Today, the first of the four Sundays of Advent, the Western Church begins a new liturgical year.
My friends went through our forest and in their garden to gather the symbolic greens for the Advent season.
Wishing a blessed Advent, that special time of watchful anticipation and waiting, to all our Christian friends. May it be a peaceful month leading into Christmas. 
i notice you have the beautiful kumaria fruit (as we know them in greece) in the bouquet. may the month of december be peaceful,leading to a war-free new year.
ReplyDeletefrom what i know, the greek orthodox church sees the first of september as the beginning of the church year. we don't see advent as the most important festival in the calendar - it is easter which takes precedence. i have never really celebrated christmas in greece in the same joyous way that easter is celebrated. i think it has partly to do with the weather, as it is always colder at this time, but it also has to do with the fact that this festival is over-commercialised...
Hallo Dina,I also wish you a blessed and peaceful advent season. Thank you! Hugs, Maria
ReplyDeleteM. Kiwi, oops, sorry, I should be more careful when I say "the Church." So much is different in Eastern Orthodoxy. It is so complicated to write about religions, especially when one is not of that religion. Thanks for your insights and clarifications.
ReplyDeleteKumaria fruit? Actually I couldn't figure out what that was in the photo. It does not look familiar.
Amen to your wishes for some peace on earth.
Maria shalom. Thanks, but well, you know, it's not a Jewish thing. But I find it fascinating how my Christian friends (nuns) really get deeply into the Advent spirit, and I share some of the advent-ure of it all.
kumara fruit are edible, and are also turned into a wine. check out this beautiful photo and tell me if the one you collected is the same as this one in the photo:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/kden604/323730577/
Kiwi, the photo in your link is beautiful but not familiar. Maybe Arbutus?
ReplyDeleteThe first picture in my post is from last year, and I was not along for the plant collecting. I just took a quick picture of what the friends had found. I'll ask them tomorrow.
I'm impressed that you have such beautiful greens in the forest. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful! I worked today and forgot about it being the first day of Advent-thanks for the reminder Blessings!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun tradition. It's probably hard to even write about your own religion. I remember raising an occasional eyebrow when somebody wrote or said something about Buddhism not quite the way I was taught. There are so many variations and I'm sure they're all correct or all wrong. I don't care so long as we're peaceful about it.
ReplyDeleteYour post and the comments have much enlightment to them. (Joy to the World)
ReplyDeletePatsy.
Thanks, Dina. A peaceful and nice season to you, too.
ReplyDeleteChristmas for me is very important: of course not for the gifts or the lavish meals, but for the deep meaning of the event, even from a just human point of view.
Have a good week ahead.
EG Tour Guide, hi. That's what a forest is for, no? :)
ReplyDeleteMommanator, in this country life is based on the calendar, whether it be the Jewish one or the Christian or the Muslim. For the blog's sake I work with an interfaith calendar.
Kay, I love your attitude! You're "sure they are all correct or all wrong." hehe
Patsy and Bennie, that's a welcome compliment from you. The friends of this blog are really special. I learn from y'all's comments. And my enlightenment, well, it took some years and hard spiritual work to attain; and more to come.
Pietro, oh, so nicely said! I know what you mean.
Thank you Dina!
ReplyDelete*hugs*
You're a wonderful ambassador, Dina.
ReplyDeleteDina thank you for what you share with us, advent is special to me but I love Christmas for the kids .My wife works with the youth from our church and this morning they were all too excited to hold their class. My grandson has just been in and is wound up like a spring (he is two). Each religion has its special times and each of us have our own special time. Mine is waiting at the cross a time of complete meditation. Each of us have diffences and it is that others are diferent that we need to understand and respect .Amen XXXDon
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