davidn: (savior)
davidn ([personal profile] davidn) wrote2011-12-25 12:01 pm

Peace

It's December the 25th, the Pope has come out condemning the superficial glitter of Christmas while wearing a sparkly gold hat as big as our tree, and we have had our own more understated display:


To anticipate a question, the prettified oranges at the sides are christingles - in the church of Scotland, you make those by wrapping a red ribbon around an orange, carving a space for a candle, and sticking cocktail stick spikes with sweets into them and then hurling them at each other in ritual combat. They were lit using candles borrowed from the menorah... which felt, in a small way, like what interaction between religions should always be like.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or have a good time no matter what you choose to celebrate or how you say it.

[identity profile] the-twilighted.livejournal.com 2011-12-25 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I can remember making christingles at my local C of E church. Mind you, this part of Cumbria has always seemed like a little outpost of Scotland. Men wearing a kilt can walk the streets and no one has a second look at the sight. Plus, the local main church is St Andrew's.

[identity profile] xaq.livejournal.com 2011-12-25 08:36 pm (UTC)(link)
That's, in an odd way, one of the most meaningful and touching holiday displays I've ever seen.

Gonna have to remember that for next year.

[identity profile] silvertarna.livejournal.com 2011-12-25 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
I made them in Norn Iron too, in Church of Ireland. Celtic solidarity.

[identity profile] stubbleupdate.livejournal.com 2011-12-26 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
The notion of the Pope condemning the "glitter" of Christmas suggest that the Papacy must view irony as a purely Calvinist value.

[identity profile] dr-dos.livejournal.com 2011-12-26 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe it's because it's nearly 2:30am here, but it just occured to me that menorahs are the candle equivalent of that japanese sword (seen in the last case of the third phoenix wright) that has additional swords growing out of it.