January 5 th marks Twelfth Night which concludes the Twelve Days of Christmas and the coming Epiphany on January 6 th ( or the nearest Sunday ) and the arrival of the Magi.
This is the Christian celebration of the Incarnation of God in the baby Jesus, in 361 Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus wrote that January [...]
Archive for the ‘Customs’ Category
Epiphany
Posted in Beliefs, Customs, History on January 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Christmas at Fezziwig’s Warehouse from ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
Posted in Books, Customs, tagged A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens, Fezziwig on December 24, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
’Yo ho, my boys!’ said Fezziwig. ‘No more work to-night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer! Let’s have the shutters up,’ cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap of his hands, ‘before a man can say Jack Robinson!’
You wouldn’t believe how those two fellows went at it. They charged into the street with the shutters-one, [...]
Harvest Festival & Thanksgivings
Posted in Customs, Festivals, Nature, tagged Harvest Festivals, Thanksgiving on November 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The gathering of crops and preparation for the coming winter is traditionally celebrated in most cultures by enjoying the abundance of provisions and rest from cultivation and harvesting. In religious services thanks are given for blessings received and requests for future mercy:
Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
All is safely gathered [...]
Halloween
Posted in Customs, Festivals, tagged Halloween on November 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
All-Hallows-Even or the night before All Saints Day on the Christian calendar is a secular festival where people dress up, decorate their homes, tell stories, share party food and carve pumpkins into scary masks:
Children go door-to-door collecting candy and trinkets, known as ‘trick or treat’ across Canada, the US, much of Europe and more recently in [...]
Pysanka
Posted in Art, Beliefs, Customs, History, tagged Pysanky, Ukraine on April 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The egg has traditionally been a symbol of new life and rebirth in many cultures, but the Hutsul Ukrainians have a legend that the world will only continue to exist so long as Pysanky eggs are decorated: an evil serpent checks up on the number of eggs created every year, and if their numbers decrease the snake [...]
