It is Saint Nicholas day today, and that means in the Cox-Johnson households shoes were left outside doors and a gift and three gold wrapped chocolate balls were given. I was going to have a party today, but three different people who know me and love me told me I was trying to do too much, so we cancelled it. But St. Nicholas did apparently not pass over us; the picture is of Cana, a chocolate gold ball in her hand, and Mel...that's his eyes that are the two bright spots. We were trying to get him to play some more with the candy ball (remember, it was wrapped) but he became contrary when he saw the camera.
As you may know, Nicholas of Myra, bishop in the lat 4th century, was a good man who gave gifts, not when children were good, but when they were in need. The gold balls that are often seen in the hand of Nicholas in figurines and paintings represent three bags of gold that young Nicholas anonymously dropped down the chimney the house of a poor merchant whose three daughers would not have had the dowries for marriage... they would have not been able to find husbands and would have to had to turn to a life of prostitution, the story goes. ? I developed a St. Nicholas Festival as an intergenerational Advent event at Kirkwood, and we also hosted it at Canton, Community and Broadway. I had the basics "how-tos" published in the old Leadership in the Sunday School magazine put out by the Publishing House. There are all sorts of stories about Nicholas' care for younger persons, the many countries and many professions of which he is the patron saint (even dyers!) and about his imprisonment because of his steadfast following of Christ. There is a great website now that I wish had been available in 1988 when I first designed the workshop/event. The address is http://www.stnicholascenter.com/. Click and you can find out more.
Happy Saint Nicholas day!!!
1 comment:
Grreat blog I enjoyed reading
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