Filed under: Life in Bolivia, Tom | Tags: Advent, Christmas, holidays, Thanksgiving
If you think starting Christmas early is a rampant plague in the States, just try to be in a country without a major holiday between Halloween and Christmas.
October 31, it’s a death-fest (and here they don’t do “cute” Halloween; it’s all very ghoulish and over the top), and then, before the broken eggshells on the sidewalk and vampire makeup is all cleaned up, Santa and Christmas trees are up, as well as the occasional incongruous snowman (Christmas happens in the summer here)… You have to look hard for manger scenes and angels…
I love Christmas (which, by the way, starts on December 25!)… love it, but there is something, um, missing when you jump from brain-eating Zombies to cookie-munching Santas.
We need a time to slow it down, to give thanks to the Giver of all good things, to chase turkeys around with a musket.
And then there’s Advent: that glorious time of awaiting, lighting the lights, looking back on the longing hope of Messiah and longing for His return…
This is a time to slow down, friends. I just refuse to fast forward.
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[...] November 7, 2008 · No Comments On my family’s blog about our life here in Bolivia, I wrote a little commentary about the early so-called “Christmas” going insane here and now: http://fishersoflapaz.wordpress.com/2008/11/08/just-saying-no-to-early-christmas/ [...]
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