Celebrations abound!

 The count-down towards an event...whether Solstice, or Christmas, Hanukkah, Virgin of Guadalupe, Kwanza, or the next new year beginning...this is a month of celebrations.

Yule log

Gift giving is a wonderful way to remember those we love. It can also become the root of hectic shopping. I hope we can all forget that for a moment, sigh and maybe consider how to do it more consciously. Just have in mind the person you are giving it to...imaging their face as they open that present from you. It is the season.

December 12 is the Saints Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (celebrated especially Latinos or Catholics) Her story (miracle) is how a goddess (later to be named the Virgin of Guadalupe) sent a young indigenous man to tell the new conquering religion to build a cathedral on a sacred spot where the older culture had always venerated her as a goddess. 

A friend's decorations for Christmas.

Ann Baily won the gingerbread contest in 2022 at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville. "When Dreams have Wings." 

Governor's Plaza, Santa Fe NM with Holiday lights!

And speaking of holiday lights...here's one of my favorite displays in Black Mountain NC. (There will be more coming this month!)

On E. Cotton Ave in 2022...don't miss the bears! (I'm not sure what display is being given here this year, as they had major damage from some storms last year, but it is known as the Christmas House.)

Today's quote:

Magic doesn't sweep you away; it gathers you up into the body of the present moment so thoroughly that all your explanations fall away: the ordinary, in all its plain and simple outrageousness, begins to shine -- to become luminously, impossibly so. Every facet of the world is awake, and you within it.

David Abram, Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology

Today's art:

Bear Quilt  she used french knots to quilt layers together..hand pieced..hand appliquéd..hand sewn and hand embroidered...Anne Francis.

Today on Open Yesterday's Pages:

Virgin of Guadalupe

and

Catch 22  and current North Carolina politics

Tonantzin..to Virgin?

If your world was suddenly turned upside down, say there were some strong and powerful people who conquered your culture and made you start to follow their rituals...then you might find that you would continue the traditions of your old culture in secret, and try to blend them into the newer rituals that were required.

After a while, the old ways would have died with the old peoples...a thing that used to happen more frequently, but now that we elders live longer, the memories are there longer.

Here's a great link to the tale of Tonantzin, who became absorbed into the Virgin of Guadalupe.

It was 1531 when Spaniards told indigenous people who lived in Mexico that they must become part of the new culture.

But today there are still Mexicans of indigenous descent who know Tonantzin's story.


Last year I also posted on Dec 12 about Tonantzin.  If you want more information look HERE>

Look into the cultures of your own heritage...does your family continue a tradition that was handed down in the family, rather than according to the media?  Perhaps favorite holiday foods...decorations, or opening presents on Hanukkah or Christmas Eve?

 I really miss having Christmas morning peeks at presents, though I've moved away from many of the rituals of celebrating Christmas itself.

Have Christmas cards become unimportant with daily instant contact through the internet and via cell phones.  But that's because "snail mail" represents just certain kinds of paper in the mail box now, which seldom includes chatty letters.  Did you ever wait eagerly to hear from someone, so whenever that mailman came there was such anticipation?

 I'm sharing this on Sepia Saturday this week, not at all on theme!  Sorry about that!  Maybe next week.