thread because your thread starter
looked so yummy; and, as happens every year, I totally surrendered in the war on Christmas and have too much holiday stuff to do now to read it until tonight, at the earliest.
Most un-holiday shopping info and seasonal garb (using "seasonal" to mean timely): I just bought online what seems to be a reasonable facsimile of the yellow vests worn by French protestors.
The info from my pdf receipt (who the hell uses freakin' pdf for receipts for online shopping? I hate pdf!) Actually, the stripes on the lime vest look more like the two stripes I saw online on the vests of the French demonstrators, but I went with the yellow vest anyway. If anyone knows where I can get a closer facsimile, please message me.
The company is esafetysupplies.com, out of California. https://www.esafetysupplies.com/products/ic1000-incident-command-vest
AA Safety - IC1000 - Incident Command Vest - Yellow / Regular
3A-IC1000-Y
The vest was $10.88. First class postage was $3.66. Total was $14.54, a small price to salve my unrelenting conscience.
The vest comes in only two sizes, regular and jumbo. Today, I bought the regular. Unless the vest fits over my outerwear, I may go back for the jumbo to wear outdoors over my down parka, which, like many down parkas, makes me look about 50 pounds heavier. However, the sucker is windproof and waterproof and I have not ever been cold in it in subzero temperatures, made to seem even lower by strong winds. So, vanity be damned. (Now, if I could only find a way to breathe outdoors during that kind of weather without ever exposing my nose to the cold!)
Yes, they won as to fuel prices. However, the whole squeeze the middle classes to death while starving the poorer classes to death has to stop, as does brutality to those who demonstrate against disgusting neoliberal (and worse) governments. Some say the fuel price increase was cancelled amid online death threats and threats to doxx officials. Others say a woman's death may have been the deciding factor.
I think yellow vests should symbolize solidarity with a movement against neoliberalism, period. I wish I could buy everyone in the world a damned yellow vest so that the demonstrations and solidarity could cover the planet in yellow. (BTW, I posted on a Democratic board about wearing my hoodie at the time and got mocked for it by a white, ex-military Third Way POS--and not a poster sat on his or her ass for it. So much for the allegedly empathetic Democrats vs the alleged zero empathy Greens.)
As I mentioned on another open thread earlier this week, I wore a damn black hoodie outdoors in the summer to show solidarity with those mourning Trayvon Martin. I can damn well wear a yellow safety vest outdoors in winter to show solidarity with the French protests, even though many Americans will be even less aware of the meaning of the yellow vest than they were of the meaning of the hoodie.
As far as the yellow vest demonstrations having allegedly been hijacked by a violent element, I hope you know how that bs works in the US: Government sends in a violent element to discredit peaceful demonstrations and it also instigates violence by brutalizing peaceful demonstrators. Happened with labor in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and continues, especially with miners in Africa; it happened with civil rights demonstrations during the Fifties until passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act; it happened with with anti-war demonstrations when they were were a problem; and it happened with with Occupy Wall Street.
Indeed, if you are into googling and clicking on Images, as is my wont from time to time, you may note the similarity between the images of the despicable events outside the convention hall during the top to bottom shameful Democratic National Convention of 1968 (and some inside--just ask Dan Rather), which, among many other things, nominated a man who had not run in a single primary. It was hosted by the same political boss whose descendants blessed Chicago with Rahm Emanuel and maybe even the state with Senator Barack Hussein Obama.
I have little doubt we export our bad ideas to France and other nations. We sure did that with neoliberal rightism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_From
(Why, yes. I do post that bit from Al From's wiki whenever I get a chance--or can create one; and I now do call neoliberals "rightists" instead of the less accurate "centrists." Why do you ask?)
Don we now our grim yellow vests, fa la la la la la la la la.
One too many syllables in "yellow vests" to make the above work exactly right, but I do the best that I can, folks. I do the best that I can.)
Love, solidarity and best holiday season wishes to all.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Chicago DNC 1968 (not very long after the 1968 assassinations of MLK, Jr. and RFK, Sr.)
Yellow vest demonstrations, France, 2018
[video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlnqsQzPioI]
Can't really describe how much I appreciate this comment.
Personally, I think the fight over whether or not you can be an environmentalist and also support the yellow vests is based on a fallacy, or at least a misunderstanding of the situation.
When you think about things in practical terms--which of necessity involves an analysis of the power relations involved--the issue pretty much disappears. It's only when you think about things as a profession of faith which reveals moral character--of groups, but especially of individuals--that there's an argument.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
I did not think of it as fuel fight, which,
of course, it was. I thought of it as someone finally fighting back at neoliberals, which of course, it was. The latter is the source of my solidarity, not the former.
@HenryAWallace
I get that, but what I'm saying is there is no real conflict anyway...
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
And here, let me fix that for ya:
Don we now our yellow vests,
fa la la la la la la la la
Cause we're all in one grim mess
fa la la la la la la la la
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Thanks.
In my version, "grim yellow vests" was, of course, in contrast to gay apparel.
Not everyone is excited for the second coming.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Anyone who quotes Yeats
gets five extra points.
Despite the fact that his politics was silly, as Auden famously said.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
he was a surprisingly silly man,
considering his extraordinary poetry.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
Happy Sunday to All
Having grown up in a completely secular home, I always thought of Advent as a time when my German Grandparents would send us these gorgeously illustrated chocolate filled calendars.
As holiday experiences go, I much prefer my childish interpretations. Contemplating Judgment Day" where I will be left to burn in hell for all eternity doesn't sound too cheery.
Thanks for the wonderful open thread. Good stuff!
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Yeah, it's remarkable
How rarely I thought about Armageddon when I was a Christian. I just wasn't the eschatological type.
Funny fact: today I couldn't remember the word I was looking for, and the only thing that came to mind was "scatological." LOL!
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver
Hahahaha
Good one.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
This was so great . . .
So much for me to think about. Thank you!!!
Marilyn
"Make dirt, not war." eyo
You're welcome, Marilyn!
Great to "see" you, as always.
"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha
"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver