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Christmas Countdown Local 2022 - #1/25 "Multicultural at Home "

Red lantern at my front door 


Christmas Countdown  Local 2022   #1/25 

Each year, I follow a  personal tradition of counting down to Christmas in the month of December in this blog - either recording each day something I have made, seen or researched with a festive theme.  This year 2022,  I am  promoting "local" , staying close to home while  reflecting and researching Christmas sights around my neighbourhood and in my city of Newcastle (NSW Australia).... What better way to start than right here at home!

A couple of days ago, I began to think about how to respect other cultural traditions at Christmas .  To mark the beginning of Advent, I hung a red lantern near our  front door. This may be puzzling as a Chinese paper lantern seems to have little to do with Christmas... but, it does, particularly if you are Chinese and  part of the Christian population which numbers 5.1% of the total  1.4 billion  people in China . 

 
Chinese Christians light up their homes with colorful paper lanterns during Advent, and you might find red paper pagodas cut out and placed in windows.  It has become a Christmas tradition in China . 

Is it now easier to understand why my red lantern is part of my Christmas decorating ? 
Hope you will drop by and say hello - my house is the one with the red lantern outside! 

Image : St Ignatius Catherdra , Shanghai from Advent Traditions
In the image above,  I think I am really imagining that there are red lanterns hung in  Shanghai’s St Ignatius  Cathedral , restored in 2017 , after being damaged during  China's Cultural Revolution ????  What do you think? 

 
 

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