O meu presépio

E tem sido este, há já largos anos, o presépio que escolhi para celebrar aquela que, para mim, é a festa por excelência da Família!

Silent Night, Holy Night

In the quiet of the night,

Underneath the star so bright.

Families gather, hearts alight,

On Christmas Eve, love’s pure sight.

Carols sung with all their might,

Around the tree, sparkling white.

Gifts exchanged in soft moonlight,

Christmas Eve, a delight..

Natal, o culto e o espírito X

 

Victorian Christmas cards II

 

«Christmas, in its final essence, is for grown people who have forgotten what children know. Christmas is for whoever is old enough to have denied the unquenchable spirit of man.»

Margaret Cousins

Victorian Christmas cards I

 "It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air."

W.T.Ellis

Natal, o culto e o espírito IX

 

“He was conscious of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares, long, long, forgotten.”

Charles Dickens, «A Christmas Carol»

Natal, o culto e o espírito VIII

"I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month."

Harlan Miller

Natal, o culto e o espírito VII

 

“For it is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty Founder was a child Himself.”

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Natal, o culto e o espírito VI

 

«I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.»

Charles Dickens

"Sempre pensei na época de Natal, quando esta se aproxima, como um tempo bom; uma quadra amável, indulgente e generosa; a única época que conheço, no longo calendário anual, em que os homens e mulheres parecem abrir, livre e unanimemente, os seus corações cerrados e pensar nas pessoas mais humildes como seus semelhantes, com o mesmo destino final e não como outra classe de criaturas vinculadas a outros destinos."

Natal, o culto e o espírito V

 

O Natal, as crianças e a capacidade de encantamento

"Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day, in the company of children, is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive."

Robert Lynd

Natal, o culto e o espírito III

 

Natal, o culto e o espírito II

London, Southbank Christmas Fair II

 "I know what I really want for Christmas.

I want my childhood back. Nobody is going to give me that. I might give at least the memory of it to myself if I try.

I know it doesn't make sense, but since when is Christmas about sense, anyway?

It is about a child, of long ago and far away, and it is about the child of now. In you and me.

Waiting behind the door of our hearts for something wonderful to happen.

A child who is impractical, unrealistic, simpleminded and terribly vulnerable to joy."

Robert Fulghum, «All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten»

        

Southbank Christmas Fair, London, Dec 2019

London, Southbank Christmas Fair I

"I truly believe that if we keep telling the Christmas story, singing the Christmas songs, and living the Christmas spirit, we can bring joy and happiness and peace to this world."

Norman Vincent Peale

Southbank Christmas Fair

     London, Dec 2019  

Natal, o culto e o espírito I

Com o tempo, o aparecimento das novas tecnologias, o seu galopante desenvolvimento, as mutações sociais daí resultantes, as transformações ocorridas no mundo laboral e as cada vez maiores exigências afectas ao mercado do trabalho, foram-se mudando os hábitos, os costumes e adaptando as tradições às condições específicas das famílias.

As citações, para mim, são como um bálsamo, uma âncora, uma forma de fazer reviver e sentir o "espírito" de Natal que acompanhou toda a minha infância e adolescência.

Aquele, o mesmo, em que a família e os amigos eram soberanos e os presentes meros acessórios...