Secret Santa!

When I started trying to conceive, I met a bunch of wonderful girls who were trying to achieve the same through forums at TCOYF (Taking Charge of Your Fertility). We created a Facebook group to keep up with each other and our babies as they grew up, and we've built some pretty fantastic lifelong bonds!

Our Secret Santa swap opening day was today, and Tycho got some really amazing gifts all the way from the Grand Canyon, where a mama and her beautiful girl were celebrating their own first day of winter with their Secret Santa gifts!

Oh, those boots, by the way? I've been searching for an adult version since we opened the package. No luck yet... ;)

Thank you again, lovely mama friend, for all these great gifts!! Tycho adores them! :)

Happy Thanksgivukkah!

I'm a bit late with this post, I realize that. The entire extended Thanksgiving/Chanukah weekend was a whirlwind, one that didn't stop when we came home from Florida. Here are a few photos to make up for it, though, interspersed with eight things for which I'm thankful, in spirit of the combined holiday weekend. :) (I'll admit, I totally got that idea in particular from Mayim Bialik's blog on Kveller.)

1. I love that we have all these family traditions. Traditions, no matter what they are, just feel important to me, and I'm thankful that we have so many already to pass along to our son.

2. My friends are so supportive and have such wonderful advice. This parenting thing is HARD, and I'm glad to have friends who have either been there, done that or are currently there and doing that. It makes it easier knowing that there's someone else going through blowouts, teething, and learning to crawl at 2am.

3. My family -- old and new -- is very diverse in its beliefs, practices, and personalities. While they don't always get along, I'm thankful for each one of my family members, as they make a very rich environment for my son. I've learned a lot about tolerance, acceptance, and finding joy in our differences, and I know these will pass down to Tycho.

4. We had Chanukah at Matt's parents' house, then Thanksgiving at my parents' house. I love that we can share time with each of our families, due in part to how close they are in proximity to one another. I have to admit, I also love and am thankful for their food and hospitality. But mainly the food. ;)

5. I am grateful for YOU. I know I don't say this often enough, but I'm eternally grateful for your readership and, most of all, your friendship. I hope you continue to become an influence in our lives, and I hope that we can provide some helpful tidbits along the way, too!

6. I am thankful for my job, and for Matt's job, and that we can and continue to create a rich life together. I'm not talking "rich" in terms of money, but in terms of time spent, which has always been more valuable to us than any money we could make. But having good jobs and good health thanks to good insurance definitely helps, and I'm grateful that we have these.

7. Thank you Spirit for providing for us, and for giving us our greatest blessing, Tycho. I probably don't thank Spirit enough, either, but I really am grateful for everything that has been provided to us. I'm sure that hard work and dedication aren't the only things driving our lives, and if there's anything out there giving us that extra boost, well... how can you not be thankful for that. :)

8. I'mma steal this in part from Mayim: The last night of Hanukkah contains the most light of the entire holiday: eight candles and a shamash (leader candle). While we didn't get to the eighth night (bad Jew and worse pseudo-Jew!), we did get a chance to celebrate the first night surrounded by family, and you could seriously feel the light and love in the house that night. My only hope is that we can share that light and love with the world. <3

Guest Post - Susan Katz Miller, Reasons to Celebrate an Interfaith Baby

I've been following Susan Katz Miller's blog on their interfaith family for quite a while. As a Jewish-Pagan interfaith family ourselves, it's awesome to see it in action and working beautifully, especially with the most difficult part of the whole relationship: Children! Susan's children are raised in both the Jewish and Christian communities, and her blog discusses the challenges and rewards of celebrating both parents' and their own religions.

This post is a very special one. To celebrate Susan's recent book  Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family, Susan has offered to write a guest blog on celebrating a baby born into an interfaith family! Thank you so much, Susan, for this post and for all you do to support and educate the interfaith community. :)




For interfaith couples with a plan to celebrate both religions in the family, the arrival of a baby should be a source of creativity and joy, not cause for conflict. This is an opportunity to make a statement to yourselves, and to the world, that your child will benefit from both family traditions. Some interfaith couples hold back on performing baby-welcoming ceremonies, feeling that they did not have the right to claim these rituals, given the interfaith nature of their families. In contrast, I encourage the celebration of any and all welcoming rituals represented in your family tree. In my experience, and in my research, far more people end up regretting that they did nothing, than regretting that they celebrated.

I know, you’re exhausted, and the family patterns have been thrown into chaos. Do not feel you have to accomplish a full roster of traditional welcoming rituals on anyone else’s timetable, or to anyone else’s specifications. One of the wonderful aspects of being an interfaith family is that you have already been released from the tyranny of doing everything according to a single religious book. We can claim ancient religious rituals, while also reinventing them.

So if you have a Jewish baby-naming ceremony at six months, rather than at eight days, it can still have elements of tradition, and profound meaning for all in attendance. Children love the idea of having a Hebrew name: it can seem like a sort of secret alias, and an invitation to strengthen their connection to Judaism. One of the Christian rituals I really appreciate is the idea of godparents: adults who will serve as guides and protectors, as special unofficial aunts and uncles. We were living overseas when my daughter was a baby and toddler, so we didn't get around to choosing godparents. When she was in elementary school, we finally created an interfaith godmothering ceremony for her. In fact, she was old enough to help choose her own godmother. It seemed very fitting, and resonant, that the godmother she chose happened to also have a Jewish and Christian background.

If you have close relationships with clergy, they can help facilitate or lead welcoming ceremonies, as long as they understand your religious intentions and support your choices as an interfaith family. If you cannot find supportive clergy, you can still create meaningful welcoming ceremonies for babies (or older children, if you never did them), drawing on the elements that have most meaning to you from both family religions. Part of the joy of being an interfaith family, is the joy of giving yourself permission to innovate, while respecting and honoring family roots.

Blessed Ostara!! A reflection on (inter)faith and family.

Back when I first started this blog (and, let's face it, when I still needed something to write about, lol), I did these "[Insert Sabbat Here] In a Week" series, where I would share a little something every day for a week leading up to each sabbat. I really should do that again! Especially since I apparently have never done it for Ostara and therefore have nothing to link.

Bah.

Anyway, I obviously didn't plan this year very well, either, and I notice that's kind of a trend when it comes to Pagan sabbats and even Jewish holidays. Matt's really no help, either, as he tends to forget when his own holidays fall. ;) I'm hoping that, when Kit joins us, we'll both be a little better at remembering.

I’ve actually been thinking a lot lately about our currently-small interfaith family and how it will be after Kit is born, especially since that seems to be a big topic of interest once people learn that Matt and I are of different faiths and religious backgrounds. Sometimes people are actually quite surprised to learn that we’re not only not-Christian, but we’re nowhere even close to the same religion!

I know y'all aren't surprised by that, though. :)

Ostara is the perfect time to reflect on this, as Matt and I have, in some ways, found balance in our lives in respecting and celebrating each other’s faiths. The Spring Equinox is the time for finding balance once again after a very dark period, and starting a month or so from now, we get to find that balance again as we try to integrate Kit into our daily and spiritual lives, a balancing act that won’t happen overnight.

We’re fortunate that our moral codes are, for the most part, a result of secular rather than religious reasons*, and we plan on instilling those same values into Kit as he grows up. They’re pretty simple and spread across both our religions and those of others, anyway, so I don’t feel that morality is going to be an issue. However, I do feel that being interfaith family will go beyond mere morality by also teaching him – and us! – about accepting others for who they are and what they believe.

*I could go on and on about how religion isn’t the only path to moral decency, but that may be fodder for another post!

I believe that being an interfaith family is actually going to work to our benefit, as there needs to be an inherent level of respect, communication, and love between each spouse to make the relationship work, and those traits will indubitably leave a mark on their children, whether intended or not. Not that these doesn’t exist between spouses of the same religion, but growing up in a household where both parents were the same faith meant that differences in theology or morality, if any, didn’t have to be discussed as often, if at all. Our practices and moral code were just “how they were”, and I just assumed that that’s how everyone did it until I started exploring another faith for myself.

Kit is probably going to end up learning an awful lot as he grows up with Judaism and Paganism, too, with a bit of Catholicism for good measure. I know that, when I started my Pagan journey over half my life ago, I was surprised to find out that many of the customs I celebrated with my Catholic family were derivatives of a belief system (or several) that existed thousands of years before Christianity ever came to be. It’s with that knowledge that I now feel an even deeper sense of belonging when I celebrate holidays with my family, as I can see how my own customs as a neo-Pagan and those of Pagans in ancient cultures can align almost seamlessly with Catholic or Christian ones.

Judaism and Paganism are a little more difficult to amalgamate in that, unlike Christianity, Judaism did not necessarily adopt many Pagan beliefs or customs into its own practices, but strove instead to create a faith all its own (though it did take Jews a while to become truly monotheistic!). While Christianity is more adding a twist to a combination of Jewish and Pagan rites and practices, Judaism and Paganism instead stand pretty separate, as they have for thousands of years.

Fortunately, seeing it that way – that Mommy and Daddy both have their own religions, and the histories of both of those had separate but very real influences on the majority religion of their country – may actually help Kit see bits of his own interfaith upbringing in the practices and traditions of his friends who follow mainstream Christianity.

In short, Kit will be raised with our two direct religions as focal points, and the others will be in the background, though they'll be of no less importance. In addition to family events and local ones through groups in which we’re involved (Central Maryland Pagans, I’m looking at you!), we’ve decided to also visit a local Unitarian congregation to celebrate with other families, both interfaith and otherwise, and to hopefully all get some more exposure to what else is out there.

It’s definitely going to be an interesting ride, and I’m sure that, for all the times we try to impart some wisdom and knowledge on him, he’s going to end up doing the same for us, possibly in even more poignant ways than we can imagine. :)

Blessed Yule!! - A Winter Solstice Mash-Up

This time of year always evokes some pretty strong emotions in me, mostly because I have such fond memories of the holiday season from my childhood. Despite not celebrating Christmas in the same sense anymore, there's still this magickal feeling that takes over every year, a feeling that I absolutely want to instill in our own children.

Since we are interfaith, there are many ways in which our little nuclear family can honor this time of year and celebrate that magick. I've come to learn that many of my friends also celebrate the winter holidays in several different ways, too, so I invited everyone to share their holiday traditions! From secular Christmas to religious Chanukah, from Florida "winters" to inspiring Solstices, and everything in between, y'all sure did deliver!

So this year is going to be a mash-up of all of them, celebrating not only our personal take on the holidays, but including yours as well! Thank you all for participating, and in typical Coexist Cafe fashion: HAPPY EVERYTHING! :)



What IS Yule, Anyway?

I get this question every year without fail. In fact, it surprises a lot of people (my awesome attorney-boss included, haha) that Pagans get a holiday to themselves to celebrate every winter, too! This is more ironic than anything considering that most of our current holiday traditions have Pagan beginnings, but when this time of year is so focused on Christmas, strangely enough, Yule gets lost in the shuffle!

Yule is a modern English word used to describe an old twelve-day religious festival observed by Northern Europeans. For simplicity's sake, even if the festival went by a different name for a certain group, I'll be using "Yule". :) The festival was later absorbed into and equated with the Christian festival of Christmas, taking many traditions and adapting their own practices. Santa Claus, the myth of Jesus Christ, and the trappings of the season (trees, stockings, caroling, everything!) are all derivatives of old Yuletide traditions.

The solstice celebration likely originated with the Norse people, who viewed Yule as a time for merrymaking, feasting, and sacrifice (if the Icelandic sagas are to be believed... and I wouldn't put it past them). Traditional customs included the Yule log, a decorated tree, and wassailing.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250"] Thanks to culinarychef.com![/caption]

The Celts of the British Isles celebrated Yule as well, called midwinter to them. Not much is known about their traditions as they've been lost through the ages, but those that are known still persist today. Though while they still collect mistletoe, I'm pretty sure they don't sacrifice a white bull like Pliny the Elder said Druid priests did back then!

Then there are the Romans, who had their own winter festival, Saturnalia. Full of general merrymaking, a lot of gambling, even more alcohol, and other debauchery, the week-long party was held in honor of the god Saturn -- in fact, the common greeting around that time was "Io, Saturnalia!" There was sacrifices, gift-giving, special privileges for slaves (we ARE talking Roman times), and feasting. On top of all the debauchery, and probably more importantly, the festival was to honor an agricultural god in the hopes for a fertile and abundant crop in the spring.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="169"] Thanks to serenedominic.com![/caption]

Oh, and as mentioned above, Jesus Christ wasn't the first Son of God... or Sun God, more accurately. Four thousand years ago, long before Christianity started popping up, ancient Egyptians celebrated the rebirth of Horus, the god of the Sun. This became wildly popular with other civilizations, which took to honoring the welcoming back of the Sun, especially as these civilizations started to realize that things went swimmingly with their crops and abundance... until the weather got cooler. Each year, the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth played over and over, and they saw that the Sun did return after a period of cold and darkness. Good reason to celebrate, if you ask me!

As their religious base grew, Christians took full advantage of many of these traditions and used them to their advantage, adopting them and applying them to their own religion in an attempt (one that proved pretty effective!) to convert the Pagans. Within a few centuries, Christians had everyone worshiping a new holiday celebrated on 25 December! Not too shabby, if you ask me... though it might behoove them to remember from where all their traditions came. ;)

In some current Neopagan traditions, the Yule celebration stems from the Celtic legend of the battle between the young Oak King and the Holly King. The Oak King, representative of the light of the new year, tries every year to usurp the old Holly King, the symbol of darkness. As we can see, the Oak King indeed kicks the Holly King's ass every year, and the light does indeed return. This ass-whoopin' reenactment is popular among some Wiccan and Pagan rituals.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Thanks to ArwensGrace at deviantart.com![/caption]

The sun returns! The light returns!
The earth begins to warm once more!
The time of darkness has passed,
and a path of light begins the new day.
Welcome, welcome, the heat of the sun,
blessing us all with its rays.

Post Round-Up

Here's a round-up of posts from TCC's previous years, as they're definitely interesting (at least I think so):

• The Science of the Solstice
  Ever wonder why, even as the Sun makes his return, the cold weather still lingers and even gets stronger? Find out here!


• Winter Solstice Lunar Eclipse
  MOAR SCIENCE! This one is from 2010.


• Pagan Songs for Yule
  My favorite collection of songs for the Winter Solstice!


• Blessed Yule and Winter Solstice
  A brief history of Yule before Christmas came about, to supplement what you just learned above.

I also really enjoyed these posts from other Pagans this year, and thought you would, too!

• Kallan at The Secret Life of the American Working Witch - The Sunday Stew: Solstice Edition


• Ellen Dugan's Blog of Witchery - Embrace the Light: A Yuletide Spell


• Sam at Bones, Buried Treasures and Beliefs - The Anthropology of Santa Claus


• The Pooka Pages (for kids and kids at heart!) - Yule 2012 Edition


• The Huffington Post - Winter Solstice: A Paean to the Pregnant Darkness


• Willow Firesong's Circle of Firelight - Yule and Solstice Carols (YAY!!)

Facebook Friends Chime In!

Last week, I posed the question of how you celebrate the winter holidays on Facebook, and I received some great responses! (I also asked on my personal page, and received some responses there as well.) Below are some of your insights, and some fun pictures to go along with some of them.

See, I love this. It gives you time to spend with your family without the stress that typically accompanies it.

Hahaha! One of my favorite things growing up was getting that themed Christmas ornament to hang on the tree each year. Mine were actually Barbie ones (I'm not entirely sure why, either!), and I'm pretty sure my mom still has and hangs it most years!

My dad had the Star Trek ones. :) In fact, my sister and I preferred them off the tree as toys than we did ON the tree...

SHE'S NOT EVEN KIDDING!! :D



If anyone ever wonders why I miss Florida, this is exactly why. ;)

Mmm, challah and Lughnasadh! Now THAT'S a tradition I could sink my teeth into! :cymbalcrash:

I also like the idea of creating your own butter. Might have to try that... with a little dance party, of course. :)

I love getting an atheist's perspective on this! I'm of the belief that atheist children end up knowing more about a wider array of religions than many of those religions' adherents, and this is exactly why. Checking out books? Reading and discussion? Delving into the actual history of the holidays? Love love LOVE it! It's the same thing as I'd want to instill in our children, even if they aren't raised atheists. :)

OH, and she had some amazing photos to share! Remember the reference to the Trek Tree? You can thank Sarah for that one:

[caption id="attachment_1553" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Trekkie Tree![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1554" align="aligncenter" width="292"] Santa "Claws", hahahahaha![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1555" align="aligncenter" width="302"] Sarah's adorable daughter sampling some goodies.[/caption]

And Tori shares her story below about extending winter celebrations from Yule to the day after Christmas! These are just some additional things they do to make the week even more special.

Thanks to everyone who chimed in and shared their holiday traditions with us! :)



A Week of Christmas (a special post by Tori Zigler)

I've been asked on a number of occasions what Matt and I are planning to do with the holidays, considering I'm Pagan, Matt and his family are Jewish, and my family is Catholic. The easiest response, of course, is to say, "We're going to celebrate all of them!"

... easier said than done, am I right?

We're still lost for ideas, especially since we want to start new traditions with our children and would like to celebrate all three in a way that both separates the significance of each and melds them so they make sense together. So I asked you, my faithful readers, over on my Facebook page to send me your holiday traditions, no matter what you celebrate! As you can tell above, y'all definitely delivered. :)

I did get a special word by email from a good friend of mine, Tori Zigler, a prolific children's writer who herself is part of an interfaith family -- she and her husband identify as Pagan, but their families do not, so they've had to create their own traditions! See how they make the winter celebrations last not only on Yule and Christmas, but all season long...

It’s always seemed like a real shame to me that, after all the preparations and expense, within 24 hours Christmas is over and all that’s left is the mess. Wouldn’t it be nice if Christmas lasted longer?

Yes, we thought so too! So, because of that wish, and the fact we’re Pagan and the rest of the family aren’t – meaning that we wanted to celebrate the Winter Solstice, but they didn’t - we decided to make it happen. Besides, the Roman celebration of Saturnalia lasted for eight days, so we saw no reason our celebration couldn’t last for several days too!

So, here’s what we do:

Instead of one or two expensive gifts, we buy 1 expensive gift and 4 cheaper ones each. The cheaper ones are exchanged on the 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th of December, and the expensive one on the 25th. The expensive one gets a slightly different label to the others so we know to not grab that one from under the tree until the 25th, but the 4 cheaper gifts are grabbed at random from under the tree. We started doing this both to spread out the gift giving and because it gives us time to enjoy and appreciate each gift before moving on to the next one. Also, ‘Santa’ usually visits on the 24th, filling our stockings with treats, and placing a small gift for us under the tree from him.

On the 21st of December we usually do some kind of a ritual, even if it’s a very small one. Last year, for example, I did a ritual to chase off unwanted houseguests, which seemed appropriate since we’d pretty much only just moved in here.

The days from the 21st through the 25th of December are then filled with any holiday activities we want to do. Always involving holiday baking, the watching of holiday movies, and the reading of holiday books, but usually also involving the making of some sort of handmade holiday decoration. Last year, for example, we made some decorated baubles for the tree, and also some penguin tree ornaments (there were four, but we gave three away). Other holiday activities may be included; pretty much anything you can think of really... Holiday parties with family and friends, holiday games, more baking (especially good if family is visiting for a party or to join in your feast), build a snowman (if there’s snow), or whatever. The key thing is to be doing things together, preferably things with a holiday feel to them, though that’s not essential.

On the 26th of December is when we have our holiday feast. It used to be that the 26th was when we had a buffet with the family, but now that we live away from the family we’ve changed things a little. What we do now is phone them on the 25th to wish them “Merry Christmas” and exchange news on who got what from who, and so on, then we have our Christmas dinner on the 26th instead. The reason for this is a combination of not wanting to try and cook a full roast between phone calls, and the fact it then leaves us free to enjoy the phone calls and exchanging of final gifts without having to worry about burning the potatoes. Besides, we technically have two roast dinners to make, since I’m a vegetarian and my hubby isn’t, so we make a vegetarian roast and a meat roast. Last year, for example, I had a cranberry nut roast to go with my potatoes and veg, hubby had ham. Making two different roasts in our little kitchen is hard work, but it’s worth it.

Also, the good thing with making those roasts just for us is that there’s enough left over for the next day, so on December 27th, all we have to do is enjoy leftovers and relax; an option we took with leftover buffet food in the past too. We don't really count that as part of our holiday celebrations though, because it's basically a day to rest from all that celebrating. I suppose you could count it though.

And that, my friends, is how to make your holiday celebrations last a week!

Tori is an eclectic Pagan, a poet, and a writer of children's books. Her series include "Magical Chapters" and "Toby's Tales". Tori can also be found on Facebook! She currently lives in England's southeast with her husband, Kelly, and her Westhighland terrier, Keroberous ("Kero").



Fox Family Traditions: One Year At a Time

Matt and I are still trying to find our footing in this holiday, especially considering how many we have to work around this time of year.

One thing we've been doing for the past few years is getting stockings prepared for opening at Yule, and a pair of PJ pants to keep us warm as the weather continues to cool off. I've put together the stockings each of these years, basically forcing us to do something for Yule (as we have or have had traditions for Christmas and Chanukah, but nothing for the Solstice). This time around, though, we're making them for each other! I'm really excited about that, as it'll add an element of surprise to this Yule celebration.

I'm so happy Matt is getting into this tradition, too, and between that, Chanukah candle lighting, and our Jewish-Pagan Christmas (Chinese and a movie, yo!), we're hoping that we can make the winter holiday season just as amazing for our kids as it has been for us.

We're taking it one year at a time. The nice thing about having our own little family is starting these new traditions, and finding out what works, what doesn't, and what we can't live without.

Again, I want to thank everyone for sharing their holiday celebrations! It makes me look that much more forward to giving Kit everything he deserves when it comes to making the Solstice magickal. :)

NASA Goddard encourages and celebrates different faiths – Part 5!

[caption id="attachment_1154" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="@NASAGoddard"][/caption]

A very happy holiday to anyone observing this month.

Like the ones in February, April, July, and August, below is the section of the email sent to all NASA Goddard employees with the holidays for the month of July, including some links at the bottom with additional information and a diversity calendar. As always, thank you to Matt for sharing!

October 1

Sukkot (Feast of Booths) (Jewish): An eight day festival commemorating the divine protection given to the Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert. It is also a festival of giving thanks and celebrating the fall harvest. Begins at sundown the previous day.

October 5       

National Diversity Day: “Embrace diversity, embrace our world” is the slogan of this day, celebrated each year on the first Friday of October.

October 8 

Columbus Day: Columbus Day was first celebrated on October 12, 1792 to honor the day Christopher Columbus, a well known Italian explorer, landed in the Bahamas in 1492. One hundred years later, it was celebrated again at the urging of President Benjamin Harrison. Since 1920, it has been celebrated annually and, in 1971, became a federal legal holiday to be celebrated on the second Monday in October. Also commemorated in multiple Latin American countries to celebrate shared Spanish and Indian heritage.

October 9   

Simchat Torah (Jewish): Means “rejoicing in the Torah” and immediately follows Sukkot. It celebrates the conclusion of the public reading of the Torah. Begins at sundown the previous day.

October 9

Leif Eriksson Day (Norwegian American): A day of tribute to the landing of Norseman on the North American continent around 1000 CE, led by Leif Eriksson from Greenland. This holiday, proclaimed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, honors the Icelandic explorer Leif Ericsson, who is believed to be the first European to land on North American soil. Almost five hundred years would pass before another European landed in the Americas, when Columbus made his voyage of exploration

October 11     

National Coming Out Day: Commemorates the 1987 march in Washington, D.C. to support gay and lesbian rights. This is also a day to encourage gays and lesbians to step out with pride.

October 16     

National Boss Day: A day dedicated to appreciate our supervisors at work. It is usually celebrated on October 16 but if it falls on a weekend day, it is then celebrated on the work day closest to the 16^th.

October 16     

Navaratri (Hindu): During the 9 days festival of Navaratri, God in the form of the universal mother, commonly referred to as Durga, Devi or Shakti is honored. Culminates with a celebration on the tenth day “Dassehra” to commemorate Rama's victory over Ravana and honors the goddess Durga. This festival is also known as Vijay Dasami.

October 20     

Birthday of the Bab (Baha’i): Remembers the 1819 birth of Siyyid Ali Muhammad, who took the title of “the Bab” and is recognized as prophet-herald of the faith. Begins at sundown the previous day.

October 24

United Nations Day (United Nations): This day commemorates the founding of the United Nations in 1945.

October 26

Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) (Islamic): Commemorates Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ishmael in obedience to God’s word (God interceded by replacing a ram for the child). The three-day celebration occurs at the end of the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. This is the most important feast of the Muslim calendar. Begins at sundown the previous day.

October 31

Halloween: This festival, which takes its name from All Hallows Eve (the eve of the feast of All Saints), originated among the Celts of Britain and Ireland, for whom October 31 was new year’s eve. On this night it was believed that the souls of the dead revisited their earthly homes, and huge bonfires were set to frighten away evil spirits. With the rise of Christianity, the autumn festival came to be associated with All Saints Day. Secular Halloween customs reflect its pagan origins and were introduced to the United States by immigrants, especially the Irish, in the nineteenth century. Today the most widely observed Halloween custom is a benign version of “trick or treat,” in which costumed children go from door to door collecting sweets.

October 31     

Samhain (Pagan): The first day of the New Year and marks the move from summer to winter in the Northern Hemisphere. This harvest festival, one of the “Greater Sabbats,” honors Saman, an ancient lord of the dead. According to folklore, on this day the souls of all those who had died the previous year gathered.

October 31     

Reformation Day (Christian Protestant): Commemorates the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses (propositions) to the door of Wittenberg’s Palace Church, which led to the establishment of the Protestant denominations of Christianity.

http://www.diversityresources.com/multicultural-calendar.html

http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/

http://www.diversitycalendar.com/Home.html

L'Shanah Tovah from The Coexist Cafe!

I know I've been MIA for a while, but it's not from lack of trying or ambition, I swear. This time of year is especially hectic, from about the start of September through the end of the year, between Sabbats and High Holy Days and other celebrations.

Speaking of High Holy Days... last night kicked off Rosh Hashana!

Jewish Year 5773: sunset September 16, 2012 - nightfall September 18, 2012

 

Occurring on the first and second days of Tishri (the seventh month of the Jewish year), Rosh Hashana literally means "head of the year" or "first of the year", indicating what is commonly known as the Jewish New Year. It is one of the holiest days of the year and, while not named "Rosh Hashana" in the Bible (rather, it's referred to as Yom Ha-Zikkaron (day of remembrance) or Yom Teruah (day of sounding the shofar)), it is instituted in Leviticus 23:24-25.

Like the American New Year, Rosh Hashana is a time for making "resolutions" and turning to introspection, looking back at mistakes from the past year and planning changes to make in the new year. One custom is that of "casting off" or Tashlikh, when, on the afternoon of the first day, one walks to flowing water such as a creek or a river and casts off what is in one's pockets (often bits of bread crumbs) into the water, symbolically casting off sin. While it's not a tradition mentioned in the Bible, it's a long-standing custom.

Some other customs associated with Rosh Hashana:

• Shofar: Fashioned out of a ram's horn, the shofar is blown somewhat like a trumpet 100 times a day, with a total of four different types of notes: Tekiah, a 3-second sustained note; sevarim, three 1-second notes rising in tone; teruah, a series of short, staccato notes extending over a period of about 3 seconds; and tekiah gedolah (literally, "big tekiah"), the final blast that lasts about 10 seconds minimum.


• Work and Worship: No work is permitted on Rosh Hashana. The day is instead spent in synagogue, where the regular daily liturgy is expanded somewhat. A special prayerbook called the machzor is added to these daily liturgies as so many changes happen on this day (and Yom Kippur).


• Apples and Honey: As a symbol for a wish for a sweet new year, apples are dipped in honey and enjoyed with a touch of added sweetness. Bread is also dipped in honey at this time for the same reason. I recommend trying them both (and for you vegans, to swap out the honey for agave nectar)!


• Greetings: The common greeting during Rosh Hashana is "L'Shanah Tovah", literally "for a good year." This is a shortening of "L'shanah toval tikatev v'taihatem" (or "tikatevi v'taihatemi" to women), which means, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year."

So that all said, a very happy new year, may your new year be sweet, and a very happy 5773! :)

NASA Goddard encourages and celebrates different faiths – Part 3!

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Holidays to balance out your hot and sticky summer! Thank heavens, too -- we all need something other than air conditioners, swimming pools, and ice-cold lemonade to keep us afloat as we roast. (Though honestly, none of those are all that bad.)

Nothing for us Pagans this month, but still plenty to go around! A very happy holiday to anyone observing this month. :)

Like the ones in February and April, below is the section of the email sent to all NASA Goddard employees with the holidays for the month of July, including some links at the bottom with additional information and a diversity calendar. As always, thank you to Matt for sharing!

July 3

Asalhapuja (Buddhist): A Theraveda Buddhist celebration of the Buddha’s first sermon and the setting of the Wheel of Truth into the world.

July 4

Independence Day (United States): Marks the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence by representatives of the 13 colonies. The U.S. proclaimed autonomy from England and formed of the United States of America.

July 4

Shab-e-Barat (Islamic): A fast in preparation for Ramadan. It is believed that on this night, Allah absolves sins and fixes the destinies of humans for the coming year. It is common, particularly in India and Pakistan, to ask Allah to forgive people who have died. Begins at sundown the previous day.

July 9

Martyrdom of the Bab (Baha’i): Commemorates the arrest, torture, imprisonment, and execution of the Bab, the prophet-herald of the faith, in Tabriz, Persia, in 1850. Begins at sundown the previous day.

July 14

Bastille Day (France): Commemorates the event that launched the French Revolution. On this date in 1789, the Bastille, which held political prisoners and became a symbol of oppression by the monarchy, was stormed and prisoners freed. Given their French heritage, many Louisiana parishes, including New Orleans, hold Bastille Day festivals featuring Cajun food, music, and dance.

July 20

Ramadan (Islamic): This begins the first day of the Islamic month of Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic year. The fast of Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars of Islam, and mandatory for every Muslim who has reached puberty except those who are ill, pregnant, or on a journey. During this month, no water or food may be taken from sunrise to sunset. The feast of Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan.

July 20

First Special Olympics Games (1968): On this date, the first Special Olympics, an athletic competition for children and adults with cognitive disabilities, opened at Soldiers Field in Chicago. The first Special Olympics had 1,000 participants from the United States and Canada.By 1995, this competition had expanded to include Winter Special Olympics (added in 1977) and to involve 7,000 participants from all 50 states and 143 countries.

July 23

Birthday of Haile Selassie (Rastafarian): One of the holiest days of the year for Rastafarians, this holiday celebrates the birthday of Emperor Haile Selassie (1892–1975) of Ethiopia, who is revered by the Rastafarians as a descendant of King Solomon and is believed to be the incarnation of God. He was born Tafari makonnen and later took the name Haile Selassie, meaning Power of the Holy Trinity. The etymology of Rastafari is based on the word ras, meaning “prince” and Haile Selassie’s birth name, Tafari.

July 24

Pioneer Day (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints): This marks the day in 1847 that Brigham Young led other believers in the teachings of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, into the valley of the Great Salt Lake, where they would establish the center of their church and build Salt Lake City.

July 26

Americans with Disabilities Act Signed (United States): Celebrates the 1990 signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which provides for reasonable accommodation in work situations and standards for physical accessibility to buildings and public transportation.

July 29

Tisha B’Av (Jewish): This holiday commemorates the destruction of the Jewish temple in Jerusalem in both 586 B.C.E. and again in 70 C.E. All Jewish holidays begin at sundown on the evening before the date shown.

We invite you to visit the Web sites used to compile this calendar for additional information. There you will find a wealth of information on days that are recognized throughout the world. Please find the sources listed below:

http://www.diversityresources.com/multicultural-calendar.html

http://www3.kumc.edu/diversity/

http://www.diversitycalendar.com/Home.html