Putting things in Perspective... Getting Ready for Christmas....

Putting in perspective…

Today I will attend my neighbour’s Christmas house party… When I was teaching that is, up to last year, I and my students caroled in the school… the last week before Christmas breaks we gathered in the main lobby of the school and caroled for half an hour… It was fun and beautiful and heralded cheers and promoted harmony and peace… I decorated my classroom and had two Christmas trees… One was just a branch that the caretakers trimmed for me and we dressed it with lights and students hung stars on it with their Christmas wishes…

I love the Christmas festivities…

Since the Middle Ages people have celebrated Christmas very much like we do today… Maybe as things evolved Christmas was commercialized more and more, but essentially it was the same as today… Churches have special services, businesses were happier and hyped up to sell more, people decorated houses and streets with pretty much the same way as we do today, special festivals and plays, caroling and singing, jolly taverns and restaurants and bars, special food and home parties…

I love the festivities… It promotes goodwill and understanding and harmony and peace… among communities and in the Global Village…

But something happened in England in the 1600s… The Puritans took over…

To Cromwell and his fellow Puritans, though, singing and related Christmas festivities were not only abhorrent but sinful. According to historical sources, they viewed the celebration of Christ’s birth on 25 December as a “popish” and wasteful tradition that derived – with no biblical justification – from the Roman Catholic Church (‘Christ’s Mass’), thus threatening their core Christian beliefs. Nowhere, they argued, had God called upon mankind to celebrate Christ’s nativity in such fashion. In 1644, an Act of Parliament effectively banned the festival and in June 1647, the Long Parliament passed an ordinance confirming the abolition of the feast of Christmas.

                      King's College getting ready for the festivities and caroling and fund raising.                   An evening of carols and cuisine at King's College Cambridge has been organised to raise           funds.... 

But the voices and festive spirits of English men, women and children were not to be so easily silenced. For the nearly two decades that the ban on Christmas was in place, semi-clandestine religious services marking Christ’s nativity continued to be held on 25 December, and people continued to sing in secret. Christmas carols essentially went underground …

                                                  Caroling at King's College, England

And, with the Restoration of the English monarchy in 1660, when legislation between 1642-60 was declared null and void, both the religious and the secular elements of the Twelve Days of Christmas were allowed to be celebrated freely. And not only had the popular Christmas carols of previous eras survived triumphant but interest in them was renewed with passion and exuberance…

I love the Christmas festivities and caroling… It heralds peace and harmony…among ALL and throughout the Global Village…

I did mention Cromwell and the Puritans… Just to put things in perspective…

The ban on Christmas festivities and caroling reminds me of the Islamic-Jihadists who have banned almost everything other than their petty GREED…

Also the Cromwell era heralded turmoil within the Christian faith… and there were wars of succession to thrones… and armed conflict between Protestants and Catholics… which reminds me of the Islamist-Jihadists and the current phase of Middle Eastern politics…
Europe went through the violent phase of religious-sectarian rivalry... Europe had the 30 Years War, and Wars of successions... The burning of the "witches" and excommunications... all these remind me of the phase that the Middle East is going through...
It's violent, it's disgusting... but we evolved through it too... It's a bit late for the Middle East... and we don't want the violence and the brutal beheadings and the massacres of minorities... But Europe did all that too...

It is Christmas and I think we should let the Middle East go through the phase that Europe went through in the 1600s and on…

It is a bit late for the Middle east, but then I think European colonialism was the reason for this retardation…

Let’s put things in perspective and let us celebrate Christmas… promoting peace and harmony...

Check below for Cromwell and the turmoil...

Throwing out the Parliament...

April 1653, Oliver Cromwell dissolves the 'Rump' parliament and establishes himself as Lord Protector of England. 

They even hung the dead body... Gruesome... and reminds me of the Islamist-Jihadist extremism...

Cromwell had good thoughts too... 

Now Check the Talaban Atrocities... and compare and put things in perspective...

Pakistan's military says it has killed 59 militants in ground assaults and air strikes on Taliban units in areas near the border with Afghanistan.

The operations come days after the Taliban killed 141 people at a school in Peshawar, mostly children.

The military has stepped up its offensive against the insurgents in the provinces of the Khyber agency and North Waziristan.

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- As Pakistan started three days of national mourning Wednesday, the Taliban said they targeted a school that mostly admits soldiers' children because the students aspired to follow in their fathers' footsteps and target militants.

Terrorists ambushed the school in Peshawar on Tuesday, explosives strapped to their bodies, and burst into an auditorium filled with students taking exams.

They sprayed bullets rapidly, killing 145 people. Of those, 132 were children, authorities said.

In an email, the terror group warned Muslims to avoid places with military ties, saying it attacked the school to avenge the deaths of children allegedly killed by soldiers in tribal areas.

Students praying for the murdered students...

This is the deadliest incident inside Pakistan since October 2007, when 139 Pakistanis died and more than 250 others were wounded in an attack near a procession for exiled former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, according to the university of Maryland's Global Terrorism Database...

Even the Taliban in Afghanistan, who are closely affiliated with their Pakistani counterparts, criticized the killing of women and children as against Islamic teaching.

Remembering the students...

Indeed, let us put everything in perspective and promote peace and harmony among the peoples of the Global Village...

Japan's senior cheerleaders

Cheerleading is usually seen as a young person's sport, but the Japan Senior Cheer Association is for women in their 60s and 70s.

It is lovely to see people, older people, enjoying their sports...

Hurrah...!

Let's put things in perspective... These Japanese seniors are definitely not the Dallas Cowboys... they are not exposing themselves... and they are not doing it for a buck or two... They are cheerleaders just for the fun and the sports... 

Lovely idea...

Lovely... 

...and Indeed, It's getting just like CHRISTMAS...

Lapland, Finland...

Downtown Valletta in Malta

Bath in England...

Barcelona, Spain...

Rockefeller Square in New York...

Quebec City in Canada

Raykyavik, Iceland

Strasbourg, France

Valkenburg in The netherlands

Santa Claus in indiana

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PEACE ON EARTH

Still celebrating Advent day by day...
My neighbour has all the house lit... My neighbour's house is in joy... and all dressed up and ready to party...
I put up outside lights too... not as extravagant as my neighbour's... but enough to be noticed...
Our house is in joy too...
I have been lazy, but soon I will put up our Christmas tree too...
The Prince of PEACE is coming to town...

Wake up with a carol in your heart and get involved... Make peace on earth reality

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It is Christmas... initiate new routines... and celebrate PEACE and HARMONY...
Be active and usher in PEACE...