By the time you read this post, it may be December 26 or 27. Christmas, they say, is over. They’re wrong. We’re still at the beginning of Christmas, despite what the commercial world says. Our modern culture has forgotten the actual parameters of the Christmas … Read more
Imagine growing up in the 70’s—the 1870’s, that is. You live on the vast, mostly unsettled prairie in what is now the Midwestern United States. It takes a whole day to travel the forty miles by wagon to the nearest town, and your closest neighbor … Read more
Inspired by suggestions we heard from so many of you, we decided to publish a collection of the daily essays of our online Advent Calendar. We are pleased that it is now available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle editions. Journey Through Advent began its own journey … Read more
A friend sent me a card, saying he hoped O Come, O Come Emmanuel would be a topic for one of the remaining days of the Advent Calendar. This song, for him, evoked special memories of childhood. That set me to thinking. It’s certainly not the … Read more
The celebration of Russian Christmas has been shaped by forces both astronomical and historical. Let’s look first at the calendar. Most of Europe shifted to the Gregorian Calendar starting in 1582, but Russia retained the Julian Calendar. Peter the Great modernized the Julian calendar in … Read more
The Christian season of Advent always begins four Sundays before Christmas Day. So the number of days in Advent varies. For 2014, count back four Sundays before Christmas and you arrive at November 30 as the start date. Advent ends on Christmas Eve 25 days … Read more