Ekaterina Shelehova Christmas Caroles

 Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays to my faithful readers. Some Christmas Caroles for your enjoyment by a Russian-Canadian opera singer.

The Christmas Story

The Nativity

Those of us who celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus are quite familiar with what is known as The Christmas Story from the KJV. It begins with Luke 2:1 And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed through to Luke 2:18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

Then we immediately go to Mathew 2:1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. And read through to Mathew 2:15 And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son.

Yet these two gospels were written by very different authors and for very different audiences. The Gospel of Mathew was likely written about AD 55-65, primarily for a Jewish Christian audience as extensive quotations from the Old Testament (62 times) show Jesus as the fulfillment of Jewish prophecies. The Gospel of Luke was written in about AD 60-80 primarily for Gentile converts to Christianity.

The authorship of the Gospel of Matthew has traditionally been attributed to Matthew who was one of Jesus' twelve disciples and a former tax collector. This attribution is supported by early church traditions and writings from church fathers such as Papias, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria, who affirmed that Matthew wrote the Gospel based on his experiences and teachings of Jesus. Many contemporary scholars consider this attribution to be uncertain, suggesting that it was written by an anonymous Jewish Christian familiar with both Jewish law and Greek language. The Gospel was likely composed in Greek, possibly in Antioch, Syria, a major center of early Christianity.

Traditionally, the author of the Gospel of Luke is believed to be Luke, a physician and companion of Paul. Most critical scholars today believe it was composed anonymously. Two main possibilities for the author's background are proposed: 1. A Gentile Christian with knowledge of Jewish tradition, or 2. A Hellenized Jew living outside Palestine. The author assumed an educated Greek-speaking audience and focused on Christian concerns rather than broader Greco-Roman issues. The gospel was likely composed in a Hellenistic environment, possibly in Antioch or cities in Asia Minor like Ephesus or Smyrna. The author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles.

Whether this is important or not is hard to say. Likely not, as the tradition of The Christmas Story is more important than biblical historical precision.

But while we are at it, the Apostle Paul who created Christianity as we know it today wrote his letters to the churches before the Gospels and the Book of Acts, between AD 48 and 64. While scholars debate the authenticity of some letters, there is consensus on seven letters being genuinely Pauline:

• 1.      Galatians (c. 48 AD)
• 2.      First Thessalonians (c. 49–51 AD)
• 3.      First Corinthians (c. 53–54 AD)
• 4.      Second Corinthians (c. 55–56 AD)
• 5.      Romans (c. 55–57 AD)
• 6.      Philippians (c. 57–59 or c. 62 AD)
• 7.      Philemon (c. 57–59 or c. 62 AD)[6]

These seven letters, along with three others (Second Thessalonians, Colossians, and Ephesians) whose authorship is debated, were likely written before the Gospels. Therefore, at least 7 and potentially up to 10 of Paul's letters were written before the Gospels.

How Nicholas, Bishop of Myra became Santa Claus

Click to enlarge

Tanya and I visited Turkey for the first time in July 2008. We went to an all-inclusive resort near Finike and used the opportunity to go exploring by boat along the coast. Lots to see. An island filled with goats, a city submerged by an earthquake a couple of millenia ago. And Myra, home bishopric of Saint Nicolas. These are pictures we took of Myra and of the ruins of St. Nicholas Cathedral which is now several meters below the surface and was in mist of archeological  recovery and restructuring. 

Tombs in the rock

Amphitheatre

Closeup of tombs in the rock

St. Nicholas Cathedral

St Nicholas Cathedral

St Nicholas Cathedral

For better and more recent pictures go to this website: https://www.sacred-destinations.com/turkey/kale-church-of-st-nicholas-myra

Where does Santa come from? An article in The Economist

How a miracle-working Greek bishop, Dutch folk figure and early New York icon became the ubiquitous symbol of Christmas.

St Nicholas was a fourth-century Greek bishop, today beloved in many Orthodox Christian countries. In western Europe he became known as the patron saint of children. (One of his supposed deeds was giving dowries to three girls who otherwise would have been forced into prostitution; another was restoring three children to life after they were chopped to pieces and pickled in brine.) His feast day, December 6th, was long one of celebration and gift-giving for the little ones.

The Reformation deprecated the veneration of saints, instead encouraging the Protestant faithful to focus on Jesus. When the English church stopped celebrating St Nicholas’s day, Christmas, a few weeks later, became the main festive December celebration. This would later cause a conflation of St Nicholas with the native Father Christmas, originally a separate figure (often depicted in green robes rather than red

The mystery begins to unravel when you remember another that he bears: St Nick. St Nicholas was a fourth-century Greek bishop, today beloved in many Orthodox Christian countries. In western Europe he became known as the patron saint of children. (One of his supposed deeds was giving dowries to three girls who otherwise would have been forced into prostitution; another was restoring three children to life after they were chopped to pieces and pickled in brine.) His feast day, December 6th, was long one of celebration and gift-giving for the little ones.

But to England’s colonies in America came many Dutch Protestants. Their taboo against venerating saints had weakened somewhat, and so some celebrated the gift-giving Sint Nicolaas, who had become a kind of folk figure with his name shortened to Sinterklaas. From there it is not hard to see how English-speakers around them heard something like “Santa Claus”, first mentioned as an alternative to “St Nicholas” in a newspaper in 1773. Charles Jones, a 20th-century American historian, argued that it was American patriots in New York after the revolution who embraced the celebration of St Nicholas, reaching back to New York’s history as a Dutch colony; a saint associated with the Dutch made a fitting anti-British symbol

The Santa Claus we know and love today is a product of The Night Before Christmas and Coca Cola with a step missing. This Saint Nicholas from mid 19th century served as the precurser to 1932's Coca-Cola Santa Claus. 

Thomas Nast 1880

Merry Christmas to all

The Shepherd by Fredrick Forsyth

 

In 1979, As It Happens debuted its reading of The Shepherd, narrated by then-host Alan Maitland, whose dulcet, comforting tones earned him the nickname "Fireside Al."

The year is 1957. An RAF pilot is heading home from Germany for Christmas. Fog sets in and all radio communication is lost.

For one Royal Air Force pilot, one last hurdle remains between himself and a cozy Christmas morning in England. A sixty-six-minute flight in his Vampire fighter plane from Germany to Lakenheath. A routine flight plan and a full tank of fuel. What could go wrong?

But as the fog begins to close in, the compass goes haywire and the radio dies, leaving him in silence, lost and alone up in the inky black sky. All hope seems lost as he accepts his fate when, out of nowhere, a vintage fighter-bomber appears and is miraculously trying to make contact.

For one lonely pilot this is a miracle, but really the mystery has just begun ... 

CBC Radio has aired this reading every Christmas Eve or close to it. I am listening to it as I write at this link. The Shepherd | CBC.ca. It is about 30 minutes. 

 The short book is avilable on Amazon. 

https://www.amazon.ca/Shepherd-Frederick-Forsyth/dp/1804943908/ref=sr_1_1

If you are a movie fan, John Travolta stars in this 2:29 movie from 2023.

https://youtu.be/VOqk3HxtWYo?si=sgLQIevRIBqWQODU

Christmas Letters

 Long long ago, in a land far away, that is the 50s when I was a kid, Christmas cards were a big thing. My grandfather made a rack that held about 100 and sometimes it filled up. I think it cost 3 cents to send one as long as the envelope wasnt sealed.

Before the days of social media, people kept in contact by letter. It became a tradition to send an annual Christmas letter to bring people up to date on kids and cousins etc. Some people were good at it, some people were not. My late wife loved to write letters and spent many a Sunday afternoon at the kitchen table cranking out letter after letter. Her Christmas letters were personal for many years but she got tired of repeating the same stuff so eventually went to photo copies.

We used to get Christmas letters but with Facebook and Instagram, we got fewer and fewer. I appreciate any we get. 

When she passed away, I continued to write with lots of pictures and only enough copy to hit the high spots. Twenty years worth make a nice history of my family growing up. I used to send by email and a couple by mail. This year the bulk of them went as attachments on Messenger, a few by email, and since the Post Office is on strike, my one brother is out of luck. He'll get his from my other brother at Christmas. 

Some people have no clue how to write a Christmas letter and go into every detail of the year's activities, almost day by day. People love to make fun of them and the examples below tell you why.

Click to embiggen

This is a bad photo copy of a Hallmark card. I hope you can read it. We wrote a take off and read it at our church christmas dinner. My aunt was in the congregation and told us afterwards that she thought it sounded familiar. We had in fact used some famous lines from her and her sister.

This article picks out the standard lines from typical letters and I have to admit I may be guilty of some of them, so I usually let my kids write their own paragraph.

I would love to get a letter like this. Or send one if I had the nerve

Happy Holidays to all who celebrate the 20 odd holy days from mid-November to mid-January