Christmas traditions around the world Part 2

To continue my research about Christmas traditions around the world, I continue with Kazakhstan as chosen by David Ricard.

Christmas in Kazakhstan isn't a big holiday and December 25 is like any other day as 70% of the country is Muslim. Christians in this country don't usually celebrate on Christmas day, choosing instead, to celebrate on the Sunday before Christmas day.
 https://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/kazakhstan.shtml

The next country chosen, was Malta, by Laura Granducci Temple. In Malta, the churches are decorated with lights and nativity cribs, 'Presepju' built by church goers. The cribs are decorated with figurines, called 'pasturi' (representing figures like shepherds and angels) and some of the cribs are mechanical and move. The figure of baby Jesus is put on the main altar at midnight on Christmas night. It is traditional to sow wheat, grain and canary seed, 'gulbiena', on cotton buds in flat pans five weeks before Christmas. These are left in dark corners in the house until the seeds produce white grass like shoots. The pans with the fully grown shoots will be used to decorate the cribs or the statue of the baby Jesus. 

Mass attendance in Malta increases at Christmas, with churches packed for the midnight mass. The sermon is given by a small girl or boy, aged 7 to 10 and there is a procession by the local children before or after the midnight mass where they walk into the church holding candles, and they are all dressed as nativity members-Jesus, Mary, donkey and sheep. This tradition is believed to have started in 1883 in the village of Luga where a boy called George Sapiano was the first altar boy to deliver the sermon. 

I was surprised at how few traditions are still in practice in Malta. I thought that their being a European country, and thus Catholic, they would have more. There were a few that I mentioned, one of which dates back to the 17th century, but they appear to either have abandoned their traditions, or I was just not able to find a good mention of them.

Christmas traditions around the world part 1

Since Christmas is my all time favorite holiday, I thought that I would research traditions around the world and let all of my (two) readers know about how other countries celebrate or don't. The countries have all been chosen by my Facebook friends and the listing is completely at random.

The first country is Turkey, as chosen by my sister.

In Turkey, you can buy trees in every major supermarket; the streets, shops and houses are festively decorated and the loudspeakers in the shopping malls fill the air with the sound of international Christmas carols. That said, however, December 24 and 25 are completely normal work days. no one celebrates or exchanges gifts.

St Nicholas, the person we celebrate on December 6 (St. Nicholas Day), was born in Patara, a small town in Turkey and spent a big part of his life there. He was bishop of Myra, another Turkish town which is now called Demre. During his lifetime, he was known for his generosity, his humanity and his love for children. The word is that he always had his pockets filled with sweets that he handed out to the children in the streets. http://www.sakkara.de/en/font2/299/
According to reference.com, Christmas in Turkey is celebrated on January 6. On Christmas Eve, seven purple candles are lit together. Families go to church at sunset and sit down to a seafood dinner. On Christmas Day, people attend Christmas Mass. A religious parade starts at 10am in the Kumkapi district in Istanbul.

Christmas was celebrated on January 6 until the 4th century. The Roman church then moved the date to December 25. By then, the Armenian church had separated from the Roman church, and they continued to celebrate Christmas on January 6.

The second country chosen by my Facebook friends was Uzbekistan, but I can't find any mention of Christmas outside of a Wikipedia page that states that they don't celebrate Christmas.

The third country chosen was the United States, so I will leave that one for an entire posting of itself.

Uruguay was also chosen by Joseph Erickson, so that's next. The little information I was able to find indicates that Christmas is more secular than religious which is surprising since 60% of the country is Catholic. Christmas here is called Dia de la Familia or the Day of the family and is the unofficial kick off to the beach season. In Puenta del Este, Uruguay's world-famous and jet-set beach resort, the focus is on sun, sand barbeque and fireworks.During the week between Christmas and New Year's, gunpowder hangs in the air like thick fog (unable to discern the reason for this-maybe from all the fireworks). I was surprised at how little information there was about Christmas in this country and it was interesting to learn the little that I did.

Should I stay or should I go?

As many of you know, I have been unhappy here in NYC and have been struggling for some time about what my next steps would and should be, how I will finance a move out of the area and many other questions that I can't stop trying to answer. After doing some serious thinking and number crunching, I have decided to remain in NYC for another 6 months. I have to move regardless in October as our lease is up and we do not intend to renew it. I will be looking for a new single room where I can stay for the remainder of my time here. I will continue applying for new jobs outside of NYC, but will also be seeking a new job here as I cannot continue at just $13 an hour when my expenses will be going up exponentially. It is still my intention to move to Washington, DC, but I am also considering other locations with more job opportunities like Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara and San Francisco.

I will be travelling to Washington, DC for Christmas this year and will be seeing a mutual friend. This will be my fourth trip this year and I will be staying at the same hotel I stayed at in May.

There is just something about Washington that keeps drawing me back. When I get off the bus there, I immediately feel a shift in my mood and feel like I can be who I am meant to be. When I am here in NYC, I always have music playing on my phone -even while in the park as there is so much background noise. When I am in DC, I can go an entire day without needing music or social media to distract me from what is happening in my daily life. While the cost of living may not be that different from here, my well being would be different and I believe that I would be happier as I loved living there the in the past. The only reason I left there was because my husband asked me to move to NYC.

Lincoln Memorial

One of the most recognizable monuments in Washington, is the Lincoln Memorial. It is also the most recognizable and since 2010, has been visited by approximately 6 million people each year. On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. made his "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. When you climb the steps to reach the monument, you will have be able to see the reflecting pool, the Washington Monument, the World War II Memorial, The United States Capitol Building and some of the Smithsonian Museums among other sights. I have been here many times and am never disappointed. While this is a beautiful memorial, it is not my favorite.

According to the National Park Service, it is 190 feet long, 119 feet wide and almost 100 feet high. The building is constructed of marble from Colorado, the columns are limestone from Indiana, and the statue is constructed of marble from Georgia. It is surrounded by a peristyle (a continuous porch formed by a row of columns surrounding the perimeter of a building or courtyard) of 36 Doric columns, one for each of the 36 states in the Union at the time of Lincoln's death, and two columns in-antis at the entrance behind the colonnade. The 48 festoons above the columns represent the 48 states in 1922. The statue of Lincoln is 19 feet high and weighs 175 tons. There are 87 steps leading up to the statue of Lincoln that represent the four score and 7 from his Gettysburg Address. The original plan was for the statue to be only ten feet high, this was changed so that the figure of Lincoln would not be dwarfed by the size of the chamber. The current design was not approved until 1910 and construction began in 1914. (https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc71.htm) 

Over Lincoln's head is an inscription that reads:
"IN THIS TEMPLE
AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE
FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION
THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
IS ENSHRINED FOREVER."
The memorial was opened to the public on May 30, 1922 in a ceremony lead by former President William Howard Taft, who at the time was Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and president of the Lincoln Memorial commission. Taft presented it to President Warren Harding who accepted it on behalf of the American people. the ceremony was attended by Lincoln's only surviving child, Robert Todd Lincoln. 

I was not able to find the answers to some of the questions asked of me, including how much marble was used and how many people were injured in the building of this monument. I was asked to research this and the Washington Monument and let my readers know which I like better. I don't like either more than the other and in all actuality, prefer the Jefferson Memorial.

I have been trying to avoid politics on here, but I can stay silent no longer. Many people are saying that what Trump did was legal based on a 1952 law (Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 or McCaren-Walter Act). This law is nothing at all like what our current President has done.

In the case of Trump, he immediately banned people who were born in 7 countries (Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia) whether they have green cards, visas or American citizen children. It is interesting to note that these are Muslim countries and given that, many people are calling this a Muslim ban. This is because while campaigning,Trump called for total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” When he was in the process of writing and signing this order, it was without the guidance of the secretary of homeland security who was on a Coast Guard plane heading back to Washington when he heard that this had been passed when someone turned on a tv.

That act established a preference system which determined which ethnic groups were desirable immigrants and placed great importance on labor qualifications. It also defined three types of immigrants: immigrants with special skills or relatives of U.S. citizens who were exempt from quotas and who were to be admitted without restrictions; average immigrants whose numbers were not supposed to exceed 270,000 per year; and refugees. This law ended Asian exclusion from immigrating to the United States and introduced a system of preferences based on skill sets and family. (https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/immigration-act)

In 1965, a new act was created, called the Hart-Celler Act which eliminated national origin, race, and ancestry as basis for immigration. For the first time, immigration from the Western Hemisphere was limited.

It added a labor certification requirement, which dictated that the Secretary of Labor needed to certify labor shortages.Refugees were given the seventh and last category preference with the possibility of adjusting their status. However, refugees could enter the United States through other means as well like those seeking temporary asylum.

The Hart–Celler Act abolished the quota system based on national origins that had been American immigration policy since the 1920s. The new law maintained the per-country limits, but it also created preference visa categories that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or U.S. residents. The bill set numerical restrictions on visas at 170,000 per year, with a per-country-of-origin quota. However, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and "special immigrants" had no restrictions.^{[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1965)}

In 2015,President Obama brought his own immigration law which includes allowing the citizens of 38 countries to travel without visas and to give Americans reciprocal privileges.  The amendment removed from the Visa Waiver Program dual nationals who were citizens of four countries (Iraq, Iran, Sudan, and Syria), or anyone who had recently traveled to those countries. The Obama administration added three more to the list (Libya, Somalia, and Yemen), bringing the total to seven. But this law did not bar anyone from coming to the United States. It only required a relatively small percentage of people to obtain a visa first. And to avoid punishing people who clearly had good reasons to travel to the relevant countries, the Obama administration used a waiver provided by Congress for certain travelers, including journalists, aid workers, and officials from international organizations like the United Nations. (http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/30/sorry-mr-president-the-obama-administration-did-nothing-similar-to-your-immigration-ban/)

For those who know me well, they know how much I love warm/hot weather. That being said, I am looking forward to fall and cooler temperatures. Summer has been hot, dry and boring. The first time I attempted to go to the beach, a wicked fog rolled in, so I went home. I have only actually been to the beach a few times this summer and it's the end of July. Last year, I spent almost every weekend at the beach, while this summer, the weather has been unpredictable at best. It is beautiful and sunny during the week, but when the weekend comes, BAM! crappy, cloudy weather. Normally, this would be fine-especially if the weather brings rain, but it hasn't. We have had a couple of wicked storms, but not more than 2 inches of rain for the entire month of July and not much more than that in May and June.

Fall brings the changing of leaves, boots, hoodies, jeans and cooler temperatures. Fall is a beautiful time of year here in NYC and one of my favorite places to observe it is in Central Park. Some years, the trees are red and gold, and others just green and gold, but either way, it is beautiful.

Fall in Charleston is very different. The weather doesn't really start to get cooler until late October and then it goes from 90 to 70 which is a nice relief. The leaves still change, but not like they do here-mostly because the trees are different. The light is different in Charleston too-it seems softer somehow. The light in New York is very harsh-even on the best of days. In the fall in Charleston, the beach grass is a nice golden brown and you will start to see many of the migrating birds coming from the north. Football is huge -especially between Clemson and USC. Even if you don't like or follow football, tailgating is a part of Southern fall life. One of the things I love most is the vibe. Whether you like sports or not, there is a sense of excitement in the air-especially is the Citadel Bulldogs are playing. Fall, like spring, is a time of transition; only instead of transitioning to new life, it is a transition to a dormancy. One can still wear boots, hoodies and jeans in the fall in Charleston,you just have to wait a little longer than in the Northeast.

Thoughts of the future

Lately, I have been thinking about living here in Brooklyn and how it compares to Charleston. I miss living in Charleston where people are friendly and the pace of life is slower. The way of life is totally different in Brooklyn. Life here is very fast paced and people don't seem to care that they are spending 70% of their income just on rent, don't care that the subway is constantly breaking down and when it does work, it is inefficient at best.

I am looking forward to moving back to Charleston hopefully next year as I am in dire need of a slow down. Brooklyn is great, but living here is never something that I had wanted to do until my best friend asked me to. It was always supposed to be a short-term thing, that is turning into something more long term and I am pretty much done with Brooklyn. It is a city that has many, many things to offer, but at the same time, it has many faults much like any city. I hate that there is garbage everywhere-including in the ocean and that people just walk around it, pretending that it isn't there. You can't avoid bugs or rodents in your apartment-especially if you live in a pre-war building. New York is becoming a city that is just for the rich as the majority of us regular folk, can't afford to live here anymore.

In Charleston, I can have a better quality of life. I can spend more time outdoors-at the beach, riding my bike, at the farmer's market. In order to go to the farmer's market here, it takes me an hour and I have to fight my way through several hundred people in a relatively space. There is one closer to my house, but it doesn't have the variety and is more expensive. In Charleston, I can afford to either live entirely on my own, or with just one roommate where as here in Brooklyn, I have 4 roommates currently. I was looking online the other day at Carolina One Realty's website and fell in love with an adorable 2-bedroom cottage in North Charleston. If I had the ability to pack up and move right now, I would jump at the chance to go back.

I have so many more thoughts, but I think that this is enough for tonight. Gotta finish watching One Tree Hill before going to bed.