The feast is part of man's inescapable rhythm of work and rest; tell me what you celebrate, and I will tell you who you are.
- Alexander Schmemann
FAMILY FEAST DAYS STAHLFAMILIE FESTLICHKEIT
Dedicated to REMEMBRANCE... Of the presence of Death in the midst of life,
Of the Creator, Savior and Comforter of All,
Of birthdays, baptisms, confirmations,
weddings, and dearly departings...
Of roots, cultural heritage, and spiritual inheritance,
Of not taking those we love and who love us for granted.
Dedicated to remembering the sacred role of humanity
within the Created universe,
To RE-membering...
To BE-ing bodily members soulfully
instead of "individuals" solely.
There is no human society without celebrations, holidays and feasts. But beyond the need to rest from work, the development of celebrations in human culture has much deeper root in man's absolutely irrepressible need, not just for rest, but for joy and meaning, the need to find the true source of celebration and its tenacity in human society. Feasts, in every culture, have become the repository and expression of a society's goals, ambitions, and worldview.
What then are those goals, ambitions, and worldview of America based upon its celebrations? Of German-Americans? Likewise what are each of our goals, ambitions, and worldview? And the goals, ambitions, and worldview of ourselves collectively as family? As StahlFamilie?
For contemplation, compare American pop culture to the celebration of the Orthodox Church as found in St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, the Feasts of the Church - These Truths We Hold :
Twelve Great Feasts - the Fixed Cycle:
The Nativity of the Theotokos (Mother of God)
The Universal Exaltation of the LIfe-Creating Cross
The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple
The Nativity of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ
The Theophany of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ
The Meeting of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple
The Annunciation to the Most-Holy Theotokos
The Transfiguration of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
The Dormition of the Most-Holy Theotokos
The Entrance of the Lord into Jerusalem
The Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Descent of the Holy Spirit The Feasts of Feasts: The Holy Pascha of the Lord Other Feasts:
The Protection of the Most-Holy Theotokos
Synaxis of the Holy Angels
The Circumcision of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist
The Holy Apostles Peter and Paul
The Beheading of St. John the Baptist
1 Why Celebrate? 2 The Roots of Christian Celebration: Passover 3 The First Day of the New Creation 4 Magnify, O My Soul 5 Longing for Freedom
Part II The Church Year
1 The Elevation of the Cross
2 The Nativity (Christmas)
3 The New Year
4 Theophany (The Lord's Baptism)
5 The Meeting of the Lord
6 Zacchaeus
7 The Publican and the Pharisee
8 The Parable of the Prodigal Son
9 The Parable of the Last Judgment
10 Forgiveness Sunday
11 The Lenten Prayer of St Ephrem the Syrian
12 The Sunday of the Cross
13 Death
14 Palm Sunday
15 Christ is Risen!
16 Pascha Faith (Easter)
17 Doubting Thomas
18 The Myrrhbearing Women
19 The Sunday of the Paralytic
20 The Samaritan Woman
21 The Lord's Ascension
22 Pentecost
23 The Transfiguration
Sample CALENDAR Month
[Names and email addresses shown here are fictional]
Actual names on calendar are linked to email addresses
to make keeping in touch simple and easy
with eCard sites provided above
The church year, with its cycle of feasts, begins in September, as it has since ancient times. Almost no one knows or commemorates this, but as autumn begins it is fitting that we reflect on the meaning of church celebrations and what the very words "church year" imply about the Christian understanding of time.
Anti-religious propaganda has expended a lot of effort combating holy days and religious feasts, debunking and denouncing them as fairy tales, lies, primitive myths utterly devoid of meaning in the modern world. Yet, in quantity alone, the pamphlets and brouchures of this anti-feast warfare testify eloquently that feasts remain very much alive and how difficult it has proven to uproot and eradicate them from human life. For example, in spite of all the abuse heaped on Christianity, the Gospel and the account of Christ's birth, in spite of efforts to turn the Christmas tree into a "New Year's tree" - in spite of all of this, when the tree is lit on those dark December nights and the star placed on top, it still commemorates the star which shone long ago over a cave in Bethlehem. All of this has been usurped-the star, the tree, the glowing candles reflected so joyfully in childrens's eyes-but no one has succeeded in turning them into convincing symbols of dialectical materialism and atheism. That is why the enemies of Christianity must resort to cruder measures, as they do on Easter night, mobilizing hordes of Communist Youth. On that one-of-a-kind spring night when Christians celebrate "the feasts of feasts" and "the holy day of holy days", the Komsomol disrupts and intimidates worshippers by shouting and swearing to drown out words of incomparable beauty: "Now all is filled with light, heaven and earth and the lower regions. Let the whole world, visible and invisible, celebrate the rising of Christ, in whom we are established..." The Komsomol shouts and mocks, but Easter's light retains its radiance and remains the same source of joy it was a thousand years ago.
