Christmas 2005 Newsletter Issue One

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Flair For Writing
Christmas 2005 Issue One
Editor: Princess Megan Rose Princess Megan Rose 10 Years
Assistant Editor: Angel Angel

Hello Everyone! Happy Thanksgiving, almost! Megan and Angel here. We hope that you had a Happy Halloween. I lost a friend Sue and co-worker in a car accident. It has been rough the past three weeks but I know she is in Heaven and I am trying to get past it. I miss her.

Angel is done with her Art classes. You know she does a beautiful job. She and Phillip will have their Thanksgiving dinner together at their home in Illinois.

It is that time of year again. Christmas. I went to the Mall yesterday and their tree wasn't up, yet! I am disappointed. I got most of my Christmas shopping done. We will have three issues of the Christmas Newsletter. We did Thanksgiving last year and there is only so much info to write about it so we will do the Christmas Newsletter or should I say one of them?

In this issue, we will be writing about Annuniciation, Armenia Christmas and Winter Goddesses. We hope that you will enjoy this issue. Okay. Let's get started.

Annunciation means "announcement" The word refers to the announcement made by Gabriel, the Angel telling the Virgin Mary that she was to bear a son by the Holy Spirit and call him Jesus. In the Middle Ages, the Church had a feast day to commmerate this angelic announcement.

On December 25 in the middle of the fourth century, Church officials created a new festival to honor the birth of Jesus. This is what we now call Christmas. It is believed that Mary became pregnant on March 25 and nine months later, Jesus was born.

Many Christians recogonize March 25 as the Christmas holiday but they have different names for the holiday. Christmas is also known as "Annunciation of the Lord". English call it "Lady Day" after Virgin Mary.

The Annunciation is also a favorite scene of western European painters. Mary and baby Jesus also appears on stained glass as do the angels proclaiming Jesus' birth.

Armenians celebrate Christmas on January 19. The Armenians refused to follow the Roman mandate and their chosen date to celebrate the savior's birth. The Armenians use the Julian calendar and it is thirteen days after Christmas so Christmas for them is January 19. The Gregian calendar recognizes the holiday as January 6 but the Armeninans follow the Julian Calendar instead. Angel and I thought this was interesting as well as confusing.

Female spirits once visited the people of Northern Europe during the long midwinter nights. These goddesses are believed to be ancestors of Santa Claus.

The winter Goddesses are: Berchta and Holde. A sky Goddess sailed the winds dressed in a mantle of snow. {I feel cold just thinking about it!} Sometimes, she appeared wearing a crown of fire{wouldn't that melt the snow?} She rewarded the ones in the thread industry who wove items and made clothes. She was also a concerned mother of the earth and mothers and their children. Folklore says she sailed the winter night accompanied by children and sometimes phantoms of ghosts and dogs.

Bertcha was a German Goddess who inspected barns and homes for cleaniness. A custom on the twelfth day of Christmas was that the remains of a meal be left for Bertcha. If no food was left, she would open the humans' stomachs and eat the contents. Not very flattering! She gave well behaved children presents.

Holde was considered beautiful where Bertcha was homely. When Holde shook out her father bed in the sky, this made snow appear. In Christian times, she was considered a witch.

Hertha. It is believed that she entered homes through the rising smokes of chimney hearths. She would tell the future of the dwellers by reading the flames. This is believed to be how Santa got his idea to come down the chimney at Christmas Time.

All info for this newsletter : Encyclopedia Of Christmas By: Tanya Gulevich

That is all for this time. Angel and I will be writing two more Christmas Newsletters. If you have any stories or poems about Christmas, send us an e-mail. We wish you a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. The next newsletter should be in two weeks. Thanks to all of you who get our monthly newsletter in your e-mail box. This means a lot. Take care. We love you. Megan and Angel

A cute item about Christmas:

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All sigs by Angel!

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