Saint Nicholas was known for doing much of his charitable work in secret.
In many countries in Europe, Saint Nicholas’s Day, the 6th of December, is seen as an early Christmas celebration and indeed the kickoff to the Christmas season, much like Thanksgiving Day in the United States. On the night before his feast day, children will lay out their shoes by the front door, next to the fireplace or under their beds and the next morning they will be filled with candies, cookies and small toys after a supposed visit from Saint Nicholas much in line with the tradition of Santa Clause in America and other countries. In some countries, it is a tradition for children to leave carrots or hay in their shoes as a gift for St. Nicholas’s donkey. This practice is reminiscent of the custom of leaving hay for the camels of the Three Kings on the feast of the Epiphany in Spain and some Latin American countries. Keeping in line with the message of charity and community that Saint Nicholas preached throughout his life, the gifts that children receive are meant to be shared with friends and family rather than horded.
In order to understand the various traditions surrounding this miraculous saint and his feast day, we must examine his life. Saint Nicholas lived most of his life in Myra, which is in modern day Turkey. He was born there on 15 March 270 and died on 6 December 343 a date which ultimately became his feast day. He was from an extremely wealthy family, but shunned excess and lived a life dedicated to God and serving the poor. He eventually became bishop of Myra. Nicholas was known for his charity and often times offered to pay the dowries of young women in his city so that they might marry and avoid a life of poverty, as in those days a proper dowry was necessary to enter into a suitable marriage. He was known for doing much of his charitable work in secret. He would visit the homes of the poor and drop gold coins and small gifts down the chimneys or place them directly in stockings that were hung by the fire to dry. The modern tradition of hanging Christmas stockings comes from the charitable example of Saint Nicholas. After his death, many miracles were attributed to Saint Nicholas, a phenomenon that continues to this day. In the year 1087, sailors pillaged many of the relics of Saint Nicholas and brought them to Bari, Italy where they remain to this day housed in a basilica dedicated to him. To this day, especially around his feast day, the bones of Saint Nicholas exude a sweet smelling substance popularly called manna or myrrh which possesses miraculous powers of healing and spiritual conversion.
Due to his reputation as a gift giver, many traditions have sprung up in various Christian countries regarding Saint Nicholas’s feast day and by extension Christmas. In Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic Saint Nicholas himself reportedly gives gifts to good children on the eve of his feast day and on Christmas Eve it is the Baby Jesus who brings gifts. The tradition of Saint Nicholas as gift giver carried over to countries as far west and Holland where he is known as Sinter Klauss from which we get the tradition of the modern day Santa Clause that came to America via Holland with early Dutch immigrants. There also exists a somewhat scary tradition in Hungary and Austria that revolves around Krampus, the Christmas devil, who travels with Saint Nicholas and punishes naughty children by hitting them with a switch while Saint Nicholas rewards the good children with gifts. A similar tradition involving a figure named Ruprecht who has the similar role of punishing naughty children by filling their shoes with coal or sticks exists in Germany. In many former communist countries, where the celebration of Christmas and all things Christian was either frowned upon or banned outright, there was an attempt to replace Saint Nicholas with a secular character named Father Frost who gave gifts on New Year’s Eve instead of Christmas or Saint Nicholas’s Day. In fact, the celebration of New Year’s was promoted as a replacement for Christmas. Since the collapse of communism, the various traditions regarding Saint Nicholas have widely taken root again which is a powerful testimony to this saint’s message of faith, sharing and community.
During the holiday season it is easy to get caught up with shopping, decorating, cooking and all the other potentially stressful activities associated with this time of year. We should look to Saint Nicholas as an example of the true meaning of the holiday season, which is one of hope, generosity and kindness toward others. Making a donation to charity or helping (discretely) a family in need are wonderful ways of honoring Saint Nicholas and following his example. You may also wish to give small gifts to friends and family or to recite the following prayer on his feast day (Dec. 6th):
O good St. Nicholas,
you who are the joy of the children,
put in my heart the spirit of childhood,
which the gospel speaks, and teach me to seed happiness around me.
You, whose feast prepares us for Christmas,
open my faith to the mystery of God made man.
You good bishop and shepherd,
help me live a life of holiness and charity
and inspire me to do good in the world.
O good Saint Nicholas, patron of children, sailors and the helpless,
watch over me as well as over those who humble themselves before you.
Bring us all in reverence to the Holy Child of Bethlehem,
where true joy and peace are found.
Amen.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and I wish you much happiness, peace and joy on the Feast of St. Nicholas, throughout the holiday season and always!
Thanksgiving
"The message of Thanksgiving is gratitude and recognition of the blessings we have in our lives."
As we approach the end of the November, Americans often busy themselves with plans for the Thanksgiving holiday. It is a hectic time of year that involves much travelling and preparing the home to receive guests and of course cooking. All of this can be quite stressful, but I have always found Thanksgiving to be one of my favorite holidays probably second only to Halloween. I have fond childhood memories or helping my grandmother make stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce the night before Thanksgiving and awakening to the smell of roasting turkey in the morning. It is a day to be grateful for the blessings that we have and to spend time with people who are important to us that we may not get to see that often. Recently, I have been thinking about the origins of Thanksgiving and have come to the conclusion that there are deep spiritual aspects to this annual late harvest festival that are often overlooked and have thought of some simple rituals and meditations that can be done on or around Thanksgiving to truly give thanks.
Different cultures and faiths throughout history have held days of Thanksgiving to give thanks for particular blessings received. In the Catholic Church there is a service called the Te Deum which is meant for this purpose and throughout history has been used to give thanks when great disasters have been averted or in honor of miracles received. Starting with the Protestant Reformation, many of the reformed churches of Northern Europe called for random days of Thanksgiving throughout the year to replace previously held Catholic feast days. Such days mainly consisted of fasting and prayer rather than the feasting we are so familiar with today. The first Thanksgiving service held on what is today US territory occurred in Saint Augustine, Florida on September 8th 1565 among Spanish Catholic settlers, but the Thanksgiving story with which we are most familiar occurred in Plymouth, Massachusetts in November of 1621. The Puritan settlers, popularly known as The Pilgrims, held three days of feasting to celebrate surviving their first year in the harsh, unfamiliar territory. Throughout the colonial period in New England, days of Thanksgiving were declared sporadically by the governors, but it was not until the 1860’s that Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving an annual national holiday thanks in large part to the lobbying efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, a popular 19th century columnist and magazine editor who had been campaigning for decades to get politicians nationwide to recognize the holiday. Lincoln hoped that instituting a national day of Thanksgiving would foster a sense of unity between north and south. Initially, many southerners refused to celebrate the holiday seeing it as a northern or “Yankee” tradition and it wasn’t until the early 1900’s that Thanksgiving was universally celebrated across the country.
I realize that among peoples native to the Americas, Thanksgiving is often seen as a holiday that glorifies the arrival of white settlers and the beginning of the destruction of their way of life, so I was a bit hesitant to write this blog post, but I want to make clear that I am emphasizing the importance to gratitude and giving thanks rather than commemorating any one historical. I have a friend who has Navajo and Black Foot ancestry and she told me that she celebrates Thanksgiving and it is one of her favorite holidays. She sees it as a time to celebrate the rich history of the original inhabitants of the Americas and says that no matter what difficulties anybody faces, we can always find things for which to be thankful. We can and should give thanks every day, but this holiday provides a perfect opportunity to do so in a bigger way with friends and loved ones.
From a spiritual standpoint, giving thanks is extremely important as living in a state of gratitude makes life more pleasant, curtails greed and invites peace into our lives. It’s certainly acceptable to want new things, more money, to take exotic vacations, buy our dream home-all of this is wonderful and these are goals we should strive for, but not without stopping to be thankful for what we do have at any given moment and sharing our good fortune with others. We have all known people who have a disproportionate sense of entitlement and whose lives are ruled by greed and avarice. I think we can agree that these are usually not pleasant people to be around and their pessimistic view of the world tends to bring others down. This type of attitude is easily combated. It is as simple as stopping to think of all that we have to be thankful for on our journey through life. I have developed a simple ritual that may be done any time of year, but is meant to bring special meaning to the Thanksgiving season.
At some point during Thanksgiving Day, or even the night before, just take a few quiet moments for yourself and light a white candle. Reflect for a moment of the things you have in your life that you value and are important to you. Mentally or out loud thank offer thanks for all of these things. You can thank God or the universe, your ancestors, your favorite saints or spirits according to your personal beliefs. Then as you set about your preparations for the day, allow the candle to burn out on its own as a symbol of the true meaning of the holiday. You may also wish to make a small donation to charity, attend a communal Thanksgiving service at a church or temple or simply spend some time with friends or family as a way of commemorating this special time of year.
I personally believe that each holiday has its own message of theme. The message of Thanksgiving is without a doubt gratitude and recognition of the blessings we have in our lives. As always, I thank you for visiting my blog and I wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and abundant blessings!
The Charada China
The Charada China is intended to divine winning lottery numbers.
It is a commonly held belief in spiritual circles that we receive messages in our dreams both from our spirit guides and our own subconscious psychic intuition. In Cuban Santeria and Espiritsmo circles, a system has been devised that associates the images seen in dreams to numbers that may be played in the lottery. This system of dream interpretation is known as the Charada China. I have used it several times successfully myself and recommended it others over the years.
As the name would indicate, the Charada China is actually of Chinese origin. Gambling was a traditional part of Chinese culture for centuries until it was outlawed by the Communist government of the People’s Republic of China following its rise to power in the late 1940’s. Today Macau, which is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China and under different laws than mainland China is an international gambling hub with three times the annual revenue of Las Vegas! In the late 1880’s, after slavery was abolished in Cuba, the island needed a new cheap labor force to work on sugar plantations and build the railroads. Chinese immigrants filled this need and they brought with them a passion for games of chance and the lottery. They also brought with them a system of divining winning lottery numbers based on dreams. The original Charada China was a series of 36 numbers associated with specific images that were often depicted on a large poster as being attached to a man wearing traditional Chinese costume. When a person would have particularly vivid dreams, he or she would look up what he or she had seen in dreams and play the number at the next lottery drawing. Eventually the Charada China was expanded to include 100 numbers. Similar such dream interpretation manuals were popular in the early 1900’s among practitioners of Southern Hoodoo, but the Charada China is the oldest and most widely known dream interpretation chart, at least in the Americas, and it is the one that I trust the most.
The way I use the Charada China is whenever I have exceptionally vivid dreams, which surprisingly is quite rare, I look up the images I’ve dreamed on the Charada China and play them on the daily number. I have won several small amounts of money was over the years and thanks to the Charada China and my spirit guides, I have won much more money than I’ve paid into the lottery, which is more than a lot of people can say! If you wish to try your luck at the lottery with the help of the Charada China, you can simply wait until you have a particularly memorable dream and look up the images therein on the Charada China or you can help things along a bit by lighting a white candle to your ancestors and spirit guides or whatever saints or spirits you are close to and ask them to send you images in a dream that will reveal winning lottery numbers. Once you do win some money, you should thank your spirits with a small offering such as some flowers, a glass of beer or a small salt-less food offering.
Below are the numbers of the Charada China. If you decide to give it a try, please share your experience with me!
The Numbers of the Charada China
1-Horse
2-Butterfly
3-Sailor
4-Cat
5-Nun
6-Turtle/Tortoise
7-Shell, Sea shell
8-Death
9-Elefant
10-Fish
11-Rooster
12-Prostitute
13-Peacock, Pimp
14-Tiger
15-Dog
16-Bull
17-Moon
18-Small Fish
19-Earth Worm
20-Fancy Cat
21-Large Snake
22-Frog
23-Boat
24-Dove
25- Gem or precious stone
26-Eel
27-Wasp
28-Goat, female genitalia
29-Mouse
30-Snail, penis
31-Deer
32-Pig
33-Vulture
34-Monkey
35-Spider
36-Pipe
37-Witchcraft
38-Hermit Crab
39-Small Snake
40-Priest
41-Lizard
42-Duck
43-Scorpion
44-Leather
45-Shark, President
46-Smoke
47-Bird
48-Cockroach
49-Drunkeness
50-Police
51-Soldier
52-Bicycle
53-Electric Light
54-White Chicken
55-Crab
56-Queen
57-Telegram
58-Adultery
59-Record Player
60-Sun
61-Canon Fire
62-Marriage
63-Assassin, Murderer
64-Gunshot
65-Jail
66-Divorce
67-Knife Stab
68-Big Cemetery
69-Well (For Drawing Water)
70-Coconut
71-River
72-Train
73-Park
74-Commet, Kite
75-Movie Theater
76-Dancer, Ballerina
77-Flags
78-Bishop
79-Fancy Car, Limousine
80-Doctor
81-Theatre
82-Lion
83-Tragedy
84-Tailor
85-Madrid
86-Convent
87-New York
88-Glasses, Sun Glasses
89-Lottery
90-Large Mirror
91-Steet Car, Trolley
92-Globe
93-Revolution
94-Machete
95-War
96-Dare, Challenge
97-Mosquito
98-Piano
99-Chickadee
100-Motel, Inn
Saint Martha
I am pleased to announce the publication of my new booked entitled Saint Martha which is a collection of traditional prayers and devotions employed to request the intercession of this miraculous saint of whom I am a life long devotee. I share my experiences invoking the aid and protection of Saint Martha as well as the numerous blessings she has helped manifest in my life and teach you to call upon this powerful saint to help with whatever your needs may be.
This title is available on amazon.com and on my personal website www.jamesduvalier.com in the books section. If you decide to seek the help of Saint Martha, please share you experience with me. I wish you peace, love and abundant blessings!
Obon: A Japanese Festival in Honor of the Ancestors
"Fires were lit outside the home to light the way for family spirits and welcome them back home."
In the past, I have written about several Asian holidays where the ancestors and the dead in general are venerated and presented with offerings, most specifically Qing Ming and the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts. On the latter, it is believed that the souls of one’s ancestors are able to return to visit family and also another class of spirit known as “Hungry Ghosts” are particularly active as well. These are the spirits who have nobody to pray for them and during this festival, they receive ample offerings on home altars and in temples. A similar holiday known as Obon exists in Japan and has been celebrated there for over 500 years. Obon no doubt has its origins in traditional Chinese holidays honoring departed loved ones, yet over the centuries in Japan the customs surrounding this three day festival have adopted their own local flavor and parts of the holiday have taken on carnival-like qualities while still preserving its deeply spiritual roots.
Obon is traditionally celebrated in the middle of August over a three day period usually beginning on the 15th. Due to a calendar change during the Meiji period, in some parts of Japan, most notably in and around Tokyo, it is celebrated in mid-July, but the most common date still remains the 15th of August which coincides with the traditional Chinese date for the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts from which Obon descends. People construct altars in their homes on which they present offerings of food and incense for their departed loved ones and invite them to return by ringing a bell, a tradition that is strikingly similar to a practice of ringing a bell to call the orishas in the Santeria or Regla de Ocha tradition. Some people have Buddhist priests or monks preside over a service in their homes. People also visit cemeteries and clean and decorate the family graves with flowers and incense, a practice similarly observed in the West on All Saints Day and in China on Qing Ming. In years past, fires were lit outside the home to light the way for family spirits and welcome them back home. This tradition is still occasionally seen in rural areas. Finally, on the last day of Obon, people make paper lanterns holding a candle and float them down a river or other body of water to symbolize the souls of loved ones traveling back to the spirit world for another year.
Today Obon has taken on a more carnival like spirit with concerts, fireworks and amusement parks rides being set up for the occasion, yet still many people are returning to the traditional way of celebrating the holiday perhaps out of a need to connect with their roots and reclaim a sense of spirituality while living in a hectic secular society. Many Obon services are held as well in Buddhist temples and Japanese cultural centers across Europe and North America. If you would like to honor your ancestors during Obon, you can simply create an altar or sacred space in your home and adorn it with photos of departed loved ones and place offerings such as fruit and incense while inviting them back to this world during this special time of year. You may also wish to place a candle in your window or outside your home to welcome them back from the spirit world. I hope you have enjoyed this brief discussion of this fascinating celebration and as always I wish you peace, happiness and abundant blessings!
