Tu B'Shevat

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Tonight begins the Jewish holiday of Tu B'shevat. Tu B'shevat is the Jewish New Year for Trees, 1 of 4 New Years on the Jewish calendar. On the day of Tu B'shevat, starting at sundown tonight and ending at sundown tomorrow, Jews typically eat fruits associated with the Holy Land. the holiday gets it's name from it's date on the Jewish calendar (15th of Shevat). Due to the nature of the Jewish calendar, this is a holiday that changes dates on the secular calendar.

The holiday is used to count the age of trees for tithing purposes. In the Torah*, Leviticus to be more precise, it states that one shouldn't eat the fruit from trees it's first 3 years and that the fruit of the 4th year should be gifted to God. People are free to eat the fruit from the tree on following years.

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The day naturally comes with a few traditions. One is to eat a new fruit on this day. Another is to eat all 7 of the spices mentioned in the Torah as abundant spices in Israel. Another tradition is to plant trees or collect money to plant trees in Israel. It's also customary to recite a blessing on the fruit eaten on the day.

• the pages on the day at chabad.org
• myJewishLearning has a few pages about how the holiday's types, the month/eating, and the holiday and it's history.

Sources

• BBC's summary of religions and their holidays
• Judaism 101
• chabad.org

* The Torah is roughly equivalent to the Christian Old Testament (OT). For the most part, it has the same books, but in a different order. Some of the book the Christian OT has are lumped together in the Torah also. Resulting in the Torah having 24 books compared to the either 39 or 46 in the OT. (Catholics have some OT books Protestants don't have.)

Martin Luther King, Jr Day

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Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The day we celebrate the man who fought to end segregation and racism in general. The quote on The King Center's page from his wife that I feel best represents what he fought for and, thus, represents who and what we celebrate today is, "We commemorate Dr. King's inspiring words, because his and his vision filled a great void in our nation, and answered our cellective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles." MLK (Martin Luther King, Jr.) not only spoke up for his vision of a county without racism, he also put his life on the line in his fight. He faced threats, jail, and beatings as results of his advocacy. While he didn't achieve his dream, his actions did result in some long overdue changes towards racial equality.

Now I won't go into great detail about MLK's life, both personal and as what many today would call a Social Justice Warrior, I will give some information here and provide links for anybody that wants to know more about the man and his mission.

I (mage source   quote's validity source

A Brief History on the Holiday Itself

• Martin Luther King, Jr Day is celebrated on the 3rd monday in January.
• The first legislation introduced to create the holiday was brought forth on 8 April 1968, 4 days after his assassination, by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).
• The day wasn't an official holiday anywhere in the US until Illinois made it a state holiday in 1973, followed by Massachusetts and Connecticut the following year.
• His wife (Coretta Scott King) testified in front of both the Senate Judiciary Committee and Joint Hearings of Congress in favor of creating the federal holiday we have today in 1979, but the Conyers King Holiday bill was defeated in a floor vote in the House that November. (Note, it was defeated by only 5 votes.)
• Mrs. King again testified for the holiday in 1982, but before the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Services's Subcommittee on Census and Population.
• She again testified before Congress in favor of the King Holiday Bill in June of 1983.
• The bill was signed by President Reagan in November of 1983, creating the federal holiday we currently have.

With his family. Source

A Brief History on Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther was born in 1929 as Michael Luther King, jr, but later changed his name to Martin. He attended segregated schools as a child and got his B.A. in sociology from Morehouse College in 1948. He then went on to receive his B.D. degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. He followed that with going to Boston University for his graduate studies. He finished his graduate studies in 1953, and was awarded the degree in 1955. Boston is also where he met and married his wife Coretta Scott. The couple had 3 children.

MLK was on the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) by 1954. He accepted the role of leader in the 382 day Montgomery Bus Boycott in December of 1955, which resulted in the US Supreme Court ruling segregation on busses unconstitutional. Between 1957 and his death in 1968, King traveled the country and spoke where there was injustice, protest, and action, as well as leading many protests himself and writing 5 books.

King was the youngest man to win the Nobel Peace Prize when he was told he was to be the winner at 35. In 1968, at 39, he was assassinated in Memphis, TN.

• read any of the books on his biography page at nobelprize.org (link in the sources)
• his biography at The King Center's website
• his biography at history.com
• his entry at britannica.com
• you can also read his autobiography which is available at both Amazon and Google books. You can also find it in a library with worldcat

SOURCES

• The King Center 1 - 2 - 3
• NobelPrize.org
• Morehouse College website

Orthodox Christmas

I decided I'm going to go through the year writing posts about each of the holidays for Christians, Jews, & Muslims. Each post will give a brief overview of the holiday, including what the holiday celebrates and how people celebrate. I'll even include where for holidays like today's that are primarily in specific areas/countries. My sources will be included at the bottom on each post for anyone that wants to check my sources, or get some more information.

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Today, January 7th, is Christmas Day in many Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The difference in dates between the Orthodox Christmas and Christmas for non-Orthodox Christians is a result of using different calendars. Most of the world has adopted and follows the Gregorian calendar (proposed 1582), while the Christian Orthodox church still uses the Julian calendar (created 45 BC). The 2 calendars differ by 13 days, resulting in Orthodox Christmas being 13 days after Christmas for the rest of Christianity and Epiphany being on January 19th vs January 6. Some Orthodox churches have adopted a version of the Julian calendar that puts Christmas on December 25, but not all. For example, 85% of Orthodox Christians in Russia celebrate Christmas today.

The Orthodox Christian churches that celebrate Christmas today are primarily in Belarus, Bulgaria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Israel, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. The map below shows the location of each country in yellow.

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The story that is celebrated at Christmas is pieced together from 2 different accounts in the books of Matthew and Luke in the Bible (Christian holy book). That story is the story of Jesus's birth. Christians see Jesus as the son of God, who was born to a virgin named Mary. Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph, who was also a carpenter. Luke contains the story of an angel visiting Mary to tell her she was to give birth to Jesus, as well as the story of Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem and shepherds being led to the manger that was used as newborn Jesus's cradle. While Matthew contains the story of wise men following a star to see baby Jesus and present him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

The date of Christmas was set in the 4th century C.E. (previously known as AD) by Pope Julius I in an attempt to Christianize the pagan festivals that already took place around the winter solstice. From these pagan festivities came some of the traditions celebrating Christmas that Christians still follow today, including decorating the home in greenery and gift giving from the Roman Saturnalia.

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The Christmas season is celebrated a little differently in the western, non-Orthodox Christian churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches. For starters, the Eastern Orthodox church doesn't have Advent. Instead they fast for the 40 days before Christmas and a very strict fast on Christmas Eve (Jan. 6). The fast is from meat and dairy, but the strict fast on Christmas Eve is from everything but water. Also, the Christmas Eve service begins with singing of the Royal Hours. The traditions of a Christmas tree and gift giving are commonly shared among Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians however.

Want more information on some aspect, here's the links I found for you.

• Singing of the Royal Hours on wikipedia. There's also a recording of the Singing of the Royal Hours here.
• More specific information on a particular country?
• Belarus
• Bulgaria
• Egypt
• Eritrea
• Ethiopia
• Georgia
• Macedonia
• Russia
• Serbia
• Ukraine

Sources

• The Independent - United Kingdom
• BBC's information on different religions
• Orthodox Way of Life blog post for 4 Dec 2010
• ABC Australia