This week: Advent and Other Holidays Edited by: Jeff  
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"Only a real risk tests the reality of a belief."
-- C.S. Lewis
About The Editor: Greetings! My name is Jeff and I'm one of your regular editors for the official Spiritual Newsletter! I've been a member of Writing.com since 2003, and have edited more than 400 newsletters across the site during that time. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me via email or the handy feedback field at the bottom of this newsletter!  |
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Advent and Other Holidays
The season of Advent runs every year for the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. This year, that means Advent runs from Sunday, December 3rd through Sunday, December 24th. The word advent comes from the Latin word adventus ("coming"), and is a season of expectant waiting and preparation for both the Nativity of Christ, and the return of Christ at the Second Coming. In some traditions, each of the four Sundays of advent has a theme (usually: hope, peace, joy, and love), and the traditional color scheme of Advent is actually purple and pink, rather than the Christmas season's traditional red and green.
There are many different expressions of faith and practices that are put in place during Advent. The most popular is, of course, the Advent calendar, which has little boxes or containers that you open for each day of Advent. A lot of retailers have really gotten into the Advent calendar thing; last year, we saw an Advent calendar by a bath/body retailer that had an entire Advent season's worth of bath bombs and other beauty products in it! Other practices include lighting candles, daily devotionals, Advent wreaths, and eventually, setting up Christmas trees and other decorations.
Some people conflate Advent season with the Christmas season, and it's easy to understand why. It's during the same time of year that the corporate Christmas season is in full swing. It's usually when your church first starts playing holiday songs during their worship sets. But the Christmas season itself actually begins on Christmas Day and continues for the twelve days after Christmas (culminating on the Twelfth Night). In certain traditions, Gloria of the Mass (the song sometimes called "Gloria" or "Gloria, in excelsis Deo") is omitted from worship programs until Christmas, so as to increase the impact and novelty of singing it at Christmas.
In addition to Advent and Christmas, December is full of other religious holidays as well. Kwanzaa is an annual celebration of African-American culture based on harvest festival traditions from various regions in West and Southeast Asia. Hanukkah is the eight-day festival of lights celebrated by Judaism. Buddhists have Rohatsu (Bodhi Day). The Winter Solstice is celebrated by Wiccans/Pagans. Even Zoroastrians have a day; December 26 is Zarathost Diso, honoring the date of the death of Prophet Zarathustra.
Whatever your particular expression of faith may be, December is a special time of year for a lot of people across a lot of different belief systems. The common thread among all of them is that the are spiritually or religiously significant, and there's a certain weight of expectation to them. This significance is often contradicted by the "Hallmark holiday" effect where companies and consumerism encourage you to focus on the material details: what gifts you're giving or receiving, what food you're preparing, where you're going, who you're seeing, etc. During this hectic season where it can be easy to lose track of what the holiday you celebrate was originally about, I'd encourage you to spend at least some time this season engaging in some of the more traditional practices associated with the holiday(s) you celebrate. There are some truly delightful practices, and it can be really refreshing to take a step back from the hustle and bustle of everyday life to focus on the spiritual/faith element of the season, whatever that may be for you.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
"New & Noteworthy Things" | "Blogocentric Formulations"
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I also encourage you to check out the following items:
EXCERPT: My entire life. I mean since like the age of 6 or 7, I have genuinely thought about sitting in one spot for the rest of my life. Idk why but I have. Eventually, I realized I couldn't live without food and water and daily activity... but eventually after walking on my spiritual path so far and learning more and more, why not sit for 8-19 hours a day. Why not, why not for weeks in a row.
EXCERPT: Khonshu's outfit has always been white. A white cloak with a white hood, shrouding the face in darkness. Sometimes he wore a wrap around the face, covering the nose and mouth. He liked wearing the mark of the crescent moon on his chest as it always reminded him of home.
He wore white gloves today as well. He could not feel textures through the fabric, however, he didn't need to feel anything at all. The gloves were just an extension of his white outfit and he enjoyed the glowing effect in the darkness of the night. Like moonlight, a soft white light, the outfit illuminated his body as he walked wearing white boots over snug white leggings.
An immortal god was not how he thought of himself. Immortal implied that death was not possible. However, he lived an eternity due to the power of omnipresence, not immortality.
EXCERPT: “Can you send me the thread, I can’t find it,” said my cousin Elaine. She was calling for the second time in four days. I had my sewing box on the nightstand. I left the lid off intending to finish the dress for my antique doll. Elaine, I thought. She was always losing things.
EXCERPT: “If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more. Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot.”
The first thing I thought of when I read these verses was how hard it must have been for Job not to know Jesus...not to have someone who could intercede to God for him. He would have known, through Jesus, that there was hope. He would have known that there was light at the end of the tunnel.
EXCERPT: Life in a peaceful paradise.
It had taken God six days to create the world – from the mathematical perfection of a nautilus shell to the miracle of spontaneous breath, star-filled galactic extravagance, to a stick insect's suction cup feet. And it all worked together in perfect symphony.
Alas, on that sixth, he’d also made man… |
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Spiritual: November 29, 2023 Issue [#12300]
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