Whatever
your event, there is no better way to Celebrate then with food, family, and
friends!
‘OUR HOLIDAY’
It’s a reminder of our
heritage and our place of origin.
Holiday Memories
Creating Memories for the Holidays
Ornament Decorating Night
Get into the DIY spirit with family, children, or friends
by throwing an ornament decorating party. The family or friends who don't
consider themselves artistically gifted will be motivated to create something
adorable for their tree!
For materials, purchase plain ornaments to be painted or embellished with sequins, pom-poms, and tassels, or use old magazines to cut out pictures and collage them.
Arts N Crafts
Craftmas Party
Why not have a Craftmas Party if you want to go beyond ornament
crafting but still love the idea of hosting a holiday craft party! You might
have family and friends make homemade holiday cards and wreaths, or you can
bake cookies for them to decorate as a nice treat to take home or eat once out
of the oven!
A Candyland Christmas
Lets choose a holiday color scheme to make everyone feel like they've
stepped into Candyland rather than the traditional red and green. Step out of
the box and add something different to the day or week.
Even add unique flavor to your regular celebration with simple yet distinctive accents like pastel-colored candy canes, a pink Christmas tree, hanging signage with candy themes, and attractive peppermint garlands.
Chanukah- The Festival of Lights
Making-a-Latkes Party
Perhaps, you're planning a Chanukah dinner party? Instead, host a
latkes-making party!
Set up a latke platter bar and request each person bring a topping. Though, who needs more than a tasty potato pancake? Oh! It would help if you had some other appetizers on hand.
Something unusual - Pajama Party
“PJ’s” Have guests arrive in their jammies if you don’t want them to worry about getting all dressed up. In essence, holidays are all about comfort!
So, get yourself a nice set of holiday-themed pajamas for you
and the family or significant other). The most important element - have fun!
***
Last but not least - How about a -Junk Food White Elephant
The types of gifts can range from things everyone wants to those
everyone seeks to get rid of; white elephant parties are always a delight. You
can change things by asking everyone to bring a gift with a junk food theme.
Imagine one of those enormous variety chips or chocolate bar packets. It will
be entertaining to observe the arguments that arise. Although this is more of
an in-person theme, you can always arrange to have food delivered in advance to
virtual guests.
***
Chanukah
December
18, 2022, to December 26, 2022
The
eight-day festival of light that begins on the eve of the 18th
in the Jewish calendar -month of Kislev – Kindling of the menorah is the focal point of
the Chanukah holiday.
Chanukah is the Jewish eight-day, “festival of lights,”
celebrated by:
·
Lighting the menorah
·
Special prayers
·
Fried foods
In Hebrew, Chanukah means “dedication,” it celebrates the
rededication of the Holy Temple, with a variation of the spelling –
Hanukkah.
Chanukah commemorates
The Maccabee
defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land,
reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and
rededicated it to the service of G‑d.
The Temple's Menorah (the seven-branched
candelabrum), where they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had
escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah, and
the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days until new oil could be prepared
under conditions of ritual purity.
Because of these miracles, it was
instituted that the festival of Chanukah has special blessings and songs.
Chanukah
delicacies/Foods
The
miracle of Chanukah involved oil. Therefore, it is customary to eat foods fried
in oil.
Family holiday game - the dreidel is a four-sided spinning top with Hebrew letters, nun, gimmel,
hei and shun, an acronym for nes
gadol hayah sham, “a great miracle happened there”).
Fun for the whole
family, the game is played for coins, nuts, or other play items.
Enjoy the season but
remember to celebrate and rejoice as well!
What is the true meaning of
Hanukkah/Chanukah?
***
Winter Solstice 2022
Wednesday, December
21, 2022, is the First day of winter or Winter Solstice 2022.
Winter is here in some parts of the country!
meaning of - The winter solstice, as midwinter, is an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year.
It occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere.
Source: Wikipedia
Christmas
December 25, 2022
Christmas
is a one-day event filled with many traditions celebrated on the 25th of December, no matter what
day the 25th falls on.
Unlike
Thanksgiving Day, that is always celebrated on the third Thursday in November.
Many celebrate the eve of Christmas by:
·
Sharing and opening gifts
·
Attending special services
·
Prayers for the departed
·
Charity and visiting hospitals
NATVITY SCENE - The holiday’s main central core, which many fail to recall - is the ‘Birth of Christ.’
Christmas is the
Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, held annually on December 25th
A
few notable events are celebrated:
·
Christmas Eve
·
12 days of Christmas
·
Gift giving
·
Helping others more and charity giving
·
Secret Santa
·
Songs and musical programs
·
The annual holiday parade in California
·
Foods are vast in variety according to
traditions and customs at family tables
Enjoy the season but remember to celebrate and rejoice as well!
Please chime in with this question - What is the true meaning of Christmas?
***
Kwanzaa
A Family, Community and Culture
Celebration-Kwanzaa
Celebrated from 26 December 2022, thru 1st January
2023.
A
weeklong celebration held in the United States that honors African heritage in
African American culture. It culminates in gift giving and a big feast.
Although Kwanzaa is primarily an African American holiday, it is also
celebrated outside the United States, such as in Caribbean and other countries.
Its meaning
Kwanzaa
is derived from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” which means “first fruits” in
Swahili, a Pan-African language, which is the most widely spoken African
language.
The
first harvest is a celebration of the origin, and the name is derived from
Africa.
The Origins of Kwanzaa, the First-Fruits Celebration
- A time
of ingathering of the people to reaffirm the bonds between them.
- A time
of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect
for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation.
- A time
for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of
its models of human excellence, our ancestors.
- A time
of recommitment to our highest cultural ideals in our ongoing effort to
always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice; and
- A time
for celebration of the good, the good of life and of existence itself, the
good of family, community, and culture, the good of the awesome and the
ordinary, in a word, the good of the divine, natural and social.
Enjoy the season but remember to celebrate and rejoice as well!
Please chime in with this question - What
is the true meaning of Kwanzaa?
***
Available at
Amazon and
Barnes and Noble
Features – ‘A Conversation with Mary Heyward Munn’
Journal of a Twelve-Year-Old, To a Woman
of G-d
Author: Mary Heyward- Munn
Barnes and Noble
Print paperback
E-book:
Amazon
E-book:
PRINT: Paperback
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