FREYA

 

When Christianity reached Scandinavia, St Lucia dethroned a pagan goddess to become the most revered female figure.

In Norse mythology the pagan goddess Freya was the most beautiful goddess of love and fertility to whom sacrifices were offered at Yule.

She was the daughter of the god Njord and the sister of Freyr and married to the mysterious god Od who disappeared, she mourned so much for the loss of her husband that she wept tears of gold.

Freya wore the bright necklace of the Brisings and a cloak of bird feathers which allowed her to change into a falcon, and

her chariot was pulled by two cats.

I TRIED MY HAND AT FORTUNE TELLING

 

I tried my hand at fortune telling

Using an old snow globe

And I became very good at predicting

Really cold winters

ST LUCIA OF SYRACUSE

 

Lucia was born to a noble and prosperous family in Syracuse on the island of Sicily.

It was in the days of Diocletian and his persecution of Christian’s that Lucia carried food and drink to Christians hiding in dark underground tunnels.

In order To light her way she wore a wreath of candles on her head.

Lucia’s father was long dead and her ailing widowed mother, Eutychia, planned to marry the beautiful young Lucia to a pagan bachelor.

Lucia however had no interest in marriage and spurned the suggestion of marriage and told her mother she had no want of worldly goods and she had vowed to remain a virgin in the tradition of St. Agatha, at whose tomb she regularly prayed for help and for three years she managed to keep the marriage on hold.

To change her mother Eutychia's mind about the girl's new faith, Lucy prayed long at the tomb of St Agatha.

Miraculously her mother's long hemorrhagic illness was cured and to show her gratitude to her devout daughter the grateful mother was ready to exceed to Lucia’s wish to give herself to prayer and poverty and commit her life to god.

The young pagan suitor, Paschasius, was less understanding and was so angry that he denounced her as a Christian to the Roman authorities.

In keeping with the Emperor Diocletian’s edict to eradicate Christianity the Roman governor sentenced her to be taken to a brothel and forced into prostitution.

The Romans were thwarted in their efforts after divine intervention as Lucia became rooted to the spot and was thus immovable and the Romans could not carry her away even when they hitched her to a team of oxen.

Not to be diverted after they tortured her and tore her eyes out the Romans next condemned her to death by fire, she was surrounded by bundles of wood which were set afirebut after another divine intervention she proved impervious to the flames.

In the end a roman soldier pierced her neck with a sword and she died.

Miraculously her eyesight was restored before her death which is why she is the patron saint of the blind.

THE BEST CHRISTMAS MOVIES EVER – THE CHRISTMAS CURE (2017)

 

Emergency room doctor Vanessa Turner (Brooke Nevin) returns to her home town for the first time in years to spend Christmas with her family to find that her father Bruce (Patrick Duffy) has decided to retire from his own practice.

Back at the hospital she is one of the candidates for the head of Emergency Medicine but after reconnecting with her high school sweetheart Mitch (Steve Byers), she must decide whether that is still what she wants or should she stay and take over her father's practice.

CHRISTMAS HILL PARK

 

Christmas Hill Park is near Gilroy, California and boasts a large amphitheater and an extensive network of paved and dirt trails for bikes and walkers alike.

THE SWAN LAKE CHRISTMAS HILL NATURE SANCTUARY

 

The Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary is located in the District of Saanich, near the city of Victoria, Canada.

It is an oasis of natural beauty Surrounded by the urban sprawl of Victoria and Swan Lake is only minutes from the downtown area.

The Nature Sanctuary consists of two distinct areas with Swan Lake and its surrounding marshy lowlands which provides good habitat for many birds and small animals such as muskrat, river otter and mink and the rocky, oak-forested highlands of Christmas Hill with its majestic view from the hilltop and the meadows blooming with a sea of wildflowers in the springtime.

The lake was formed when the last glacier receded 12,000 years ago but Swan Lake’s current status is due to much more recent events just a few decades ago.

Up until the 1970’s the area was a dumping ground for a mixture of raw sewage, farm waste and chemicals from a local winery.

But due to the cleanup which began in the 70's the area is a rich habitat for a variety of wildlife.

THE ISLAND OF ST LUCIA

 

St Lucia was first settled by Arawak Indians around 200 A.D but six hundred years later the Arawak culture had been replaced by the Caribs.

To the islands inhabitants it was known as “Iouanalao” and “Hewanorra,” which meant “Island of the Iguanas.”

The island was first discovered by the Europeans on December 13^th 1502 when Christopher Columbus first sighted the island and although he never landed on it he named it St Lucia as it was the saint’s day.

There was no European presence established on the island until around 1550s when the notorious buccaneer Francois le Clerc, also known as Peg-Leg le Clerc used the island as a base to launch attacks on unsuspecting treasure-laden Spanish galleons.

The Dutch arrived around 1600 and established a fortified base at Vieux Fort.

A party of English settlers arrived on the “Olive Branch” a few years later but there attempts to settle ended in failure.

In 1639, a second party of English colonists under Sir Thomas Warner also failed in their attempts to settle the island.

By the middle of the century the French arrived and “purchased” the island for the French West India Company this did not go down well with the British and hostilities broke out and the Anglo-French conflict raged for a century and a half.

It was in 1814 after a long drawn out series of savage and brutal battles that the British finally claimed the island for the crown.

Under British rule the island prospered and remained under the control of the British crown until St Lucia became independent in 1979.