Celebrating the Season

Many of you are starting to get ready for the Christmas season.  Trees are being decorated, cookies are being baked and songs are being played.  I am beginning to realize that the event that so overwhelms more than one twelfth of the year in the west is nothing more than another day everywhere else.  My school holds class all through the month.  Our teachers seemed quite pleased because this year Christmas falls on a Saturday so they figured none of the foreigner will ask for time off.  While it is sad to miss out on much of the tradition that comes with the season… it has also been a real blessing to have the commercial aspect of it stripped bear. 

This has allowed my classmates and I to focus more on spiritual preparation for the coming of Christ.  We have chosen to celebrate Advent this year and even had a local friend join us for the light of the first candle and the devotional that surrounded it. 

While others do not celebrate, we still have big plans of our own.  In the next week we are planning a “hanging of the greens” party.  This is a time to have our local friends into our homes to help us decorate.  It is also a time to share with them what we are celebrating and why.  Many people here know nothing of our holiday or the meaning behind it.