Christmas and Hanukkah

Merry Christmas...and Happy first night of Hanukkah!

Father Christmas with a Deer. colored pencil on paper...Yvonne Gilbert

 I had a lovely post with various illustrations from the net. And last night I erased the whole thing, by mistake of course.

I spent Christmas Eve eve with my friend Teresa driving around looking at the lovely holiday decorations on houses and business in Black Mountain. I pared down the number of shots to 50. I know nobody wants to wade through 50 "my vacation-type" photos! Ha ha, that would be wishing you a very sad holiday, indeed.

So here are just a few, and I'll drop some more along the way in the next little while!

Of course on the first one I found the iPhone wanted me to hold it still for 3 seconds!

And that's enough for one post! I'm so glad that we had many people who decorated for the season, to show how much they want us to feel joy and normalcy, though many others haven't fared so well. Every day on my Facebook page I hear of more people who've received donated campers or tiny homes, and someone said he had a list of 700 waiting for such. These people all over the area have surely lived through a horrible trauma. I feel rather grateful to be housed, to have electricity, water, and internet.

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Wikipedia gives this information:

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE.

Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, commonly called a menorah or hanukkiah. One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles.

Other Hanukkah festivities include singing Hanukkah songs, playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot (similar to jelly donuts), and dairy foods. Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries.

The miracle of the one-day supply of oil miraculously lasting eight days is described in the Talmud, committed to writing about 600 years after the events described in the books of Maccabees The Talmud says that after the forces of Antiochus IV had been driven from the Temple, the Maccabees discovered that almost all of the ritual olive oil had been profaned. They found only a single container that was still sealed by the High Priest, with enough oil to keep the menorah in the Temple lit for a single day. They used this, yet it burned for eight days (the time it took to have new oil pressed and made ready) 

 

Today's quote:

Gratefulness has three steps: not missing the opportunity, appreciating the opportunity, and using or enjoying the opportunity. By this method we come fully alive, full of joy, which is what we are all longing for.

BR. DAVID STEINDL-RAST

It was 19th-century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote: "I heard the bells, on Christmas Day, Their old, familiar carols play, And wild and sweet /The words repeat /Of peace on earth, good will to men."