Tropical Zone Gardening: It's the season to be jolly... so there's no... without..., 1 by goofybulb

goofybulb wrote:
I agree with Sylvain, beautiful things don't need to be costly. I'm happy that you have visions, I like your Christmas vision very much.

We also have the word Revelion (it's probably adopted from French, slightly modified - phonetic too, you hear the L). But for Romanians it represents the party that is given to send off the Old Year and welcome the New Year. Also a feast involved, and probably the only night when the young children are allowed out of bed at midnight. But they have to have a late afternoon nap (oh, how I hated them then, how I wish I would have them now!...)

Wonderful tradition! Polar Bear, do you still find your family members all over your house? I bet they changed location and they come to spend the Christmas with you. I will tell you the Santa Claus story closer to the Christmas Eve. All I can tell you now is that our Santa is still different!

Carol, the Christmas memories are bright and cheery! The two of us don't have any of the pass-along-thru-generations Christmas decor either... everything is back home. Sometimes I wish I took at least one of the old tree globes. But our first Christmas here we bought some ceramic decorations, and glass globes, that we painted ourselves. The Noel sisters have beautiful names!

Today I'll tell you why saint Nicholas and Saint Christmas (the Romanian Santa Claus) are Old.

This has to do with the pre-christian beliefs that existed in the Carpathian area. It was the time when people believed in many gods. The thought of life after death and Heavens didn't exist yet. One such god, celebrated in different cultures, was the Sun. The life of the Sun was reflected in the Day, but also in the Year. Birth and death at midnight. In the meantime, the Year/Sun god would grow, like a human, but, of course, much faster, within a year, with 4 seasons (ages). Probably the change between years was celebrated at the Winter solstice, which was observed already, but it got shifted with that confusing Calendar change long, long time ago...

Once the Christianity spread, the local churches (probably in all countries) tried to adopt or convert the local/pagan celebrations. The commemoration of the saints within a year seems to illustrate "the aging of the pagan Year". Thus, in popular culture Saint Basil (Jan 1st) is a teenager, eager for partying, drinking and love... the equivalent of Saint Valentine (Feb 24th) was portrayed as a very young man, the patron of ...well... love.
As the year progresses, the saints get... older! Come the end of November, they start to be presented as old, wise man. And they are even called that way: Old Man Andrew, Nicholas... we even have Old Man Eve (Christmas Eve, not the apple-and-snake-Eve!), and of course, Old Man Christmas.

(There is another Old Man that kids don't want to hear about: he is the grumpy brother of Christmas, the personification of the harsh winter winds, and comes and takes the tree away!)

In the countryside, calling an old man, old man is not considered impolite. In some regions that's how grandkids call their grandfathers. While in the big cities, it is a bad thing, in the rural areas it still means a respectful, knowledgeable elder.

It's a week before Christmas. If not done already, kids and adults alike are spending the evening writing. The kids send their letter to Santa Claus (in the window, like for Saint Nocholas. The Easter Bunny also has his mail delivered thru the window). Parents write greetings and letters. It may be that Internet exists for fast communication, but we still try each year to send Greeting cards back home. Ideally, "tradition says", the cards should arrive as close to Christmas as possible, but you never can know, one year our card arrived at the end of January...

(The night after Thanksgiving in Santa Fe, NM. Luminaries/farolitos, a firetruck full of lights - to remember about the bonfires, and lots of people gathering for the raising of the Christmas tree in the Plaza)