Would you be surprised that the Cradle Song is a serious genre within the Western classical tradition? Of course, people everywhere sing to babies and need no musical training to do so! They generally pass on the same folk-based tunes their parents sang to them. … Read more
Scotch tape and colorful paper will be flying off the shelves this weekend, as people face up to the task of wrapping gifts. How nice it is to remember one traditional present that needs no wrapping and, in fact, serves as a kind of decoration … Read more
If you are getting our Weekly Digest, then you will start receiving the Advent Calendar each day beginning December 1. But what about your friends? Maybe the daily essays that you have come to enjoy would brighten up their holiday preparations as well. If so, … Read more
If there can be “Christmas in July,” why not “Advent in June”? At least that’s the conclusion we reached today driving the first leg from Dallas to New Mexico en route to the Great Homeschool convention in Ontario California. More accurately, we began preparing for … 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
