Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Thursday, December 2, 2021
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Monday, December 24, 2018
Happy Christmas & Merry New Year!
Happy Christmas & Merry New Year from our Hyacinth Macaw Parrot Princess Tara and her sidekick the Blue and Gold Macaw Aboo! From our flock to yours, wishing you all the best for the New Year!
Sunday, November 25, 2018
Putting the Pagan Back in Christmas
Put the Pagan Back in Christmas! You too can join our Hyacinth Macaw Parrot Princess Tara's War on Christmas. Every time you take a drink of your coffee, tea, or whatever, with her first ever Happy Holidays War on Christmas 15 ounce two-tone coffee mug.
Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Saturday, December 17, 2016
And God Bless Us, Everyone
The Victorians were a demented lot. Perverse and demented. Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge of A Christmas Carol fame probably epitomized Victorian joviality. We're not sure what these Victorian Christmas cards epitomized. Possibly some perverse Victorian subliminal messaging. One message is clear, however. Birds did not fare well during a Victorian Christmas:
Because nothing says jollity like a flock of glum birds with lighted matches stuck under their wings!
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Carol of the Bells, Parts Un et Deux
Carol of the Bells
Traditional Ukrainian folk chant, with modern lyrics by Peter J. Wilhousky
Hark how the bells,
sweet silver bells,
all seem to say,
throw cares away
Christmas is here,
bringing good cheer,
to young and old,
meek and the bold.
Ding dong ding dong
that is their song
with joyful ring
all caroling.
One seems to hear
words of good cheer
from everywhere
filling the air.
Oh how they pound,
raising the sound,
o'er hill and dale,
telling their tale.
Gaily they ring
while people sing
songs of good cheer,
Christmas is here.
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas,
Merry, Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas.
On on they send,
on without end,
their joyful tone
to every home.
Ding dong ding... dong!
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Ye Who Now Will Bless the Poor Shall Yourselves Find Blessing
Good King Wenceslas has always been one of our favorite Christmas carols. The story of a Tenth Century Saint, Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia, bravely battling the winter cold to give alms to a poor peasant on the Feast of Stephen, the Second Day of Christmas.
Does a Nineteenth Century Christmas carol based on a Thirteenth century melody about a Tenth Century Saint have relevance to Twenty-first Century America? Besides being a catchy tune? We think so. The last line of the song sums up the meaning and spirit of Christmas to us in a nutshell:
Ye who now will bless the poor Shall yourselves find blessing
Christmas in America today has come to focus on accumulation, materialism, and greed. Pepper spray at Walmart. Riots at Nike. What we buy has displaced what we give as the contemporary meaning of Christmas. We say the spirit of Christmas is found not in all the junk and trinkets we buy and accumulate. The spirit of Christmas comes from helping those who need help. And not just once or twice a year, but all the year around. Tax cuts for billionaires, and blaming the poor for being lazy, are not exactly what John Mason Neale had in mind when he penned this carol:
(lyrics by John Mason Neale)
On the feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gath'ring winter fuel
"Hither, page, and stand by me
If thou know'st it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?"
"Sire, he lives a good league hence
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes' fountain."
"Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I will see him dine
When we bear him thither."
Page and monarch forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude wind's wild lament
And the bitter weather
"Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer."
"Mark my footsteps, my good page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shalt find the winter's rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly."
In his master's steps he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing
By the Way: We love the R.E.M. 1989 Fanclub single version of Good King Wenceslas:
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
