Zechariah #AtoZChallenge

This year my A to Z challenge is about Christmas, a major festival in the Christian Church. Another major festival is Easter, which I wrote about for the A to Z Challenge in 2020.

My A to Z challenge began with Advent and angels one of whom appeared to Zechariah. Zechariah became the father of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) ministry.

This Zechariah is not the same one as the prophet, whose name is given to the penultimate book in the Old Testament. The prophet Zechariah foresaw events which occurred in Jesus’ life. Zechariah 9:9-10 is one example. It predicts the events of Palm Sunday.

The New Testament Zechariah also appeared in my post for the letter Q. I rewrote Zechariah’s story in my own words for my A to Z challenge in 2017. Why not click through to read it there?

Zechariah’s story

A Christmas carol which uses the letter Z is the Zither carol. Zither was my post for my A to Z about musical instruments. The link above to the Zither carol is a karaoke version. To listen to the carol being sung, please click here.

While this year’s A to Z badges by Anjela Curtis honour the late Jeremy Hawkins, I hope that my posts about Christmas honour Jesus Christ, ‘who was and is and is to come’. Revelation 1:4

I hope you have enjoyed looking at the Christmas story with me.

Yule and Yeshua #AtoZChallenge

This year my A to Z challenge is about Christmas, a major festival in the Christian Church. Another major festival is Easter, which I wrote about for the A to Z Challenge in 2020.

In many countries in the northern hemisphere there has been a winter festival at the darkest season of the year. In pre-Christian Britain this was known as Yule. Christmas was introduced in December to use the midwinter festivities in a different way. The shortest day is December 21^st. Christmas Day (as you probably know) is December 25^th, when the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated.

The Christmas season begins on 25^th December and continues until Epiphany (6^th January) or Candlemas (2^nd February). Epiphany is when the visit of the wise men or magi is commemorated. Candlemas moves our thoughts to the presentation of Jesus in the temple. It would seem that the historical events happened in a different order from the Church’s calendar.

A traditional food at Christmas is a chocolate cake shaped like a log. The outside is covered with butter-cream icing textured like the bark of a tree. It may be decorated with the words, ‘Season’s greetings’ and perhaps a plastic robin (the European species, which is popular on Christmas cards). It is known as a Yule log and represents the large pieces of firewood, which would have been burned at the pre-Christian feast of Yule.

The carol for this post is the Gloucestershire Wassail, a song about drinking and making merry.

As I have mentioned in earlier A to Z challenges the name by which Jesus Christ was known during his life on earth was Yeshua. Jesus is the English form of the name. My earlier posts were Yeshua and You in 2020 and Yeshua in 2017.

While this year’s A to Z badges by Anjela Curtis honour the late Jeremy Hawkins, I hope that my posts about Christmas honour Jesus Christ, ‘who was and is and is to come’. Revelation 1:4

Excitement at Xmas #AtoZChallenge

This year my A to Z challenge is about Christmas, a major festival in the Christian Church. Another major festival is Easter, which I wrote about for the A to Z Challenge in 2020.

Well, here we are at one of the most difficult letters in the A to Z challenge. It is almost impossible not to cheat for X. In an earlier challenge I cheated by using X to represent the Greek letter Chi, Χ. Chi is the first letter of the Greek word  Xristos.

This time I am using a word beginning with EX as well as an abbreviated form of Christmas. Xmas is another way of writing Christmas. The X represents the Greek letter Chi. It is an shortened form of Christ.

Excitement is definitely part of Xmas. Children who hang up a stocking for Santa Claus (or Father Christmas) to fill are often too excited to sleep at first. Then they wake early in the morning eager to discover what has been stuffed into their stockings.

Was Mary excited when she heard the news from the angel that she was to be the mother of the Messiah? She must have experienced many emotions. The shepherds were probably excited when they found the baby just as the angels had said. The magi (or wise men) are the subject of a wonderful poem, Journey of the Magi by TS Eliot. The feelings he describes them having do not include excitement.

I am sure there was rejoicing in heaven when the saviour of the world was born in Bethlehem. That is not much different from excitement.

A carol, which conveys some of the excitement of Christmas, is Come and join the celebration it’s a very special day.

While this year’s A to Z badges by Anjela Curtis honour the late Jeremy Hawkins, I hope that my posts about Christmas honour Jesus Christ, ‘who was and is and is to come’. Revelation 1:4