Advent is important to me, and I have many ideas to share.
This week most of my recipes and projects are ways to "Cherish and care for the earth" - my theme for the first week of advent.
Today I started a miniature Nativity fast: The Nativity Fast is the Orthodox Christian way to experience the waiting which is Advent. Instead of “pre-celebrating” Christmas, they have a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, charity, and love, beginning on November 15th.
Agenda Today:
1- Advent Prayer
2- Mini-Nativity Fast
3- Make Revithia Soupa
4- Take a carbon footprint test
Today is the first Sunday of Advent!
ad•vent (ad’ vent) n. The coming or arrival, especially of something extremely important.
I'll fill the next weeks with decorating, baking, buying gifts, and singing songs...
but enfolding the busyness is the simple, deep peace and love of advent. I wait, anticipate, and learn again that transformation is a slow process.
Tonight is the first night of the eight day Jewish holiday known as the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah is observed beginning 3 days before the new moon closest to the winter solstice, at the darkest part of the moon phase and the darkest part of the sun phase.
Agenda today:
1. Journal queries
2. Prepare for Hanukkah
3. Make potato latkes
4. Advent wreath ceremony
5. Hanukia Ceremony
6. Plan activities to express my unity with nature
Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of expectant waiting, and today I will actively prepare to wait. I will get my house and my heart ready for the complicated winter season of holidays.
Agenda:
1. Open-Heart Meditation
2. Journal queries
3. Space clearing
4. Simplify & slow down
5. Make an Advent Wreath
Black Friday sales are an abomination! All I want to do on the day after Thanksgiving is eat pie and whip cream, and think about Advent. I make most of my holiday gifts, and usually spend this free day at home, with my family, working on projects.
Agenda:
1. Compile a family wish list
2. Make gifts
3. Make peanut brittle
Today is Thanksgiving! Yay! I am looking forward to this Thanksgiving because I will be with my family and dear friends. I've put some energy into talking to everyone so we all have the foods we need to make the day a success, and so we could share the effort and no one feels overworked or stressed- including myself.
Today is also Xia Yuan Jie-- Lower Primordial Festival-- a Chinese festival that falls on the 15th day of the 10th lunar month. It’s the third of a trio of Taoist holidays, that honor three Taoist gods, called the Three Great Emperor Officials:
- Tian-Guan, the Heaven Official, gives happiness, and rules over the first 6 months of the year (the yang part), beginning on the 15th day of the 1st lunar month, at the Lantern Festival.
- Di-Guan, the Earth Official, forgives sins and guilt, and rules over the next 3 months (the yin part), beginning on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, at the Ghost Festival.
- Shui-Guan, the Water Official, rules over the last 3 months of the year (also yin), starting today.
And tonight we see the full moon called the Frost Moon because now is when the first hoarfrost might appear-- that white frost that makes walking crunchy, and that requires scraping of windshields. Frost is a reminder that winter is coming, and we all need to finish our outdoor chores and close up the storm windows.
Agenda:
1. Thanksgiving Meditation for Peace & Abundance
2. Update my altar
3. Finish the food
4. Practice at my theme
5. Give thanks
6. Hold the world in the light
Tonight and tomorrow is the celebration of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad, on the 12th day of the third month of the Islamic calendar.
The word “mawlid” comes from the Arabic for “to give birth”, and al-Nabi means prophet.
The practice of celebrating Mawlid al-Nabi can be traced back to 11th-century Egypt. Traditions vary; some Muslims don't celebrate this day, some do. It's an especially important tradition for Sufis. Some cities are decorated, and people hand out sweets and candy to children.
Agenda:
1. Read a Sufi poem
2. Make tharid (lamb stew)
