To hear samples from this CD on your Windows Media Player, just click on SAMPLE.
1. Bells (SAMPLE)
2. O House of Ephratha (SAMPLE)
3. Troparion of the Eve of the Nativity (SAMPLE)
4. Kontakion of the Forefeast of the Nativity (SAMPLE)
Christmas
Christmas is the annual feast commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, over 2000 years ago. For Christians, it is not just a single day (December 25), but an extended liturgical season of joy and celebration, involving many different symbols and traditions, special music and activities, which vary significantly among different countries and cultures. For religiously observant Christians, the Christmas Season begins at sunset on Christmas Eve, December 24, and lasts from 12 days to 40 days. In some ecclesial traditions the Christmas Season might end on January 6 (the traditional date of the Feast of the Epiphany); in others it might last until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord (usually the Sunday after Epiphany), or might even last all the way to February 2 (the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 40 days after December 25). January 6, usually celebrated as Epiphany, carries different significance in various church traditions. Due to different calendars in use in various eras and locations of the church, some cultures and church traditions celebrate Christmas on January 6 (in the older Julian calendar still used as the religious calendar in Eastern Churches, January 6 corresponds to December 24 on the modern Gregorian calendar).
Although we cannot know the exact date of Jesus' birth, it has been celebrated on December 25 since the early fourth century, when most of the Roman Empire adopted the Christian religion. It replaced the mid-winter Roman festival of "the birth of the sun god" ( sol invictus), celebrated just after the winter solstice.
Etymologically, the word "Christmas" derives from Old English " Cristes mæsse" (literally "Christ's festival"). It is similar to Dutch Kerstmis, but is significantly different in derivation and meaning in many other European languages: German Weihnachten ("Blessed Night"), Italian Natale, Spanish Navidad, French Noël (all ultimately derived from Latin natalis, "birth"), and Scandinavian jul (from which is derived the English yule).
The official liturgical color of the Christmas Season for most Churches is white or gold, not green and red, as many people assume because of their prevalence in secular celebrations.
Hermitage of the Holy Cross: Wayne, West Virginia
The Hermitage of the Holy Cross is an English speaking monastery under the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and is a dependency of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York. The monks support themselves by manufacturing hand-rolled incense in the ancient Athonite tradition and through hand-painted icons, homemade soap, wooden icon shelves, analogions (prayer desks) and other liturgical items and products.
Holy Cross Monastery was founded in September 1986 by Hieromonk Kallistos in House Springs, Missouri. The Hermitage remained in the Missouri area for the next 14 years. An offer of land was made to the Hermitage and with the blessings of the monastery's Abbot, Archbishop Laurus of Holy Trinity Monastery and the monastery's spiritual father, Igumen George, the brotherhood decided to move the monastery to West Virginia in 2000.
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