It's great getting into the spirit of Christmas, buying presents and stocking up on the beer, but lets not forget the real reason for Christmas Day.
Happy Birthday Santa :beer1:
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It's great getting into the spirit of Christmas, buying presents and stocking up on the beer, but lets not forget the real reason for Christmas Day.
Happy Birthday Santa :beer1:
The real reason for Christmas? It’s buying jewelry for the wife, if you don’t think so try not getting her anything
:rofl2:
Good one!
Very true tc!!
Emeralds, not diamonds, are my wife’s favorite stones.
Are they any cheaper?? Not from where I sit nope. But I do try to shop locally for them. Support the small town jewelers.
HappyBirthday Santa!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeVD...taClausNetwork
I”m celebrating the return of the light.
Only one more week to go and the days will get longer again (in this hemisphere).
I do like the presents though...
:)
Summer solstice approaching down here. I guess that day my solar panels will make the most electricity :thinking: :D
Take a one carat Emerald and a one carat Diamond both flawless and the Emerald is worth about 6 times what the Diamond is.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeB52
"You have heard today the story from the Gospel of St. Luke of how it came to pass that our Lord Christ was born and then also the message of the angel, who announced who the boy was who was born. Now we shall go on and take up the message of the angel....When I can say: This I accept as my own, because the angel meant it for me, then, if I believe it in my heart, I shall not fail to love the mother Mary, and even more the child, and especially the Father. For, if it is true that the child was born of the virgin and is mine, then I have no angry God and I must know and feel that there is nothing but laughter and joy in the heart of the Father and no sadness in my heart. For, if what the angel says is true, that he is our Lord and Savior, what can sin do against us? "If God is for us, who is against us?" [Rom. 8:31]. Greater words than these I cannot speak, nor all the angels..." Martin Luther, excerpt from a sermon on 12/25/1530Quote:
Originally Posted by sharptonn
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday to you.
Happy Birthday Dear Santa.
Happy birthday to you.
There, now my pressies are guaranteed :rock:
I nearly forgot...
I was in Israel for a business trip in January 2020 and we were in a small village west of Jerusalem when they brought us here:
Attachment 337928
Allegedly, this was the exact place where the angel told Mary that she’d get pregnant. As customary in these cases, they built this shrine to commemorate.
Thought I’d share this.
:angel:
Meant in non blasphemous humour…. Smite me not..
Attachment 337929
Happy Winter Solstice :) 12-21-21
https://i.imgur.com/0Cre63U.jpg
Very Merry Christmas also :p
Dec 25 is the day when the sun starts to rise in the sky in the northern hemisphere and was celebrated as the sun gods rebirth in Roman times. I am not an atheist BTW.
It's actually the birth of many ancient religions/mythologies son/sun gods. Times when people were much more respectful of the environment & in touch with the seasons.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill31521
As much as I enjoy the secular celebration of Christmas I wish that it were separate from the religious holiday. Quite frankly it matters little to me when Christmas which is a Christian holy day is celebrated but since the assertion always seems to arise that Christmas was copied from or intended to supercede another pagan holiday I thought it proper to give some evidence to the contrary. Here are some excerpts from "Treasury of Daily Prayer" Concordia Publishing House ISBN 978-0-7586-1515-2
The Annunciation of Our Lord
The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and announces that God has shown her favor and will use her as the means for the Messiah's birth. So Mary conceives Jesus when the angel says: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you" (Luke 1:35). This same Spirit who hovered over the waters and brought forth creation (Genesis 1:2) will now "hover over" the waters of Mary's womb to conceive the creation's Redeemer. As the Holy Spirit comes upon Mary, she conceives Jesus "through her ear" (as Martin Luther says). The one who is conceived is called Holy, the Son of God. This is the moment of the incarnation of our Lord. The date of the Annunciation falls on March 25, because the Ancient Church believed the crucifixion occurred on that date. In antiquity, people linked the day of a person's conception with the day of his or her death. Thus, in the Annunciation, the Church joined together both the incarnation of Jesus and the atonement He accomplished.
____________________________________________The Nativity of Our Lord- Christmas Eve
The exact date of the birth of Jesus is not known, and during the earliest centuries of the Church it seemed to have little significance. This followed the Early Church's tradition of honoring and celebrating a Christian's death as his or her birth date into eternity and the ongoing presence of Jesus. Likewise the life, work, death, and resurrection of Christ was of much greater importance to early Christians than the earthly details of His life. The earliest nativity feast, Epiphany (January 6), celebrated both the birth and Baptism of Christ. However, in the fourth century great Christological controversies that questioned Christ's divinity and humanity raced throughout Christianity. By AD 336, December 25 had been established in Rome as the celebration of Christ's birth, a festival welcomed particularly by orthodox Christians in the West. From Rome, Christ's natal festival spread throughout the Western Church. In Eastern traditions of the Church, Epiphany remains the principal celebration of the birth of Jesus.
_____________________________________________
December 25th was picked as the celebration of Jesus' birth as it fell 9 months from March 25th which was recognized at least as early as 240 AD (over a century before the Roman recognition of that date being adopted in the Roman Church) as the date of The Feast of the Annunciation. This suggests that the date was not borrowed from Roman pagan holidays but was rather already established within the church calendar.
Here is some further reading from Wikipedia for those interested
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feas...e_Annunciation
