WINTER SOLSTICE . . . Sunday, December 21, 2008, 7:04AM EST marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere. Celebrations of this seasonal passage are traditional in many cultures.
HANUKKAH . . . In 2008, the festival of Hanukkah begins at sundown on Sunday, December 21. Hanukkah is an eight-day holiday celebrating Jewish national survival and religious freedom.
CHRISTMAS IN PALESTINE . . . As people celebrate Christmas, and Bethlehem is mentioned in countless Nativity plays and sermons around the world, there is tremendous suffering in that city. Surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements, Bethlehem lies captive to abusive Apartheid policies of occupation. There is no freedom of movement–there are checkpoints, curfews and constant invasions by the military. In this season of joy and goodwill to our fellow human beings, please remember the struggle for human rights, freedom and justice in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
CHRISTMAS EVE PEACE VIGIL . . . Peace activists will vigil at the Federal Building, 15th and O Streets in Lincoln, Wednesday evening from 5:00 to 6:00pm. Vigil for Peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, Darfur, Sudan, Congo, India, Somalia and throughout the world. Contact Mark at 402-499-6672 or e-mail mark [at] weddleton [dot] com for more information. Click here for an update on weekly peace vigils published in the December 19, 2008 Lincoln Journal Star.
CHRISTMAS . . . Thursday, December 25, 2008.
ANNUAL PEACE VIGIL: FEAST OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS RETREAT, WITNESS AND LINE CROSSING . . . The Des Moines and Omaha Catholic Worker communities offer an opportunity to deepen the Christmas observance by examining parallels between King Herod’s first-century killing of innocent children in Bethlehem and acts currently being committed by a Global US Military presence and Offutt’s Nuclear and Space Commands. The Feast of the Holy Innocents Retreat, Witness and Line Crossing begins Friday, December 26, 2008, 7:00pm, at St. John’s Church on the Creighton University campus, 2500 California Plaza, in Omaha. The retreat will end on Sunday, December 28, with a 10:00am Mass at St. John’s, followed by a Witness and Line Crossing at Offutt Air Force Base. For more information contact Frank Cordaro, The Phil Berrigan Catholic Worker House: phone 515.282.4781, or e-mail frank [dot] cordaro [at] gmail [dot] com.
KWANZAA . . . Kwanzaa, a celebration of family, community and culture, begins on Friday, December 26, 2008 and continues through January 1, 2009. The 2008 Theme is “Repairing and Renewing the World.”
Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! Boas Festas! Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan! Glædelig Jul! Hyvää Joulua! Joyeux Noël! Froehliche Weihnachten! Shub Naya Baras! Idah Saidan Wa Sanah Jadidah! Buone Feste Natalizie! Shinnen omedeto! Sung Tan Chuk Ha! Merry Keshmish! Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia! Boas Festas! Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom! God Jul! Chung Mung Giang Sinh! Cestitamo Bozic! Happy Solstice!
We are no longer the alternative; we are the imperative.