Christmas Day Festivities & Concert

Can you believe I'm still writing about Christmas?? Well, it's still technically the holiday season here and won't be officially concluded until "Old New Year" (aka Jan 13th). ;) Todays blog includes a video clip of the Christmas concert as well as info on the cultural festivities for Christmas Day...

The Church bells echoed through the city to announce the special Christmas Day service. The service was televised, so I watched it and tried to understand what was being said. After the service special songs were broadcast out into the street while worshippers came to light candles and place them into special candelabras set up outside, to visit various icon stations inside and also to be blessed by the priest. I think they were also offering communion as well. I went to the church to take in the festivities as it's such a big part of the culture here, however I hung back on the fringes out of respect. The church was open to people all day long and everyone was enjoying the holiday with family.

Later that evening I went to a special Christmas concert in the city center. Fliers had gone up all over the city to advertise for it and a whole lot of people showed up. It was standing room only! There were actually several people there that I knew, including some that I'd not seen in a while. It was so enjoyable to do some catching up as well as to meet many new people. Have I mentioned recently how much I enjoy the people here? Anyways, the concert was fabulous and the musicians and singers were amazing. I've attached a small clip of the song, "Angels We Have Heard on High" to give just a little window into it:

In an earlier blog I'd mentioned the special bread with the coin in it. Well, this is what it looks like as displayed at a local bakery. Anyways, my hairdresser told me that some families will have this bread on New Years while others will serve it for the special Christmas Eve dinner. The person who gets the piece with the coin in it is believed to have good luck and health for the new year. :) My only advice is that if you buy one, or are served one, be careful about the piece you bit into. The coin may be wrapped in paper, but I learned the hard way that it still hurts if you bite into it!

Thanks for visiting and being a part of the holiday season with me this year. Stay tuned, though. There's still more to come like "Old New Year" and "Epiphany." Also coming soon is the vanilla bean-in-vodka brewing experiment update as well as perhaps some recipes of local and personal favorites. Until next time...