George Rebane

Today Christians in the western tradition celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation.  Our Eastern Orthodox brethren maintain the old Julian calendar and will celebrate Christmas on 7 Jan 2009.  This lag has been in effect since the 16th century when our modern Gregorian calendar was adopted to great consternation in Europe.  In many cities there were riots by people demanding the return of their “lost” 11 days which many believed were actually days taken from their lives since the calendar was suddenly advanced by church edict in 1582.  To complicate matters more, not all countries and churches accepted this change, and church calendars will remain complicated for several centuries yet.

The Jewish Festival of Lights or Hanukkah, which this year coincides with Christmas, is an eight day celebration of the rededication of the Jerusalem temple about 200 BC during the Maccabean Revolt.  Its start is on the 25th day of Kislev in the Jewish calendar which is even more complicated and causes these eight holy days to fall anywhere from late November to late December.  The original observance of Hanukkah was a miraculous event in that the temple’s Lamp of the Eternal Flame had only a one day supply for oil which burned for eight days until new oil could be procured to keep it burning.

Jo Ann and I wish all of our friends and readers a joyous Christmas and Hanukkah, and a 2009 of health, peace, productivity, and restoration.