Yesterday I was chatting with a friend about Christmas. In short, I was explaining how the darkness begins to deepen after the cross-quarter celebration of Oidhche Shamhna - Halloween - until it reaches its darkest on the longest night - the Winter Solstice. Then there is a slow increase of light until the cross-quarter celebration of Imbolc - St ( Read more... )

Every year at Christmas, we set the three wisemen out on the far end of the living room, cattycorner from the Nativity scene (yes, yes, I know I've told you before). Usually, we also set up an Advent Calendar in the form of a Victorian village and during the travels of the magi across the room, they usually spend a day or three in the village ( ( Read more... )

Anyone who has been reading my livejournal for more than a year knows that I start setting up my Nativity scene for Christmas on the first week of Advent and that I add to it and change it every week thereafter until after Epiphany. My precedent for this activity is that as a Catholic, I grew up with the dictum that the Baby Jesus does not go in ( Read more... )