Calendar Crazies

IC XC
✙
NI KA

THIS IS JUST A BLOG Post, mostly a journal. No ranting. It is what was called, back in the day (c. 2005) a ramble.

It’s still early in the Christmas Octave, but my Russian Catholic parish is preparing for the end of Advent. They use the old calendar as a bit of “Economia” as we might say. The Pastor is actually pastor of two parishes and the senior cantor has familial obligations on major holidays so it was easier to move the parish to the Julian Calendar. That way things could still get done. Yet, since we’re not doing it for religious reasons, it always feels more like a time warp than at other places using the Julian Calendar.

Although many visitors find it somewhat exotic and exciting, all of the Actually Russian Catholic and Actually Byzantine (Melkite or Ruthenian) Catholics in the parish – clergy and lay – are on the “revised Julian” calendar at home and in their prayer lives. That means that literally all of us celebrated Christmas on Monday this week, even though we will not be able to do so liturgically until the weekend after next.

When it was discovered that I’m canonically Russian Catholic, my SF said, “learn your rite”. OK, but I kinda do know my rite. Cuz Orthodox for 20 years. But which Breviary should I be using? Meh.

Should I still be fasting? What’s the deal with guests? #ThingsformySF.

Random Byzantine Trivia: Christmas Eve is a fast day, but fasting is not permitted on Saturdays and Sundays so is the Eve falls on a Saturday or Sunday all the minor liturgy gets pulled backward to the Friday. So while our Vigil Service is on Saturday the 6th of January, our “Royal Hours” will be sung on Friday the 5th in the Morning. That makes “Christmas Eve” about two days long. I love that.

I ordered a Byzantine Cassock from a seamstress on Etsy. I’m waiting for the weekend to get photos at Church and post a review online, but it’s 100% amazing. The fit, the workmanship, the feel… I’m very pleased. I ordered one in grey because. But it’s really nice, so I’ll get one in black as well.

I think the tree came out really nice this year. I wasn’t totally certain about the disco ball topper but the way it blinks on the ceiling is wonderful. I may work to make it more hidden next year. I also hung a Nativity Set in my tree. I’ve had the papercraft for three years…

The items are rather light to hang on the tree, but I really want this to work. So, after the season, I will be adding weights of some kind to the cutouts. Maybe they can be placed in paper mache globes of some sort. An on-going crafts project for next year, perhaps. You can get your own print files here or buy the set on card stock (like I did) here. The advantage of the printable file: you can scale the images to suit your needs.

Christmas dinner was nice: braised brisket (thanks, Joseph) and really nice sides, etc. I made a punch: 750ml semi-sweet bottle of white wine, 750ml Trader Joe’s ginger brew, 2 cups of Tanqueray Sevilla Orange, 1/3 cup Creme de Cacao. It was tasty – will make again. For dessert, I took Spumoni Ice Cream from Swensen’s Ice Cream on Hyde – they only sell this flavor at this time of year. I bought a gallon… anyway, I took about 3 cups of this, and melted it. I ran it through a sieve to strain out the nuts and fruit (reserved them), then used the liquid to make a four-yoke egg custard over a double boiler. As it was setting I stirred the fruit and nuts back in, then whisked the four egg whites to stiff peaks and folded them into the custard. I put it in bowls and let it set. I will totally be doing that again as well! It was flavorful, and very spumoni, but at the same time, both light and unctuous. A great holiday dessert.

Is there an Orthodox version of “AD”? I mean, seriously, that’s as Latin as it can get.

Been getting into a new (to me) type of video called an “edit”. I know – Xer gonna X. But it totally is like watching a meditation in action. Here’s a mellow one and also the first one I saw posted below…

This one is awesome:

Some fun things I learned recently:

Did you know they book of Daniel is not included in the Scrolls of the Prophets in the Jewish reckoning? Added in a day later: Is Daniel considered a prophet in the Jewish Tradition? AND, for what it’s worth, in the Orthodox Church, at least, King David is considered a prophet with nearly every verse in the Psalms considered as prophecy.

Did you know that there are several books in the Orthodox Canon of Scriptures that are not in the Roman Catholic one? Yet they ARE in the Byzantine Catholic one…so go figure. The Ethiopian Catholics have the most books… (OT 46, NT 32 = 78!)

I guess I’m going ot have to cave and get me an Orthodox Study Bible – which I already have on Kindle. But I think I should also get the Lectionary Bible. I actually tried to purchase this last week, but Google Pay wasn’t playing along. So, instead, I made a donation fo Solu Israel. You should totally help them build their next project.

Adding one last Edit b/c I totally like hardstyle.