ADVENT VESPERS

For me, the holiday season really begins on the first weekend of Advent with Augsburg University's Advent Vespers concert. For over a dozen years I have been organizing a group friends to attend the event, and while there is a core group that stays the same from year to year, there are usually a couple of new people who join us each year.

The event is more of a Lessons And Carols format rather than Vespers, but always sets the tone and puts me in a quiet, and grounded space, as I prepare for the hecticness of the Christmas season. The music and readings are inspiring, thought provoking, and reflective, and the newly renovated sanctuary of Central Lutheran Church provides the perfect venue for the concert.

Augsburg University's Advent Vespers is amazing and the perfect way to kick off the Holiday season.

HAPPY SANTA LUCIA DAY

THANKSGIVING LOOKS

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

BOW TIE FRIDAY

JACK OF THE LANTERN

HAPPY FEAST OF SOULS EVERYONE!!!

SACRED LIGHTS

HAPPY FEAST OF SAINTS EVERYONE!

LIGHT IN THE TOWER; 
THE WITCHING HOUR!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

SAMHAIN

Samhain (prounced SOW-an) is also known as All Hallows Eve and Halloween.  Coming from the Celtic tradition, it is the last of three harvest festivals, and is the start of winter.  It is also the beginning of their new year – actually it’s both the end of the old year, as well as the beginning of the new year all at once.  Because of the slim space between that overlap, this is known as a “thin time”.

Samhain was also the time of year when the Celts would remember and celebrate their loved ones who had died.  They believed that during this thin time, the spirits of their ancestors could walk the earth and move among us.  To celebrate this event they would carve lanterns and place them outside their homes with candles in them, to light the path for these spirits as they traveled.  They would also set out food for the ancestors to nourish them on their journey.  Sound familiar?  Maybe a little bit like what we do on Halloween as we carve Jack-O-Lanterns and put they outside our homes, and hand out treats to all of the costumed “spirits” who show up at our door?  Of all of the festivals we celebrate today, our Halloween observation is the most authentic to how it was originally celebrated in ancient times.

I love the photo above, of a monument at Lakewood Cemetery, because it’s a wonderful representation of how we merge the final harvest festival, and the remembering of ancestors. Note the sheath of wheat alongside the figure on the top of the monument. 

I have a great love for genealogy, family, ancestors and history, so this is one of my favorite times of year.  It gives me a deep sense of connectedness to those who have gone before me, and is a reminder of the responsibility I have to those who will come after.

HAPPY SAMHAIN EVERYONE!!!

ALL HALLOWSTIDE

October brings with it the promise of cooler temperatures and an array of beautiful colored leaves.  Each year I look forward to the decorations Mother Nature provides, but it also seems that we humans are adding our own decorations to the season as well.

Earlier and earlier, I see ghosts, spider webs, skeletons, and witches adorning the yards around the city.  Next to Christmas, Halloween is the most decorated holiday, and it seems to begin way before October even gets here.

I like Halloween, but for a completely different reason.  Halloween is rooted in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced SOW-en).  This was a harvest festival and it was at this time that root vegetables and squash were harvested.  It was also a “Thin Time."

Samhain was both the end of the year and the beginning of the year, and so the ancients believed that the veil between this world and the next was the thinnest.  They believed that the spirits of their ancestors could walk the earth on this night – especially those who had died the previous year - and so they remembered the ancestors at this time

During this time, they would place lit candles in their windows, and carve lanterns out of turnips and place them outside of their homes lit with candles.  These would light the way of the Spirits so they would pass by their homes.

They would also set food out for the spirits so they wouldn’t cause any mischief at their home.  Is this beginning sound like any holiday that we celebrate today?  Like Halloween perhaps?  Our celebration of Halloween today is celebrated more closely to the ancient ways than of our other holidays.

To further the connection, Samhain was always celebrated on the evening of October 31^st, so the placement of Halloween was a given.  When the Church began celebrating the feast of All Saints on November 1^st, Samhain became known as All Hallows Eve - our current name, Halloween, derives from that.  When the Church later added the feast of All Souls on November 2^nd (think Day of the Dead), the three days became known as All Hallowstide, and was a time to remember the ancestors.

I love genealogy and learning about my heritage and ancestors, so this is a natural time for me to visit cemeteries.  I learn so much from them.  Rather than being the home of ghosts and goblins, they are a source of so much history and tradition, and a wealth of information.

This Halloween as you prepare for the trick-or-treaters, please try to spend some time remembering and honoring the ancestors.

Happy All Hallowstide!!!

NATIONAL CAT DAY

Beatrix keeping vigilant watch on National Cat Day!