The second week was Koledna Pitka  (from above it looks like a sunburst):

(The note that went in the bulletin):

Koledna Pitka is the traditional Christmas bread of Bulgaria.

Bulgarian tradition requires a single young man of
the family to cut a hefty log — the “Budnik” — wrap it in white cloth and carry it into the house as a Yule log. A symbol of the Tree of Life, its ashes will later later be scattered on fields and added to animals’ feed to promote their
 health and fertility.

On Christmas Eve, the whole family traditionally gathers to end the 40-day Advent fast and eat while the Budnik burns. The meal consists of an odd number of dishes: at least seven (all presented at once). Home-made breads play an especially important role in this celebration. A coin is hidden inside a loaf and its finder can count on a good year ahead.

Family members must all stay at the table until the meal is over. Then, at midnight, the processions of the Koledari (carolers) begin: young men in traditional dress go from home to home greeting people, singing and sifting grain to express their good wishes for the family’s coming year and harvest.

The Christmas Eve table is not cleared until the following day so that the spirits of any ancestors who drop by before dawn need not go away hungry.

Third Sunday of Advent: St Lucia's Crown

St Lucia’s Crown

St. Lucia’s Day originates in an old pagan Scandinavian festival of light that marked the winter solstice (13 December in the old Julian calendar).
It was Christianised by early missionaries who told stories about Saint Lucia, a girl who was executed or smuggling food to fugitive Christians hiding in the catacombs under Rome. She wore a headdress of candles to see her way.
For the past 1,000 years or so St Lucia’s day has launched Sweden’s Christmas season.

Today’s sweet, saffron-scented bread represents the Swedish custom for the family’s oldest daughter to wake her parents at dawn on 13 December with coffee and sweet bread.

She wears a white dress, crimson sash and stockings, and a wreath-crown lit with white candles.

In 1927, a newspaper in Stockholm elected an official “Lucia” for the city. Other newspapers followed suit so that, today, most Swedish cities chose a “Lucia” every year. Each school elect its “Lucia” (and her maids) and regional “Lucias” are named. From them, a national “Lucia” is chosen on national television. Local “Lucia”s visit shopping malls, old folk's homes and churches, singing and handing out gingerbread.

Candle-lit processions are also a popular feature of the Swedish Christmas season.

I LOVE panettone, Carol, and Italian breads, and Italian wines and cheeses and foods and… and Italy. Each Christmas, at absurd cost, dear friends in Italy send us a big can of olive oil from their own trees (in Isernia)… it IS very delicious (and we use it, not for cooking, but on bread instead of butter and spreads).

But I don't have a panettone pan. Aren't sticky buns a little TOO stickily delicious for Christmas morning? How do you ever get around to opening any presents? Buon Natale!!!

CHRISTMAS DAY! - Merry Christmas all!!

Greek "Christopsomo", full of wine, orange juice, brandy, orange zest and juice, raisins. walnuts, pine nuts, anise seed, cinnamon,cloves, nutmeg… but burnt a bit on top because the bottom element of our oven blew at a bad moment... still, it tasted great.

The Christopsomo (“bread of Christ”) loaf is baked in Greek homes around the world, and broken at the dinner table on Christmas Eve or at lunch on Christmas Day.

Christmas tends to be a quiet, reflective time.

On Christmas Eve and on New Year’s Eve, children sing blessings (kalanda) from house to house, and are treated to sweets and dried fruit.

After 40 days of fasting, the family Christmas feast, served after church on Christmas Day and including specially baked ceremonial pastries, is keenly looked forward to.

Presents, though, are exchanged on the Feast of St. Nicholas (6 December) and St. Basil's Day (1 January). New Year’s is a time for parties and the “renewal of waters”. Water jugs in the house are emptied and re-filled with new “St. Basil’s Water” in a ceremony that often includes making offerings to the spirits of springs and fountains.

In Greece, instead of hauling presents down chimneys, St Nicolas is fully occupied as the patron saint of sailors. Besides, from Christmas until Epiphany, fires are traditionally kept lit to deter the killantzaroi: mischievous imps who emerge from the earth — only during that 12-day period — and slide down chimneys into people’s homes.

The Festive season continues until 6 January (Epiphany).

double post

For Epiphany: Rosca de Reyes (kings’ ring)

January 6, Epiphany, is the Twelfth Day of Christmas and the day on which we celebrate the arrival of the Magi with their gifts for Jesus.

Rosca de reyes (kings’ ring) is a Spanish and Spanish-American bread that’s traditionally eaten on this day. The bread is a round, like a crown, symbolizing Jesus as king. The bread is a rich, eggy and slightly sweet with a marked vanilla flavor.

In Spain and Spanish America, “Kings’ Day” is often a bigger celebration than Christmas Day. It is the day when children traditionally receive presents, not from “Santa” but from the Magi. In Mexico, before the children go to bed, they leave their shoes outside filled with hay or dried grass for the Wise Men’s camels, along with a note.

A very old tradition calls for a figure of the Christ Child to be baked in the loaf. In the Mexican tradition, the finder has to take the object to church on Candlemass Day (2 February) and throw a party with tamales (savoury wraps) and atole (a warm, sweetened drink made with a cornflour base).

INSIDE was this wee pewter Nativity scene:

The message was:

IF YOU find our Nativity (above) you are invited to keep it near you until next Christmas as a reminder of your own faith journey and wisdom-search.