Christmas greeting 2024

[miloshlavka]

Good evening to all participants of the skirtcafe.org,
I wish You, all Your near and far all the best for the Christmas 2024, especially peace, health, happiness, contentedness, respect to the diversity and birth for new, perhaps finally a little better times.

Vanoce-2024_mini.jpg

The Nativity scene depicted on the Christmas greeting is inspired by the town of Planá in the Tachov district (Pilsen region, Czech Republic), it uses images of the town hall and two churches.( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan%C3%A ... _District) )

And I congratulate on the important days ahead.:

22. December - Feast of the Prophet Zarathustra
24. December - Christmas Eve
25. December - God's Christmas hour
26. December - 2. Christmas Day
26. – 12. December – Hanukkah-feast of the re-consecration of the Jerusalem Temple
28. December - International Day of cinema
31. December - day of Action Against Prisons
31. December - Feast of the nineteenth day of the month of Sharaf of the Bahá'í faith

Complete text of my poem in my greeting:

Je noc. Jen v drobet krutym hávu,
v kouři se ztrácí světlo hvězd
a těžko ptát se, kdo je v právu.
Pro vůdců čest a vládců slávu
zas vraždíme se vostošest.

To doba šílí jako divá.
Snad jenom někde v zátiší
pláč dítěte zní v koutě chlíva
a anděl nad Gazou teď zpívá.
Jenže ho nikdo neslyší,

to jak se mu hlas hrůzou třese,
že přehluší ho každej šum.
Tak marně poselství se nese:
na Zemi vo mír starejte se
a slávu nechte nebesům.


English translation:

It's night. Just in whit cruel garb,
Starlight is lost in the smoke
it's hard to ask who is in the right.
For leaders honor and rulers glory
we're killing each other again.

It's a crazy time.
Maybe just somewhere in the still
crying baby sounds in the corner of the barn
and the angel over Gaza is singing now.
But no one hears him,

the way his voice trembles,
that every noise would drown him out.
So vain is the message:
take care of the Earth in peace
and leave glory to the heavens.

[Kirbstone]

I couldn't begin to compete with Milos's wonderful greeting, but here's my tuppence worth carrying the same sentiment, if not his amazing content.

Pic. is not new, but I'll raise a glass of Malt similar to the one on the music stand of my beloved Bechstein and toast you all before bashing out 'Figgy pudding' and 'We wish you a merry Christmas' &c.

[Dust]

Merry Christmas​, everyone!


Before anyone says I'm late, remember that the famous "Twelve Days of Christmas" start on the 25th...

And today of course is the "Feast of Steven," also well known from song, though some churches celebrate this on the 27th instead.

[geron]

And today of course is the "Feast of Steven," also well known from song, though some churches celebrate this on the 27th instead.

If they do, they break the logic of the ecclesiastical calendar. St Stephen [sic] is remembered as the first Christian martyr and therefore is celebrated on the first day after Christmas: in the Western calendar, December 26..

[Rokje]

Godt nytt år ( Norwegian )
Happy New Year
Gelukkig Nieuw Jaar ( Dutch )

[miloshlavka]

Thanks to all for replies.

An now my PF 2024

PF2025_mini.jpg

I wish happy skirted and kilted year 2025.
I wish You, all Your colleagues and their near and far all the best for the New Year 2025, especially fair peace, health, happiness, contentedness.

For those, who are using calendar different from the Gregorian one:

14th January 2025 - New Year according to Julian calendar (still used for example by the Russian Orthodox Church)
29st January 2025 - Vietnamese / ChineseNew Year- - Tết Nguyên Đán, 农历新年 , 農曆新年 (year of the Snake)
21th (maybe 22th) March - Nouruz - Persian (zoroastric or bahá'istic) New yar
26th June 2025 - 1st muharram - Islamic New year 1447 from the Hegira
11th September 2025 - New Year 2018 according to Ethiopian calendar
22nd - 23rd September 2025 - New Year 5786 (Rosh Hashanah - Rosch ha-Schana - רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה) according to Hebrew calendar

I used the part of lyrics of song Gib mir die richtigen Worte (Give me the right words) written by Manfred Siebald.
The complete lyrics in German is here:
https://lyricstranslate.com/de/manfred- ... wor-lyrics

Translation in English is below:

Give me the right words
Give me the right tone
Words that speak clearly for each of you
Give me enough of this

Words that clarify, words that disturb
Those, who live past you
To find wounds and to bandage them
Give me the words for this

Give me the good thoughts
Take the net from my mind
And let my thinking and feeling play in front of you
Just like a child in the sand

Marveling and seeing, examining, understanding
And accepting the world from you
To penetrate them, to bring you back
Give me thoughts for this

Give me the longer breath
My breath does not reach very far
I want to catch my breath again stealthily
In your eternity

When I share the mile with a
Which he cannot do alone
Let me accompany him on the second
Give me the breath, the strength

It is possible to listen this song for example here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJFVbpeBiNM - by author
or here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1-I1Mmp0OU - by chor

Miloš H.

[Dust]

And today of course is the "Feast of Steven," also well known from song, though some churches celebrate this on the 27th instead.

If they do, they break the logic of the ecclesiastical calendar. St Stephen [sic] is remembered as the first Christian martyr and therefore is celebrated on the first day after Christmas: in the Western calendar, December 26..

Some (I'm not going to check them all) Eastern churches place a feast of the Mother of God on December 26th, then place St. Stephen on the following day.