Skip to main content

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? 

 
 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for reading my blog and please share your thoughts about my blog post by leaving a comment.Your comment won't appear immediately as comments are verified before publication in an effort to reduce the amount of spam appearing. Anonymous comments will not be published.

Popular posts from this blog

Is it a mutant? Is it an alien? It's an octopus - or is it?

Have you ever thought how strange a creature the octopus is?  This week's fascination started when I asked the question, "What colour is an octopus when it's underwater?"  The answer is  "any colour it wants to be " -  An octopus' coloration depends upon its surroundings.  An octopus possesses the ability to alter its coloration depending on its immediate environment. This defensive technique protects the animal from predators and entices prey to come close to the animal . ((from  https://www.reference.com/pets-animals/color-octopus-be94f74fcdc74ebe)    . Why did I want to know the colour of an octopus? Because I wanted to draw octopus tentacles as mermaid hair for my art journal! Then, I began to think it might be considered a little too weird and even perverse to give a mermaid octopus hair.... Facebook friends assured me that this was not so, citing Medusa and her snake hair as a precedent, and even one friend said that she thought it was l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Stitched Faces

I   've always enjoyed that imperfect line of  "not quite in control' free motion machine stitching....  I think it really suits creating portraits , giving them some character and even a quirkiness that hints of personality plus.  These ones below are from my " Red Cheeks" series from a couple of years ago, and are amongst my favourite stitched portraits.  The current Stitch Club ( textileartist.org) workshop, by  Batool Showghi has inspired me to stitch more this week. Batool , of course, is in complete control of her machine stitching and her works are exquisite and they tell a moving story.  ... " Working with paper, print, paint and stitch, her textile art bears witness to displacement, silenced women and the damage that authoritarian regimes impose on ordinary lives. Batool’s mixed media wall pieces are incredibly striking, but her artist books truly set her apart. Printed imagery of family photographs, birth certificate documents and her o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Taste Over Health?

  Wilma Simmons: Thorax and Eucalyptus Leaves :hand embroidered x-ray; 2024  For a few years, I've been learning more  about the healing quality of plants and testing out various well known remedies ...  for example, boiling up eucalyptus leaves to use as a steam inhalant does act as an effective respiratory decongestant.   It takes a little more effort to create meals which hit the sweet spot of being tasty, nutritious and health promoting. Did you know that it's  predicted that our brain processes taste information first, before perceived health and this can affect our overall decision making?  “ For many individuals, health information enters the decision process too late (relative to taste information) to drive choices toward the healthier option. ... We’ve always assumed people make unhealthy choices because that’s their preference or because they aren’t good at self control ” says study coauthor Nicolette Sullivan. “It turns out it...
Post a Comment
Read more