Sputnik International Presents… Christmas Spirit in Every Corner of the World

Volunteers clad in Santa Claus costumes throw their hats in the air as they gather to deliver gifts to the poor in downtown Seoul (Seoul National Capital Area) ROK.

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Christmas at St Adalbert of Prague Roman Catholic parish in Kaliningrad (Kaliningrad Oblast. Northwestern Federal District) RF.

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British travellers Liam Wadeson (left), Jemma Wild and Ashley Colotta, (right), frolic in the waves as they celebrate Christmas Day at Bondi Beach in Sydney (Sydney Region. New South Wales) AUSTRALIA.

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The choir at Shrine of Mary Help of Christian Church sings during Christmas Mass in Nairobi (Nairobi County. Nairobi Metro Area) KENYA.

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A Chinese man prays during Christmas Eve mass of at the South Cathedral official Catholic church in Beijing (Beijing Municipality) PRC.

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Members of a local parachute club wearing Santa Claus costumes fly past residential buildings dropping presents to pedestrians during a promotional event celebrating Christmas in Guiyang (Guizhou Province) PRC.

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A Pakistani Christian family gathers around a fire to warm themselves from the evening cold in an alley of a Christian neighbourhood decorated with festive lights for Christmas in Islamabad (Islamabad Capital Area) PAKISTAN.

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Men look at a Christmas tree, with pictures of the 43 missing trainee teachers, in the Ayotzinapa Teacher Training Raul Isidro Burgos College in Ayotzinapa, on the outskirts of Chilpancingo de los Bravo (Guerrero) MEXICO.

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On Christmas Eve, a Palestinian dressed as Santa Claus holds balloons at Manger Square, outside the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem (Bethlehem Governorate) PALESTINE.

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A man exits an illuminated Church on Christmas Eve in Ahmedabad (Ahmedabad District. Gujarat State) INDIA.

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Archbishop Paolo Pezzi (centre) during Midnight Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow (Federal City of Moscow. Central Federal District) RF.

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Indian girls pose for photos near decorative statues of Santa Claus outside a church on Christmas in Mumbai (Mumbai City District. Maharashtra State) INDIA.

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A US Army soldier from the 3 Cavalry Regiment dressed as Santa Claus greets fellow soldiers eating Christmas lunch at Forward Operating Base Gamberi in Laghman Province of Afghanistan.

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Pope Francisco Bergoglio kissed the statue of baby Jesus as he arrived to lead Christmas Midnight Mass at St Peter Basilica in Vatican City. He prayed for peace in the Ukraine and decried the “brutal persecution” of Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq and Syria in his traditional Christmas address, known as the Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world).

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Christmas is one of the main Christian holidays. It’s an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus, observed as a religious and cultural tradition among billions of people across the world. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world’s nations, and a great number of non-Christian people celebrate it. According to the Gregorian calendar, the Roman Catholic Church and most Protestant churches celebrate Christmas on 25 December. Roman Emperor Theodosius II made the decision to celebrate Christmas on 25 December at the Third Ecumenical Council of Ephesus in 431.

Advent precedes Christmas, which starts four weeks before Christmas. This period is supposed to prepare the faithful the birth of Jesus. The festive customs associated in various countries with Christmas mix pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular customs of the holiday include gift giving, completing an Advent calendar, Christmas music and carolling, a special meal, and the display of various Christmas decorations, such as Christmas trees, Christmas lights, and garlands.

Christmas is associated with Santa Claus, also known as also known as St Nicholas and Father Christmas, a cultural figure with legendary, folkloric, and historic origins. In many Western cultures, folklore has it that Santa Claus brings presents to the homes of good children the night before Christmas. According to early Roman Christian traditions, three special liturgies are served on Christmas… a midnight Mass, a Mass at dawn, and a Mass during the day. In the Roman Catholic Church, Christmas celebrations last for eight days, from 25 December to 1 January, a period known as the Octave.

The North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) tracks Santa Claus when he leaves his official residence in the North Pole and flies around the world in his sleigh. NORAD has tracked Santa’s journey for more than 50 years. As gift-giving and many other Christmas customs involve heightened economic activity, the holiday became a key sales period for retailers and businesses all around the world. Groups and schools often perform Nativity plays and Christmas pageants during the holiday period. They depict the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. The tradition dates from the 10th-century Roman Empire.

25 December 2014

Sputnik International

http://sputniknews.com/photo/20141225/1016225951.html

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Mollard Ends Trip to Russia… Oddest Ad Limina That I’ve Ever Seen

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Read this. I’ve never seen such an odd ad limina visit. Whilst he was in Petersburg, Mollard did nothing major. On Monday, HH and Varsonofy blessed a reconstructed church at Tsarkoe Selo. VVP and Lavrov were there… Mollard and his delegation weren’t. HH handed out awards… Mollard and his delegation didn’t get any. Mollard had only one major event in eight days of his visit… the concelebration in Moscow. Otherwise, NOTHING of major import occurred… or, at least, nothing of major import surfaced in media reports. It seemed to underline the insignificance of the OCA… HH left Mollard in Moscow, and went off to Kaliningrad on pastoral business. They kept Mollard out of all major events, except for the singular instance of the Moscow Kremlin concelebration. I’ll bet that the Centre picked up the bill for this. The very lack of reportage suggests that both Yustinian the Poof and Paffhausen the Great were on the agenda. If I had to guess, that’s what I’d think. I’ve never seen the like before… and it may never happen again. Pass the jug… reporting on diaspora Orthodoxy is NEVER boring…

BMD

Mollard Served Liturgy at OCA Podvorie… Went to Piter… To Leave the Rodina Tomorrow

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Mollard took the train to Piter, Varsonofy Sudakov met him at the station… as did the American Consul (do you notice how Mollard always kisses ass with American officialdom? Now, that’s Sergianism!). Mollard visited the Aleksandr Nevsky Lavra, but there’s no other details available. This trip produced virtually NOTHING of a public nature. Mollard met with no government figure, let alone VVP or Medvedev. Literally, it’s been nothing but a tourist junket… externally. It did NOTHING to add lustre to Mollard’s stature… quite the opposite. Was that the point? God alone knows. Mollard served liturgy at the OCA podvorie in Moscow, but no local bishop concelebrated. The only local present of any note was Fr Nikolai Balashov, the effectual head of the MP Synodal Department for External Church Relations (OVTsS). That’s not the usual script for a visit of a First Hierarch of a Local Church. This is a signal to Bart… the status of the OCA is negotiable, but the MP will NOT kowtow to Bart publicly, nor will it give on the issue without Bart giving in on issues of Moscow’s concern (rolling up its opposition candy stores in the Baltics, stopping its interference in the Ukraine, and cutting off the Parisian Russians… interest in the last was shown by HH marking the 80th birthday of V N Tiesenhausen and giving him an award). Of course, the Centre doesn’t trust Bart… but it believes that it can do business with him, as the Centre does have the whip hand.

BMD

Mollard Visits Tretyakov… HH in Kaliningrad for Diocesan Assembly

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Read this. HH is in Kaliningrad on a previously-arranged pastoral visit (and has been there since the evening of 5 December). Mollard is in Moscow, apparently, doing nothing more strenuous or important than taking in the sights. Is he confabbing with MP officials? Maybe, but there’s no publication of such. There’s remarkably little coming out on this trip, at least in public. What was it for and why did it last so long? Your guess is as good as mine is. Patriarchia.ru did NOT report Mollard’s ass-kissing of the American Ambassador… which occurred early in the trip on 3 December. Neither the OCA nor the MP official site made it clear where Mollard will serve Liturgy today (if it’s at the OCA podvorie, that’d be odd… it’s going against pattern). As per usual, oca.org is doing a shitty job… it didn’t even have a report on the Antiochian installation yesterday. Normally, a full schedule is posted prior to the event. All in all, not a normal event nor is it normal coverage.

BMD