Good-bye to the Twelve Days...

Yesterday marked the Twelfth Day of Christmas.

There may not have been twelve drummers drum-ing, but there was definitely rejoicing in heaven and on earth as God incarnate became manifest to the world: in the East, "Theophany" - the appearance/manifestation of God Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit at Christ's baptism - is celebrated and remembered on January 6, across the Orthodox World. (In the West, this January feast is referred to as "Epiphany", the appearance of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.)

Thus ends the festive Nativity season. And thus, I must now un-decorate my house of all things Christmas and get back to blogging. 

Good-by Nutcrackers, St. Lucia, and my tree.  Hello to more Good Books for 2021!

It's Grandson Tested and Approved: My Current Favorite "12 Days of Christmas Book" (For Toddlers and Up)

I'm pretty sure there is not a child on the planet that won't be completely taken with this Twelve Days of Christmas book - mainly because of the flickering "Ani-Motion" technology (also called "scanimation") used for the cute illustrations.

Watch as the three french hens peck the ground and the drummers drum - the story literally springs to life as you turn the pages!

And that's good news for a parent looking for a way lure their child onto their lap for a fun moment in the midst of all the after-Christmas-commotion-and-gift-opening-hubbub!

My 3-year-old grandson absolutely loves this book and already has the song memorized.  He sings right along with him mommy!

EPIPHANY ADORATION

"ADORATION OF THE MAGI," William Morris

Epiphany, or Theophany as it is referred to in the East, falls on this day and marks the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

The term Epiphany means "to show" or "to make known" or even "to reveal." In Western Catholic and Protestant churches, it commemorates the coming of the Wisemen - who by bringing gifts and visiting the Christ child, "reveal" Jesus to the world as Lord and King.

How many of us as children loved the song of "The Little Drummer Boy" (perfect for the Twelfth Day of Christmas!)  He too wanted the "finest gift to bring" to the Newborn King.  I have given this board book version of Ezra Jack Keats' book to several little ones for Christmas, and their Mommies have told me they ask for it to be read (or sung) to them again and again...

You may have heard of Henry Van Dyke's short novel, The Other Wise Man - (if not you can read it HERE on Project Gutenberg) - but did you know there is a children's picture book version?  Henry Van Dyke wrote his enduring classic, The Other Wise Man in 1896.  Pamela Kennedy retells the story for the young reader, making it easy to understand, while retaining the magic of Van Dyke's words. Robert Barrett's rich oil paintings create a tapestry of colour that adds to the mystery of the ancient world.

Another exceptional picture book about the Magi and their gifts is The Third Gift, by Linda Sue Park.  My book review of The Third Gift can be found here.

In my Eastern Orthodox tradition, the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child is commemorated on Christmas Day.  For us, Epiphany commemorates Jesus' baptism and the divine revelation of the Holy Trinity.  

The word Epiphany in Greek means "to show forth" and is used interchangeably with the word Theophany, which translates from Greek as "appearance of God".

At the baptism of Christ the Holy Trinity appeared clearly to mankind for the first time -- the Father's voice is heard from Heaven, the Son of God is incarnate and standing physically in the Jordan, and the Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove.

A hymn that will be sung in our church service today is a wonderful reminder of God's presence with us today and everyday: 

Today You appeared to the world, 

and Your light, O Lord, has left its mark upon us 

as in fuller understanding we sing to You: 

“You came, You were made manifest, the unapproachable light."

Eleventh Day and Twelfth Night

Tomorrow - January 6th - in my Church, we will celebrate the Baptism of Christ, or "Theophany", as well as the "Great Blessing of the Waters". The celebration of this Feast of our Lord begins on January 5, a day known as the "Forefeast of Theophany". Depending on the day of the week, this could be an evening service with Vespers followed by the Liturgy of Saint Basil or a morning service with Matins and the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom (as it will be tomorrow, since Epiphany falls on a Sunday this year).

The Blessing of the Waters is conducted in the church; however in many places throughout the world services are conducted near open bodies of water. As a sign of blessing as Christ blessed the Jordan, holy water is poured into the body of water. An associated tradition has been the tossing of a cross into the water to be retrieved by divers.

source

During the Orthodox service for the feastday of Theophany (or Epiphany), the priest makes the Sign of the Cross over the water with his hand and prays specifically for God's blessing to be invoked upon it. At the climax of the service, he immerses the hand cross into the water three times in imitation of Christ's baptism to the singing of the festal troparion:

source

When Thou wast baptized in the Jordan, O Lord,
The worship of the Trinity was made manifest.
For the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee,
And called Thee His beloved Son.
And the Spirit, in the form of a dove,
Confirmed the truthfulness of His word.
O Christ God, Who hast revealed Thyself,
And hast enlightened the world, glory be to Thee!


The holy water from the church is given to the faithful to consume and to use in blessing their homes. In the weeks following the Feast, clergy visit the homes of parishioners and conduct a service of blessing using the holy water that was blessed on the Feast of Theophany.

Two beautiful books for Theophany:

A House Blessing by Welleran Poltarnees. This is a beautiful book, with each page highlighing, in famous artwork, a phrase of a blessing prayer. Welleran Poltarnees is the pen name of Harold Darling, an author who has written numerous "blessing books" that employ turn of the 19th to 20th century artwork. This pen name is based on two of Lord Dunsany's most famous stories: "The Sword of Welleran" and "Poltarnees, Beholder of Ocean".

...All who live and visit here shall be friends. 

Kindliness and harmony shall be the watchwords.

Let the mealtimes be far more than the fulfillment of a necessity.

In this home food shall be prepared with grace, and eaten with gratitude.

May this be a place where the laughter of babies is heard,

and the gravity of children is answered with loving respect.

Make this house warm in the winter, and by the fires of an open hearth let comradeship and imagination flower. 

Let this be the place of peace, offering refuge from chaos and doubt, and manifesting in its orderliness, a model for the larger world...

THE THEOPHANY OF OUR LORD by Sister Elayne (now Mother Melania), with illustrations by Bonnie Gillis.  Beautiful watercolor illustrations accompany the beautiful poetic text about the Orthodox Church's celebration of Christ's baptism.

For more about Theophany, go here, to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Website, my source for this post.

Leap into the New Year with these 10 "Lords"!

Norman Rockwell (source)

1-“Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true” 
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson quotes (English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry, 1809-1892)

2-"Time! on whose arbitrary wing 
   The varying hours must flag or fly, 
Whose tardy winter, fleeting spring, 
   But drag or drive us on to die--- 
Hail thou! who on my birth bestowed 
   Those boons to all that know thee known; 
Yet better I sustain thy load, 
   For now I bear the weight alone."
-George Gordon, Lord Byron (He was among the most famous of the English 'Romantic' poets, 1788-1824)

 3-"The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places. But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.” 
 - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings 

4-"The Boy-Who-Lived. How lies have fed your legend, Harry! Do you want to know what really happened thirteen years ago? Shall I divulge how I truly lost my powers? It was love. You see, when dear sweet Lily Potter gave her life for her only son, it provided him with the ultimate protection, I could not touch him. It was old magic, something I should have foreseen."
-Lord Voldemort, from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

5-“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."
-Old Testament, Zephaniah 3:17

6-"I have given my life to Downton, I was born here and I hope to die here. It is my third parent and fourth child. Do I care about it? Yes, I do care!"
-Robert Crawley, Lord Grantham of Downton Abbey television series

7- "I shall desire you all, my lords, (chiefly you of the nobility, everyone in his degree and power) to be assistant to me that I, with my ruling, and you with your service, may make a good account to Almighty God and leave some comfort to our posterity on earth."
-Queen Elizabeth, at the beginning of her reign

8-"My mother said, Don't worry about what people think now. Think about whether your children and grandchildren will think you've done well."  
-Lord Mountbatten, Last Viceroy of British India and Governor-General of Independent India (1900-1979)

9 & 10- from Little Lord Fauntleroy, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (the tale of a young charming and innocent American child, Cedric, who finds out he is really a British lord):

Gainsborough's Blue Boy source

“His greatest charm was this cheerful, fearless, quaint little way of making friends with people. I think it arose from his having a very confiding nature, and a kind little heart that sympathized with every one, and wished to make every one as comfortable as he liked to be himself.”

"What the Earl saw was a graceful, childish figure in a black velvet suit, with a lace collar, and with lovelocks waving about the handsome, manly little face, whose eyes met his with a look of innocent good-fellowship."



Polly Hovarth writes that Little Lord Fauntleroy "was the Harry Potter of his time and Frances Hodgson Burnett was as celebrated for creating him as J.K. Rowling is for Potter." During the serialization in St. Nicholas magazine, readers looked forward to new installments. The fashions in the book became popular with velvet Lord Fauntleroy suits being sold, as well as other Fauntleroy merchandise such as velvet collars, playing cards, and chocolates. During a period when sentimental fiction was the norm, and in the United States the "rags to riches" story popular, Little Lord Fauntleroy was a hit. [source: Wikipedia]

Ninth Day of Christmas and Tolkien's Birthday

If more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold, it would be a much merrier world.

-J.R.R. Tolkien

Tolkien [source]

Reading my Fifth Day of Christmas post (20 Go-Old Rings!), maybe you guessed that I recently saw the excellent film, The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey. Upon returning home, I immediately took my tattered old copy of The Hobbit off our shelf and have been enjoying re-reading it.

Why (and how) am I going to tie J.R.R. Tolkien in with the 9th Day of Christmas? It's not that I have Tolkien-on-the-brain:  this Ninth Day of Christmas, January 3, 2013, does happen to coincide with what would have been his 121st birthday. 

The 10th Day would have been easy: "Ten LORDS a Leaping", for the author of LORD OF THE RINGS.  Thankfully, my daughter reminded me, "Mom, there were nine Members of the Fellowship."  Well, I think that trumps "Nine Ladies Dancing", so here you have it...

source

FOR THE NINTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS:
Four (4) hobbits: Frodo, Samwise, Meriadoc (Merry), and Peregrin (Pippin)
+ Two (2) humans: Aragorn and Boromir
+ One (1) elf: Legolas
+ One (1) dwarf: Gimli
+ One (1) wizard: Gandalf
= Nine (9) Members of the Fellowship of the Ring

J. R. R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State in South Africa to English parents. When he was three years old he, his mother, and brother returned to England for a family visit. His father, who was to join them later, died before he could arrive, leaving them without an income.

At age 12, Tolkien lost his mother and was made the ward of his Catholic priest. Tolkien attended King Edward’s School from 1910 to 1911 and did well in classical and modern languages.

In 1911 Tolkien began school at Exeter College, Oxford and studied Classics, Old English, Germanic languages, Welsh, and Finnish. He published his first poem in 1913 in the Stapeldon Magazine of Exeter College.

After graduating in 1915, Tolkien enlisted in the Army to fight in World War I. After only four months on the battlefield Tolkien became ill and was sent back home.

After he was discharged, Tolkien worked as a lexicographer for the New English Dictionary and began to work on his epic The Silmarillion, upon which all his mythologies are based. He published A Middle English Vocabulary in 1922 and began work on creating elfish languages.

In 1920 Tolkien began teaching at the University of Leeds as an English professor, where he worked until 1925. He next took up a post at Cambridge which he retained until retirement.

Sometime during the 1930s Tolkien started writing The Hobbit. The book was so successful that his publisher asked him to write a sequel. Instead, Tolkien wrote what is now the Lord of the Rings series. [bio source here]

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to my reading!

...What is a hobbit? I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). 
-From Chapter 1: "An Unexpected Party"

A SAINT AND 8 BEATITUDES: FOR THE EIGHTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS!

Coinciding perfectly with the Eighth Day of Christmas is the feastday of St. Seraphim of Sarov.  Some may not be familiar with St. Seraphim.   He is one of the most renowned Russian monks of the Eastern Orthodox Church.  To many he advised:  

Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved.

Today I'd like to feature a book, SAINT SERAPHIM'S BEATITUDES:  BLESSINGS FOR OUR PATH TO HEAVEN, by Fr. Daniel Marshall, illustrations by Paul Drozdowski  It is based on the life of the Wonderworker of Sarov, who died in 1833. This book is lavishly detailed and full of the Saint's sayings and events from his life. Update: Also available as a cd - go here.  [Ages 4 & up]

This picture book also focuses on The Beatitudes, of which there are eight: perfect for the Eighth Day of Christmas, and honestly much more inspiring to highlight than "Eight Maids-A-Milking"! Short sayings patterned after the Lord’s Beatitudes present St. Seraphim’s wisdom in clear, memorable phrases.

THE EIGHT BEATITUDES OF CHRIST
1-Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2-Blessed are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
3-Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
4-Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
5-Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
6-Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God.
7-Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.
8-Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
-Gospel of St. Matthew 5:3-10

SIX GEESE A-LAYING for New Year's Eve!

Tomorrow is the start of a New Year! In Greece, Christmas gifts are exchanged on January 1st, St. Basil's Day.  Basil is one of the four Fathers of the Greek Church (Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa are collectively referred to as the "Cappadocian Fathers").  Tradition holds that St. Basil is supposed to visit all Greek homes on the first day of the year, bearing gifts and toys. Vasilopita, "Sweet Bread of Basil" is prepared and a coin is baked into the ingredients. The person who gets a slice that contains the coin is considered blessed for the New Year. (recipe HERE)

Back to the Sixth Day of Christmas:  Today - geese. (Tomorrow - swans!)  You can click here to read my past post about Mother Goose books, but I'm really excited to share six "Gossie" books with you!

"Gossie is a gosling.  A small, yellow gosling who likes to wear bright red boots.  Every day."

These simple, sweet board books are perfect for preschoolers.  Gossie, Gertie, Ollie, Peedie, and BooBoo will help your child learn about friendship, siblings, and sharing.

I've enjoyed perusing author/illustrator Olivier Dunrea's website.  He lives in a tiny remote village on the western edge of the Catskills Mountains on the Upper Delaware River. The house he lives and works in is called "Henwoodie" - the Henhouse. Henwoodie is a large Arts & Crafts style house surrounded by an acre of gardens, lawns, and terraces.

He says about his Gossie books:  "Gossie & Friends began in 2001 with sketches of goslings while I was staring out the studio window watching Canada geese fly overhead, honking loudly. A pair of red rubber toy boots sat on my bookshelf for some strange reason. As I sketched goslings I started drawing them wearing red rubber boots. And that is how the idea for Gossie and her "bright red boots" came to life."

Gossie


Gossie and Gertie


Ollie


Ollie the Stomper



Peedie


BooBoo


[this blog reposted from December, 2010]

Fifth Day of Christmas: 20 GO-OLD RINGS!

The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey

"Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky, 

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone, 

Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die, 
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne 
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie. 

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, 

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them 

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

-J.R.R. Tolkien's epigraph, The Lord of The Rings

...And a Partridge in a Pear Tree.

Love this pocket edition, with illustrations by Tolkien

"Official Movie Guide" by Brian Sibley (review here)