Dear Friends,
In the areas where Five Talents works, Christmas is a big deal. It is celebrated with dancing, songs, prayers, and feasting.
The Twelve Days of Christmas
In Bolivia Christmas trees are rare, but the pesebre, or nativity scene, is a common decoration in families’ homes. Five Talents program members in Bolivia work hard and save throughout the year so they can prepare special food for their families at Christmas. The holiday begins on Christmas Eve and lasts until the Epiphany (January 6th), remembering what we have read about wise men coming to offer gifts to the baby Jesus.
Celebrating Advent
In East Africa gift giving and Christmas decorations are not common. Instead, communities come together to pray, eat, and celebrate the coming of Jesus. Church services may last most the day and may include skits and poems with children and families acting out the Christmas story. During this time, many return to their ancestral homes and villages to celebrate Christmas with family and to usher in the New Year together, expectant for what God may have in store for the future.
Part of what this teaches us, I believe, is there are many good ways to celebrate the Good News of Christmas, Emanuel, God with us. Our celebrations may not look similar to the idyllic scenes depicted in Christmas cards, but that doesn’t mean they are any less important or any less effective at celebrating the important gifts we receive at Christmas.
May your Christmas celebrations this year bring you great joy, and may you begin the New Year with the hopes and expectations of great things to come.
Until next Monday morning,
Dale Stanton-Hoyle
Executive Director