its 12th night or 12th night eve-Im not sure which-yesterday I think we,my family decided that next Christmas,this year now,we would try to recall and celebrate as many Christmas traditions as possible-English,european and beyond.so Id welcome friends and comrades to tell me stuff we may have forgotten or may not even know. and I hope we will invite at least one person to join us in celebrating each moment,each tradition.we may be in for all kinds of surprises.what I have observed already is that despite the all too easy assumption,that the local Christmas IS Christmas,actually the focus,emphasis and even the dates vary around the world. and then for example there is the issue of those stolen 11 days? as for 12th night.there are some problems about its calculation(see link)but for me,even if all of this is just a story(its more than that for me),the key aspect is the visitation by the 3 wise men,which I prefer to envisage as magi than kings-they are traditionally viewed as of different origins,if not from different places.they may have been Zoroastrian,and magicians too.at least one was black.its very unlikely that any were western European or American,but I dont think that matters at all. and then there are those gifts.the symbolism is important but then womens liberationists and feminist theologians have a strong point,about the practicality of their likely gifts,like food and clothes.but then in the theology and archaeology,those elements are there,findable,uncoverable,and if not then we can add them because this is an ongoing story.one element for me is that WE must go on feeding and housing the poor and vulnerable and hungry-that includes the many who do not make assumptions about their power or position but just get on with living,a living that includes compassion and solidarity. meanwhile those in power seem to want to lecture the rest of us,whilst they preside over the opposite-which in more than one sense is the continuous murder of the innocents,the martyrs,the poor,the Christ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Night_(holiday) t.
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 15:09:50 +0000
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