Rockefeller Center Tree Lighting

Tonight over 30,000 lights will illuminate the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City. This beautiful tree has become a world-wide symbol of the holidays, officially kicking off the Christmas season. The spectacular tree of today had humble beginnings. In 1931, workers building the Rockefeller complex put up a small tree on Christmas Eve and decorated it with paper garlands, cranberries, and a few tin cans. In 1933, the first official tree went up, and the tradition has continued.This year’s tree, a 78 feet tall, ten ton Norway Spruce, was donated by a family in Gardiner, NY. The tree, which was about to be cut down, was moved from their front yard to Rockefeller Center in November to await lights and the star, the only decorations. There are over 30,000 lights on the tree. The star is 10 feet tall, weighs 550 lbs. and is made of 25,000 Swarovski crystals. Merry Christmas one and all!

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Psalm 8:3-4

~C

 

Advent

Hanley-Gueno Neapolitan Presepio from A Louisiana Christmas

November 27, the fourth Sunday before Christmas, is the day Advent begins, and it continues until Christmas Eve. Advent is the season celebrated by many Christian churches as a time to prepare for the coming of Christ. Advent season is filled with many Christmas traditions, now often known more broadly as holiday traditions, dating back hundreds of years. Three widely spread traditions with historic origins are carols, trees, and cards. The first known Christmas carol dates to the fifteenth century. Many carols were loosely based on the Christmas story and were sung in homes, rather than in churches. Traveling minstrels also sang them. When the Puritans came into power in England in the seventeenth century, carols were banned, but the English people remembered them, sang them in secret, and brought them to America. The carols came back into popularity during the long reign of Queen Victoria, whose German husband also helped popularize the German tradition of a Christmas tree. Martin Luther, who began the Protestant Reformation in Germany in 1517, is credited with beginning the tradition of lighting the tree. The tradition was not common in America until the late nineteenth century. Now there are many modern twists on lighting the tree. The first commercially produced Christmas cards were made in the UK in 1843. Queen Victoria began sending cards in the 1840s. By the late nineteenth century, the custom had spread across Europe and to America. Mass production of cards became popular in the twentieth century, and over two billion cards are sent in the United States each year. Today many people also send personalized cards or e-cards.

Advent is a time to focus on hope, love, joy, and peace. To celebrate today, we can all work toward, in the words of the carol, “peace on earth, goodwill to men.”

Old Irish Blessing: May you be blessed with the spirit of the season, which is peace; the gladness of the season, which is hope; and the heart of the season, which is love.

~N

 

Use Less Stuff Day

November 19 is Use Less Stuff Day! I read that the average family spends $7,000 a year on food and wastes about $1,600 of food annually. The USDA estimated that Americans waste twenty-five percent of their food, but the University of Arizona Garbage Project found that we waste closer to fifty percent of our food. Take steps today to reduce the amount of waste in food. I know one of the easiest ways for me to avoid wasting food is to start with my cart in the grocery store and avoid buying more fresh fruit and vegetables than we can eat. I read that bananas last much longer if they are separated instead of stored in a bunch. I’m going to try separating the bunch and see if lone bananas really do last longer. Take time today to think of something you can do to help our world!

Proverbs 21:20 There is precious treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, But a foolish man swallows it up.

~N