Today we celebrate Epiphany, commemorating the moment when the three kings/wise men/magi knelt before the manger to pay homage to baby Jesus. The message of the story is tremendously important, even if most of the historical details are questionable. Were There Three...
Halloween originated with the Celtic pagan rituals of Samhain, so it is not a Roman holiday. However, Romans celebrated two days in honor of the dead, and when the Catholic Church started imposing their own holidays on top of existing pagan holidays, they ended up...
This afternoon, as we took a windy walk, we passed a dogwood tree in full bloom and I asked my daughter if she knew the legend of the dogwood at Easter. I hope the owner of the tree doesn’t mind, because I took a flower home for Good Friday. Then I started researching...
When I started building my nativity set, we could only afford to buy a few figures and I got animals to go along with the nuclear holy family because I thought a young child would find furry four-legged creatures more interesting than men in bathrobes. Each year we...
I once saw a guy in my office printing out drawings of jack o’lanterns with a line through them. At first, I wondered what he had against pumpkins. How can any parent not like a smiling vegetable? Then I read the message under the picture “Sorry, no trick...
Happy Cross Quarter Day! It’s better known to most of us as Groundhog Day. Today we celebrate the fact that we are halfway between Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Okay, in the age of electric lighting the Cross Quarter is not a big deal for most of us,...
