Comments on: Old Calendars

By: Huw

Huw — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:05:38 +0000

Of course they do. Slavs are as shallow as the rest of us and, post-soviet collapse, are as controlled by consumerism as the rest of us. But I’m not in a slavic country – a fact which has its good and bad points.

By: Alexis

Alexis — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:17:05 +0000

yeah. . . I think you’re mis-reading there my friend. Nope, we don’t use Julian calendar (I’m too mathematically challenged to be able to keep that straight in my head). he he he.

By: Lucian

Lucian — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:24:03 +0000

I’m sorry to interrupt Your most-elegant philosophising, but in the Orthodox countries whose churches use the old calendar, the entire country’s on the old calendar, so the level of consumerism stays the same (I mean, it’s not like stores in Slavic countries sell their holiday stuff on non-Slavic holidays.. they sell it on Slavic holidays, obviously!)

By: Huw

Huw — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:13:45 +0000

Just to be clear (b/c I know) but Grace Catholic uses the Julian Calendar – not the Jewish one!

I see that you post Saints Days on the Gregorian Calendar, tho? Or am I just misreading?

By: Alexis

Alexis — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:26:36 +0000

great post.

for most of my adult life – I’ve done exactly as you’ve suggested – both with the Feast of the Nativity/Theophany and with Pascha. After I was ordained and had my own community we experimented with it as a community, they loved it, because it “re-tooled” the feast as . . . well, a REAL FEAST. Eventually our community as a whole adopted it “formally”. However, when we started mission projects here in the UK we met with real resistence; the argument of some in two of our projects was along the lines of we ought to switch back to “what everybody else does” because we don’t want to appear to be “different” from them. . . . . don’t ask, needless to say those mission projects did not last (grin).

By: Huw

Huw — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:17:38 +0000

Someplace here I have information tying the Winter Lights celebration with the Autumn festival – not sure if it’s in my “Jewish Catalogue” or in my “Book of Hanukah”.

By: Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:52:20 +0000

Oh, I realise one has nothing to do with the other, but I do like that the Jews have a midwinter festival of lights and I’ve often thought that Christians should celebrate it as it isn’t a strictly religious Jewish festival and more of a historical one (I think we should have Purim as well) because Judas Maccabeus was a type of Christ. Besides, it’s latke time and that is one of the truly disappointing things about Christianity – on none of the 12 Great Feasts do people turn up with latkes. It would be interesting to know why the Maccabees brought outside in – the only other time for that is sukkot if you can’t build a booth outside.

By: Huw

Huw — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:34:37 +0000

Actually, it doesn’t – want to be clear about that! The one has nothing to do with the other. But the symbolism of light increasing, and light in the darkness, etc, parallels nicely (as do all mid-winter feasts. I rather like the fact that the 12 days of Christmas fit nicely with the 8 days of Hanukah.

But I’m also intrigued by the idea that the Maccabees brought greenery into the temple to celebrate the Re-dedication in the same way that we bring greenery into our homes…

By: Margaret

Margaret — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:31:01 +0000

Hanukah-Christmas? Love it.