HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO......

Tia Mary wrote:
Bruce wrote:

Glad to see that at least one person knows about Epiphany. Our
decorations don't go up until 24 December. Some folk, especially when
we lived in England, think we are rather weird, especially when you
try to explain that you do it because it is Advent until 24 Dec.



Oh, I'm sure there are a bunch of us here who know about Epiphany
;-). For me, the outside of the house is decorated and the lights are
turned on at 6:00 PM Thanksgiving night regardless of how far away
Christmas actually is. Why does Advent keep you from decorating earlier
since it's not like Lent with all of the various restrictions.

In some cultures Advent is more like Lent than not, with fasting,
reflection, and preparation. In Poland, the traditional Christmas Eve
meal is meatless as a sign of preparation and expectation. The
celebration part begins at midnight.

Elizabeth
--
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~living well is the best revenge~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate
and expand her sense of actual possibilities. --Adrienne Rich
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Bruce wrote:

Glad to see that at least one person knows about Epiphany. Our
decorations don't go up until 24 December. Some folk, especially when
we lived in England, think we are rather weird, especially when you
try to explain that you do it because it is Advent until 24 Dec.

Here in Brooklyn with our large Russian population we have a lot of
people celebrating Christmas on Jan. 6 (some people call it Old
Christmas or Little Christmas.)

Alison

Dr. Brat wrote:
In some cultures Advent is more like Lent than not, with fasting,
reflection, and preparation. In Poland, the traditional Christmas Eve
meal is meatless as a sign of preparation and expectation. The
celebration part begins at midnight.

Elizabeth

HMMM, interesting. Remember I am Irish on both sides of the family
so everything is a reason to celebrate AND kvetch :-). Growing up in
LaLa Land, I was surrounded by people from many different cultures --
even in my immediate family I had one aunt who was born & raised in
Poland and Uncles who were born and raised in Sicily, Portugal, Scotland
and Ireland. I don't remember any of them -- family or acquaintances,
etc. -- treating Advent as anything other than a joyous time of
preparation for the birth of Baby Jesus. It could be that, if still in
the "old country", they would have treated the season in a different,
more reflective manner. Living in the SoCal, Los Angeles area *does*
tend to encourage a freer, shall we say more open type of holiday
preparation :-).
Even in church, Advent was a joyously anticipatory time of
preparation and celebration, not one of any sort of sacrifice -- at
least not that I can remember. I'll have to ask my friend who is
Hungarian (he & his older bro were born there but came here when he was
three) how his family traditionally dealt with Advent & Christmas.
CiaoMeow ^;;^

PAX, Tia Mary ^;;^ (RCTQ Queen of Kitties)
Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about
their whiskers!
Visit my Photo albums at http://community.webshots.com/user/tiamary

Tia Mary wrote:

Even in church, Advent was a joyously anticipatory time of
preparation and celebration, not one of any sort of sacrifice -- at
least not that I can remember.

But the traditional advent songs, like O Come, O Come Emmanuel, tend to
be much more solemn than Christmas Carols, and there are some churches,
even in this country, that stick to advent songs for advent.

Elizabeth
--
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~living well is the best revenge~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The most important thing one woman can do for another is to illuminate
and expand her sense of actual possibilities. --Adrienne Rich
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Dr. Brat wrote:
Tia Mary wrote:

Even in church, Advent was a joyously anticipatory time of
preparation and celebration, not one of any sort of sacrifice -- at
least not that I can remember.

But the traditional advent songs, like O Come, O Come Emmanuel, tend to
be much more solemn than Christmas Carols, and there are some churches,
even in this country, that stick to advent songs for advent.

My church (Lutheran) does that. No carols until Christmas Eve. Though
IIRC this year we did "jump" the season by singing "Go Tell it on the
Mountain" at morning services on the 24th (which were technically Advent
IV).

One of my favorite discoveries this year was this set of seasonal
(advent, solstice, Christmas, 12 days) British trad. recordings:

http://www.free-reed.co.uk/midwinter

Sue


--
--
Susan Hartman/Dirty Linen
The Magazine of Folk and World Music
http://www.dirtylinen.com

Bruce wrote:

Glad to see that at least one person knows about Epiphany. Our
decorations don't go up until 24 December.

I do put up my decorations as early as possible and I leave them up as
loooooong as possible (which is until DH starts complaining...it was
early this year so I took them down on the 6th). I'd have a Christmas
tree up all year long, if I could. I *love* Christmas trees and
ornaments!

Joan

Leave the tree up year round, and decorate it for the different holidays.

--
Jere
http://community.webshots.com/user/Jere224422


"Joan E." wrote in message
ups.com...

Bruce wrote:

Glad to see that at least one person knows about Epiphany. Our
decorations don't go up until 24 December.

I do put up my decorations as early as possible and I leave them up as
loooooong as possible (which is until DH starts complaining...it was
early this year so I took them down on the 6th). I'd have a Christmas
tree up all year long, if I could. I *love* Christmas trees and
ornaments!

Joan

Belatedly, what Joan and Darla said

Ellice

On 1/5/07 9:07 PM, "Darla" wrote:

What Joan said!!!!
"Joan E." wrote in message
ps.com...
YOOOOUUU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOUUU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIA MAAAAARRRRYYYYYY,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOOOOOOOUUUUUU!

And many mooooore!

Joan

On 1/6/07 12:55 AM, "Tia Mary" wrote:

Joan E. wrote:
YOOOOUUU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOOOOUUU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIA MAAAAARRRRYYYYYY,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOOOOOOOUUUUUU!

And many mooooore!

Joan


Thanks bunches for remembering :-)! I almost *never* remember
birthdays so I'm sure I have forgotten you :-). I decided this
afternoon that I was looking too old -- most likely not because of how
I look but because I have been having a rough few months with unexpected
lower back pain. I went to get my nails done and while there decided I
would dye my hair again. It's been about 4 years since I did it so I
have gotten a fair amount of gray.
I used to go to the beauty supply and get a color called black
cherry -- brown with heavy blue-red highlights. Now that I am
considerably more "mature" that color is too dark. I decided on a nice
medium brown with auburn highlights. NOT!!!!!!! The gray RALLY liked
that auburn part and I now have sort of dark carroty hair all around my
face -- LOLOL! I do believe you could drive a car by the glow from my
new hair color :-)! I should have DH take a photo of it so everyone can
get a good laugh too.

Not laughing at you, but sharing the pain. Virtually the only place I'm
grey is in my part. So, keeping my hair the red I prefer has become quite
the adventure. The gray hair takes the coloring differently. And I've had
the day-glo orangey stripe look - contrasting with the nice color and
highlights of the rest. The correction is that the colorist puts a green
toner on the originally gray now tooooo bright section only. And then it
blends pretty well. You could ask about it. If you're gray more all over,
it may be worth it to ask them about using a toner to counter the over-red
part. I like my hair kind of bright, but not striped. Having had problems
with keeping the color, etc - when I switched salons this past summer I went
to one with certified Master Colorists in the shop, the owner, and one of
the others. So, now, I'm just not too happy with the cut.

I'll live with it for a bit and wash my hair every day or two -- NOT
fun with hair that is down below my tush because it won't ever get dry.
Hopefully, the color will fade a bit, if not, I'll just get some
regular old light ash brown and color my hair again. AHHHH the joys of
creative endeavours -- LOLOL! CiaoMeow ^;;^

Absolutely. Good luck with the hair. And hope it was a fun b-day.

ellice

Joan E. wrote:
Bruce wrote:

Glad to see that at least one person knows about Epiphany. Our
decorations don't go up until 24 December.

I do put up my decorations as early as possible and I leave them up as
loooooong as possible (which is until DH starts complaining...it was
early this year so I took them down on the 6th). I'd have a Christmas
tree up all year long, if I could. I *love* Christmas trees and
ornaments!

Joan

While I don't start decorating as early as Thanksgiving, I have started
decorating the first or second week of December and don't usually start
taking things down until Jan. 6th. I remind my DH every year that:
"I'm not just hanging ornaments, I'm hanging memories". :-))

On the subject of leaving things up, I remember while growing up in the
60, that if a decorated tree was still up in Feb or March (usually the
aluminum ones) :-) it meant that someone's Viet Nam soldier was coming
home and the holiday had been "extended" for that particular family.
Liz from Humbug