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Merry Christmas from Sydney
Thanks for sharing this, Zafar.
Thanks, Zafar. Do Muslims have a comparable holy day?
There are basically two Eids.
But they also call Mohammad’s birthday Eid Milad, which means festival/feast of the birth.
(Fun fact: Lebanese Christians use the same words for Christmas. Which is….logical?)
I remember being told that Arab Christians also address God as, “Allah.”
Merry Christmas, Zafar.
Literal translation: Le Dieu
Wow. What is that? Is the whole thing a screen, or is there a structure behind it?
Good story, told by Franciscan Friar Richard Rohr, and I’ll probably get the details wrong, tho’ not the gist: there is an idea in Jewish mysticism that the reason Jews don’t say or write the name of God (represented by the tetragrammaton) isn’t because they mustn’t but because one can’t. The name of God is the sound of the breath. So when God breathed life into the Ha’adam, God was infusing his creation with his own name. And the first “word” we say when we come into the world is the name of God, and the last thing we say is also the name of God, and in between we all go around saying God’s name over and over… and of course, there is no white or black way to breathe, no Christian or Hindu way to breathe, so the name of God is, appropriately, universal.
Well, apparently a Sufi mystic told Rorh that there is a similar idea in Islam. “Al” means “the,” and if you add another l, it serves as an intensifier. And the rest is…breath. Ahhh. So the name of God is the breath.
Lovely Zafar! Thanks for posting it!
What a great display. I want that for my church!
The Antiochian Orthodox church I’ve been attending lately does keep a couple of lines of the liturgy in Arabic.
Zafar, thanks so much for sharing this!
Great pictures. Thanks, Zafar!
Wow! Great pics, and thanks for posting them!
How beautiful. Thank you.
Merry Christmas Zafar!
It would seem quite odd to me to have Christmas season in summer, but I suppose you must be accustomed to it.
What else need be said? Thanks so much, Zafar!
This is great, Zafar, glad to see you around again!
I had to verify today with an Aussie that they do indeed celebrate Christmas in the summer down there, the seasons being flipped. “Yep, most people go to the beach!”
It’s just not right.
But who am I to talk? We don’t get snow either but once per decade.
Thanks. The fifth image is one of my favorite depictions of the holy family.
Snow? Around here, we haven’t had snow since New Year’s Day, 1949.
Festivals involving candles and lights are common in many cultures during the winter months, when the days are short and the sun sets in the afternoon. It would seem odd to put up an elaborate light display on the longest day of the year. The lights in Zafar’s photos probably don’t even get switched on until after 8:00 PM.
Hindus teach that it is the breath that ties the soul to the body.
That’s by Murillo, isn’t it?
Ferruzzi, apparently.
Bouguereau also did a good one.
I’ve never seen that before. It’s lovely. But I don’t understand why no one has both eyes on the same side of her nose.
What are the last three images?
Meanwhile, in Rome, how not to project onto a holy building is amply demonstrated.
Thanks.
Lovely, Kate! A slight quibble: Richard Rohr carries ordination and Franciscan initials, but is very much more a self-help guru/psychologist, a la Werner Erhard, than a priest. This is not a denigration of his sincerity, but an observation about how much “beyond Jesus” many in the marquee religious communities have traveled in some ways.
Zafar: THANK YOU! You’ve lifted my spirits a great deal closer to Christmas peace and joy; these are awesome and inspiring…Merry Christmas, indeed.
What a lovely presentation for the citizens of Sydney! Thanks so much for sharing it, Zafar!