TATAKalikasan Lesson: Christmas 2023: "Let Us Protect and Take Good Care of Our Mother Earth." in 10 Articles

Lesson on TATAKalikasan Ateneo de Manila University

87.9 FM Radyo Katipunan, Dec 14 & 21, 2023 11 to 12 a,m, Thursday

 Christmas 2023

"Let Us Protect and Take Good Care of Our Mother Earth." 

"Mankind is a great, immense family. This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas." - Pope John XX111

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

TATAKalikasan Co-Host with Prof Emoy Rodolfo, AdMU

Part 1 - World War I Christmas Truce of 1914 symbolizes human desire for peace
Part 2 - The Living Christmas Tree
Part 3 - Home Sweet Home this Christmas Season (50 Shared Versions)
Part 4 - When stars come down to earth
Part 5 - Cheer Up, It's Christmas! (Christmas Stories, Events, Jokes & Quotes)
Part 6- Family Togetherness is the theme of Christmas
Part 7 - Nativity in the Forest
Part 8 - What is the Happiest Season of your Life? A Self-Evaluation
Part 9 - Christmas Chandelier: Two of our Planet Earth
Part 10 - Unusual Historical Events that Happened During Christmas

Annex - 222 Ways of saying "Merry Christmas!"

Part 1 - World War I Christmas Truce of 1914 symbolizeshuman desire for peace

Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature School on Blog

A testament to the power of hope and humanity in a truly dark hour of history.

"Thousands of British, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent Christmas mingling with their German enemies along the Western front. ... the event has been seen as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace just a few months into a war that would eventually claim over 15 million lives." - Naina Bajekal

                         

 

 

Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914

Dec. 24, 2014 

Naina Bajekal @naina_bajekal
Mansell—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images German and British troops celebrating Christmas together during a temporary cessation of WWI hostilities known as the Christmas Truce.

Exactly a century ago, the men in the trenches heard something unusual: singing clear morning 100 years ago, thousands of British, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles, stepped out of their trenches and spent Christmas mingling with their German enemies along the Western front. In the hundred years since, the event has been seen as a kind of miracle, a rare moment of peace just a few months into a war that would eventually claim over 15 million lives. But what actually happened on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of 1914 — and did they really play soccer on the battlefield?

Pope Benedict XV, who took office that September, had originally called for a Christmas truce, an idea that was officially rejected. Yet it seems the sheer misery of daily life in the cold, wet, dull trenches was enough to motivate troops to initiate the truce on their own — which means that it’s hard to pin down exactly what happened. A huge range of differing oral accounts, diary entries and letters home from those who took part make it virtually impossible to speak of a “typical” Christmas truce as it took place across the Western front. To this day historians continue to disagree over the specifics: no one knows where it began or how it spread, or if, by some curious festive magic, it broke out simultaneously across the trenches. Nevertheless, some two-thirds of troops — about 100,000 people — are believed to have participated in the legendary truce.

Most accounts suggest the truce began with carol singing from the trenches on Christmas Eve, “a beautiful moonlit night, frost on the ground, white almost everywhere”, as Pvt. Albert Moren of the Second Queens Regiment recalled, in a document later rounded up by the New York Times. Graham Williams of the Fifth London Rifle Brigade described it in even greater detail:

“First the Germans would sing one of their carols and then we would sing one of ours, until when we started up ‘O Come, All Ye Faithful’ the Germans immediately joined in singing the same hymn to the Latin words Adeste Fideles. And I thought, well, this is really a most extraordinary thing ­– two nations both singing the same carol in the middle of a war.”

The next morning, in some places, German soldiers emerged from their trenches, calling out “Merry Christmas” in English. Allied soldiers came out warily to greet them. In others, Germans held up signs reading “You no shoot, we no shoot.” Over the course of the day, troops exchanged gifts of cigarettes, food, buttons and hats. The Christmas truce also allowed both sides to finally bury their dead comrades, whose bodies had lain for weeks on “no man’s land,” the ground between opposing trenches.

The phenomenon took different forms across the Western front. One account mentions a British soldier having his hair cut by his pre-war German barber; another talks of a pig-roast. Several mention impromptu kick-abouts with makeshift soccer balls, although, contrary to popular legend, it seems unlikely that there were any organized matches.

The truce was widespread but not universal. Evidence suggests that in many places firing continued — and in at least two a truce was attempted but soldiers attempting to fraternize were shot by opposing forces.

And of course, it was only ever a truce, not peace. Hostilities returned, in some places later that day and in others not until after New Year’s Day. “I remember the silence, the eerie sound of silence,” one veteran from the Fifth Battalion the Black Watch, Alfred Anderson, later recalled to The Observer. “It was a short peace in a terrible war.” As the Great War resumed, it wreaked such destruction and devastation that soldiers became hardened to the brutality of the war. While there were occasional moments of peace throughout the rest of World War I, they never again came on the scale of the Christmas truce in 1914.

Yet for many at the time, the story of the Christmas truce was not an example of chivalry in the depths of war, but rather a tale of subversion: when the men on the ground decided they were not fighting the same war as their superiors. With no man’s land sometimes spanning just 100 feet, enemy troops were so close that they could hear each other and even smell their cooking. The commander of the British Second Corps, General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, believed this proximity posed “the greatest danger” to the morale of soldiers and told Divisional Commanders to explicitly prohibit any “friendly intercourse with the enemy.” In a memo issued on Dec. 5, he warned that: “troops in trenches in close proximity to the enemy slide very easily, if permitted to do so, into a ‘live and let live’ theory of life.”

Indeed, one British soldier, Murdoch M. Wood, speaking in 1930, said: “I then came to the conclusion that I have held very firmly ever since, that if we had been left to ourselves there would never have been another shot fired.” Adolf Hitler, then a Corporal of the 16th Bavarians, saw it differently: “Such a thing should not happen in wartime,” he is said to have remarked. “Have you no German sense of honor?”

Still, a century later, the truce has been remembered as a testament to the power of hope and humanity in a truly dark hour of history. It has been immortalized and fictionalized in children’s novels like Michael Foreman’s War Game, in films such as Joyeux Noel and Oh, What a Lovely War! and even in a controversial Christmas ad this year from Sainsbury’s, a British supermarket chain. To mark the centenary this year, Prince William unveiled a memorial on Dec. 12: a metal frame representing a soccer ball, with two hands clasped inside it, and a week later, inspired by the events of the truce, the British and German army soccer teams played a friendly match. And though the Christmas Truce may have been a one-off in the conflict, the fact that it remains so widely commemorated speaks to the fact that at its heart it symbolizes a very human desire for peace, no matter how fleeting. ~

Part 2 - The Living Christmas Tree 

The living Christmas Tree gives food, water, shelter, energy, the basic provisions of life.  Above all, it is a great expression of love this coming Christmas Season.

 Don't cut trees for Christmas, don't!

Plant trees instead and build beautiful memories with the family as the trees grow Christmas after Christmas.  In the process they become living Christmas Trees the year round, and year in and out. For Christmas is not just for one occasion where a tree top is decorated and thrown away after. Millions of trees are sacrificed every Christmas this way. 

.Pine treetops for sale

This contributes to loss of vegetation, which in turn results in soil erosion and siltation, flooding and largely to global warming.

Loss of trees decreases oxygen in the air, since trees absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.  They are the earth's primary lungs.  And they contribute to favorable micro climates in their domain. They catch the rain and store it as groundwater and spring.  They feed the streams and rivers and keep the ponds and lakes full, and the estuaries in good condition.

Just a single tree, we may say, does not mean anything - and it's Christmas. Anyway and it comes once in a year.   With millions, nay billions, celebrating Christmas, collective loss is unimaginable.  

 What can we do to have an instant living Christmas tree? You don't have to go far if there is a tree in your backyard on along the sidewalk.    

 

• You can have a potted tree seedling by the window with simple decor.  No lights.  Just some ribbon and colored cutouts.

   
Tree planting to save Mother Earth.

 If the tree is large, decorate sparingly with a dozen lights, preferably LED.  Don't forget the traditional parol on its top, lighthouse effect of sort.

• If there's a tree house, the ambiance of Christmas should be focused there.  The tree itself may be sparingly decorated.

• Shrubs and small trees are not exacting to decors.  Just don't over decorate.

• Plant a tree this Christmas can be made as a community campaign.  Decide the place of tree planting: a park, along the highway, on a watershed.  Celebrate Christmas with this occasion. Don't forget to take care of the trees thereafter. 

• Plant trees that are adapted in the area.  Conifers (pines) are temperate; get tropical species (e.g., narra) for the tropics.

Artificial Christmas trees are most convenient to have, but consider the cost and effect to health and environment. Recycled waste materials draws out artistic talent. This is fine, it reduces waste - or at least gives a "second life", beautiful at that of materials otherwise thrown away. Just be careful with the harmful effects of deteriorating second hand and recycled materials.  Don't keep them indoor. 

The most meaningful Christmas is one that addresses our time and effort to solving problems concerning our well-being and the environment. The living Christmas Tree is one that gives food, water, shelter, energy, the basic provisions of life, above all it is a great expression of love to Nature and our fellowmen this Christmas Season. . 

CHRISTMAS EVERYDAY WITH POINSETTIA

                  

 

 

  Poinsettia pulcherrima cultivars

Acknowledgement: Internet Photos ~

Part 3 - Home Sweet Home this Christmas Season 

(50 Shared Versions)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Brick House in the Country, living room painting in acrylic by the author

Home Sweet Home

By John Howard Payne

Music by Henry Rowley Bishop (1786-1855)

(Arranged for the violin and piano by Henry Farmer)

‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home;

A charm from the sky seems to hallow us there,

Which seek through the world, is ne’er met with elsewhere.

Home, Home, sweet, sweet Home!

An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain;

O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again!

The birds singingly gaily, that came to my call –

Give me them – and the peace of mind, dearer than all.

Home, Home sweet, sweet Home.

There’s no place like Home!

There’s no place like Home!

Home Sweet Home is one of my favorite pieces on the violin. My daughter would accompany me on the piano in my lectures, and on one occasion, in a concert. The arrangement made by Henry Farmer is made up of three variations revolving on the popular melody of the song. Home Sweet Home was popularized by the pioneers who left their homes in the Old World and settled in the New World - America.

One of the lessons I discussed on the school-on-air program - Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid - is about home and family. It was one of the liveliest lessons ever conducted on air with many enthusiastic callers who shared their concepts and views about a happy home. Here is a short list.

1. Home is a roof for everyone, residents and guests.
2. Home is a wall with large windows that let the sun and the breeze in.
3. Home is where fish in the aquarium sparkle in the morning’s sun.
4. Home is a baby smiling, of children playing.
5. Home is a faithful husband and wife.
6. Home is a “place for everything and everything in its place,” but not always.
7. Home is dad and mom waiting for us from school.
8. Home is a workshop for hobbies and inventions.
9. Home is where your dog lies on the doormat waiting for its master.
10. Home is a litter of puppies and kittens.
11. Home is a rooster crowing, nature’s alarm clock.
12. Home is a house lizard’s crispy announcement of a guest coming.
13. Home is a frog croaking in the rain.
14. Home is a safari of wildlife – from insects to migratory birds.
15. Home is a cat purring on your lap 
16. Home is a cup of coffee, a sip of wine, a newspaper.
17. Home is a warm bath, a cold shower, a bath tub.
18. Home is National Geographic, Time Magazine, Daily Inquirer.
19. Home is ripe tomato, succulent radish, dangling string beans,
20. Home is a brooding mother hen in her nest.
21. Home is fresh eggs everyday.
22. Home is the sound of birds and crickets.
23. Home is the sweet smell of flowers, falling leaves, swaying branches in the wind.
24. Home is the sweet smell of the earth after the first rain in May.
25. Home is a singing cicada in the tree.
26. Home is a swarming of gamugamo in the evening.
27. Home is a sala too small for so many friends.
28. Home is a cabinet of books, a study table, a computer.
29. Home is music of Beethoven, Mozart, Abelardo, Santiago.
30. Home is music of Charlotte Church, Josh Groban, Sharon Cuneta.
31. Home is Amorsolo. Picasso, Van Gogh.
32. Home is potpourri of appetizing recipes, of the proverbial grandmother apple pie.
33. Home is pinakbet, lechon, karekare, suman, bibingka.
34. Home is a garden of roses, a grass lawn to lie on.
35. Home is an herbarium of plants, a "living gene bank", a home garden.
36. Home is home for biodiversity, a living museum.
37. Home is doing repair that has no end.
38. Home is sorting out and disposing old newspapers, bottles, used clothes.
39. Home is a midnight candle before an exam.
40. Home is a shoulder, a pillow, to cry on.
41. Home is Noche Buena.
42. Home is fireworks on New Year.
43. Home is general cleaning on weekends.
44. Home is a soft bed that soothes tired nerves and muscles.
45. Home is a fire place, a hearth, which takes the cold out of the body and spirit.
46. Home is a Prodigal Son returning, a Good Samaritan.
47. Home is a round table where thanksgiving prayer is said.
48. Home is laughter and music, prose and poetry with the family.
49. Home is forgiving, rejoicing, celebrating.
50. Home is angelus and rosary hour.

To sum it all, Home is Home Sweet Home.

Why don't you make your own checklist out of these versions? Add more!  Share your list with your family and friends cum photos and memorabilia - and treasure all these as sweet memory. Keep your "homing instinct" fresh and alive.  Return home now and then, like a balikbayan does. ~

Part 4 - When stars come down to earth

Composite photos: campuses of University of Santo Toms, Ateneo de

Manila University and neighboring area of Philippine Science HS, QC 

 Stars come down to earth when the chilly winds from Siberia descend to the tropics, Santa riding on a sled of gifts, reindeer in cadence with tingling bells;  

Stars come down to earth with songs of welcome and praise, children from door to door knocking, singing, and wishing for gifts and good tidings; 

Stars come down to earth with the first rain in May, releasing from their abode cicadas and crickets that fill the trees with songs;  

Stars come down to earth as summer ends, monsoon fills the rice fields, pools grow to ponds, rivers wake up with frogs croaking, fish bubbling; 

Stars come down to earth as grains turn golden in October, harvesters in prayers and songs in thanksgiving and merriment;   

Stars come down to earth for every tree planted and nurtured, farmland in sustainable productivity, wasteland rehabilitated, wildlife preserved for posterity; 

Stars come down to earth in every child born, in every beloved

remembered, in whispers of comfort and encouragement; 

Stars come down to earth in every achievement that affirms people's faith, tradition and values, of their collective voices of unity and freedom; 

Stars come down to earth for every armistice, summit, forum that seeks end to hostilities, bring international cooperation towards peace and order of humanity; 

Stars come down to earth after a storm has passed, reminding of human folly, and stirring man's resolve towards goodness, wishing upon the stars. ~ 

Lesson on former Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) with Ms Melly C Tenorio738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class, Monday to Friday [www.pbs.gov.ph]

Part 5 - Cheer Up, It's Christmas!

Original Title: Christmas Stories, Events, Jokes & Quotes

Selected and compiled by Dr Abe V Rotor

 The small girl had spent the morning watching her mother do her Christmas shopping.  Finally, she found herself in a big chair beside the department-store Santa Claus, tell him her wishes.  "... and a big doll and a doll buggy and a doll house ..."  she finished the long list.  Then sliding from the chair and walking away, she suddenly turned back a pace, and called, "And charge it, Santa Claus!"

x x x x

CONDUCTOR: "You know darn well the distance between Chicago and Cleveland is the same as from Cleveland to Chicago. Any damn foo knows that."

PASSENGER: "I dunno; it is just a week from Christmas to New Year, but is it a week from New Year the Christmas?" 

x x x x 

A youngster walked into a bank the other day to open an account with $1000.  The bank's vice president gave him a benign smile and asked how he had accumulated so much money.

"Selling Christmas card," said the lad.

"Well, you've done very well.  Sold them to lots of people, obviously."

"Nope," answered the little boy proudly.  "I sold all of them to one large family - their dog bit me."

x x x x

A mother took her five year old son to a mall to say, "Hello" to Santa Claus, who in turn, asked. "What would you like for Christmas, sonny?" 

"A bicycle, a football, and a pair of skates." the youngster replied promptly.

"I'll certainly try to see that you get them," said Santa. 

Later, the mother and son visited another mall and stopped to see Santa there.  Again the same question and the same answer, but Santa asked, "And are you going to be a good boy?"

x x x x

A little girl about five received a box of crayons for Christmas and made a great many pictures.

"What is this one?" her mother asked.

"That's  Baby Jesus on the manger."

A little to one side were three vertical lines - the wise men perhaps, or the shepherds.  The mother inquired what they were.

"Mary and Joseph are going out for the night." the child explained, "and that's the sitters coming in."  

x x x x

Here it is the middle of January and we're still cleaning up from Christmas.  Last week we cleaned out our checking account; this week we cleaned out our savings account. 

x x x x

What do you call a kid who doesn't believe in Santa? A rebel without a Claus.
What is the popular Christmas carol in Desert? Camel ye Faithful.
What part of the body do you only see during Christmas? Mistletoe.
What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus? Claustrophobic.

 x x x x

If you want to be reminded of Christmas all year, buy your Christmas gifts on monthly payment plan. 

x x x x 

May the forgiving spirit of Him to whom we dedicate this season prevail again on earth.

May hateful persecution and wanton aggression cease.

May man live in freedom and security, worshiping as he sees fit, loving his fellow man.

May peace, everlasting peace, reign supreme.

Part 6 - Family Togetherness is the theme of Christmas

              Original title: The Family is the Focus of Christmas

Dr Abe V Rotor

A gathering of four generations in the city whose roots are traced to the provinces.  Such an occasion is a hallmark of Christmas in reviving the old tradition in natural communities now threatened by urban migration. Members come from many and different places here and abroad to attend the occasion that comes but once a year. Christmas is also the time to remember our departed loved ones.

  

Children's feeding program is an extension of family consciousness that brings joy and strengthens bonding particularly in marginal  communities. Shalom Philippines is among the organizations conducting annual feeding programs for kids on Christmas  in coordination with other NGOs and DILG leaders. 

A gathering of members of a religious community (St Paul of Chartres, Antipolo Rizal) with their relatives and friends is indeed a respite during the holiday season particularly to those who don't have the opportunity to visit their respective families.

It's double treat for those born in Christmas Season, a family get together with parents and godparents (ninong and ninang). Christmas is perhaps the happiest season for kids.    

From home to home, and heart to heart, from one place to another. The warmth and joy of Christmas, brings us closer to each other. Emily Matthews

Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate not as individuals nor as a nation, but as a human family. Ronald Reagan 

 

Christmas is welcoming new members of the clan.

 

Christmas is meeting new acquaintances and friends.  

Christmas is a gathering of relatives by consanguinity and affinity.

 

Christmas is outing with the family. ~

"Christmas is all about love, family and children. it doesn’t matter what we eat or what presents we get as long as the holidays are spent with loved ones. happy happy happy Christmas." - Anonymous

"Christmas time is cherished family time. family time is sacred time." - Anonymous

"Christmas is the season of joy, of holiday greetings exchanged, of gift-giving, and of families united." -  Norman 

Part 7 -  Nativity in the Forest

                  Dr Abe V Rotor

Nativity Scene, Christmas 2012. Forest mural by the author, 2010

Creatures in the forest welcome a holy guest: 

     the wild and tough wake up to a stirring,

the feathered and furred, the mimicked and camouflaged,

     follow a beam of light in a clearing. 

It is an altar hemmed by a cathedral of giant trees,

     curtained by the living art of the vine;

and marked by emergent towers, the home of the eagle

     that proclaims the birth of a child divine.

Woodsmen there who live in communities ever since, 

     join their children sing the songs of the trees,

fiddling crickets and hooting owls and playful primates,

     the wind tamed into the whisper of the breeze.

Here the sun is sieved into moving shadows and art,

     the rains nourish life from ground to the sky,

epiphytes of liana and orchid in grandiose bloom,

     shower the newly born, birds singing up high.

How benevolent the wild, how humble the creatures,

     how simple the scene created by nature;

here beauty is simple, unspoiled by civilization,

     it offers comfort and refuge and nurture. 

              

Unconventional the forest seems the bastion of faith 

    for those seeking life's meaning here and far,

for lack of a manger for the spirit of modern man,

    to find here a Child and protect the green altar. ~

Part 8 - What is the Happiest Season of your Life? A Self-Evaluation 

Dr Abe V Rotor  

Is it summer by a river?

Is it harvestime?

Is it when the leaves of the talisay turn red and fall?

The season for outdoor workshops?

Is it when flowers start to bloom?

Or this tree becomes a fire tree?

Is it Christmas?

Photos by Abe V Rotor

Which is the happiest season of life? There are varying answers of course, depending on the person being asked.

Lately I discovered from my file an old notebook in which I wrote a beautiful piece about life. I remember how I treasured it when I was a student. That was many years ago.

Does the literary piece still mean the same? Here is the story.

A wise old man, who had lived buoyantly through four score years, was asked, “Which is the happiest season of life?” He replied thoughtfully.

“When spring comes, and in the soft air the buds are breaking on the trees, and they are covered with blossoms. I think, how beautiful is Spring!

"And when the summer comes, and covers the trees and bushes with heavy foliage, and singing birds mingle with branches, I think, how beautiful is Summer!

"When autumn loads them with golden fruit, and their leaves bear the gorgeous tint of frost, I think, how beautiful is Autumn!

"And when it is sore winter, and there is neither foliage nor fruit, then when I look up through the leafless branches and see, as I can see in no other season, the shining stars of heaven, I think, how beautiful is the Winter of life!"Note the unique style of the article. It exudes an aura which writers call Romanticism. It fits well into this kind of subject. Apparently the traditional form and style of writing is coming back.~

Author enjoys time painting nature. .

Some Happiest Moments in Life

1. Summer vacation ends, school year begins.
2. Singing in glee under the first heavy rain in May.
3. Shower in April, wakes the cicada to sing in the trees.
4. First pair of shoes, first long pants, first long sleeves.
5. Picnic on the beach, a family reunion - or clan.
6. Graduation, specially with honor.
7. First job (after a long search and wait).
8. Eureka! Discovery or serendipity. (There's a little Pasteur or Darwin in you)
9. Publication of a book as author.
10. First child, junior (name after either parent)
11. Recovery from critical illness (clean bill of health).
12. "Thanks God I wasn't in the plane!" (providential)
13. Sound sleep after many sleepless nights. (and passed the board exam)
14. Kite flies, rules the sky over other kites. It's you who made it.
15. Piping hot brewed coffee, black and strong, with the morning's newspaper, on a weekend.
16. First day in school - kinder.
17. Having passed the college entrance exam in a reputable university. (Wow, Harvard!)
18. Saying "I do" and "'til death do us part."
19. Having your first grandchild. Now you are three generations apart - under one roof.
20. Laying a flower and whispering a prayer to remember a beloved departed.
21. Finally got your promotion, with increased pay, now you can pay all your debts.
22. Composed a song, directed a play, filmed a documentary - creativity brings true joy.
23. Sharing, giving to the less fortunate - more so "to the least of your brethren."
24. Winning in a contest with the least expectation.
25. A little Gandhi, a little Mother Teresa, a Little Prince, live in you always.

NOTE: Check which ones in this list apply to you. Add on to this list your personal experiences. Remember: Each one of us is the happiest person in the world!

 

       Part 9 -   Christmas Chandelier: Two of our Planet Earth

Indigenous  hanging chandelier by Dr Abe V Rotor

The Pristine Face of our Planet Earth in acrylic on wood scrap by the author 2020

Light in the air, swaying with the wind;

Heavy in the air dull, still;

Pristine, natural in the absence of man, 

Defiled, dead, can't humans feel?

 The Defiled Face of our Planet Earth in acrylic on wood scrap by the author 2020

Indigenous art, ecological in message, this piece of art tells to viewers looking up to this hanging parol and chandelier.  No candles, no light, no chime,  except the natural radiance and music of the pristine face of our Planet Earth.  

So rare today this happy face beams, so commonplace the sad face shrouds cities where more than half of the world's population of  7.7 billion souls are ensconced in the so-called Good Life, the "ultimate" aim of civilization.  

What is the Good Life in the current Corona Virus pandemic? Good life in global economic depression?  Good life in widespread poverty?  Good life in inequity and injustice?  Global breakdown of institutions, from marriage and family, threatening to destroy the pillars of human society? 

What is the Good life in science and technology gone wild?  Good life in the explosion of knowledge, grain and chaff mixed up? Good life in erosion of values? Good Life in the failure of governance - local, regional, global? 

We have yet to learn from "the glory that was Greece, and the grandeur that was Rome," and the Dark Age that enveloped the world thereafter. We have yet to learn from the Renaissance that followed a millennium after.  If only man's rationality can save him from his own destruction. 

Light in the air, swaying with the wind;

Heavy in the air dull, still;

Pristine, natural in the absence of man, 

 Defiled, dead, can't humans feel? ~

Part 10 - Unusual Historical Events That Happened During Christmas 

1. Christmas Day, 1990, The Internet Gets Its First Test Run
2. Washington Crosses the Delaware River in 1776
3. WWI Christmas Truce Soccer Games
4. USSR Invades Afghanistan in 1979
5. Isaac Newton Was Born on Christmas Day
6. Charlie Chaplin Passes Away
7. Apollo 8 Reaches the Moon’s Orbit
8. Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns as Soviet President
9. The Song ‘Silent Night’ Is First Performed in Public
10. President Andrew Johnson Pardons All Confederate Soldiers
11. Charlemagne Crowned Holy Roman Emperor, year 800.
12. William the Conqueror Crowned King of England, 1066
13. World War I Soldiers Hold Christmas Truce 1914
14. Andrew Johnson Pardons All Confederate Soldiers, 1868
15. Hirohito Becomes Emperor of Japan, 1926
16. President Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu of Romania Executed, 1989 
17. Ford Model T Unveiled, 1913
18. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, former presidents of the US, Die, 1826

References" JM Braude, Speaker's Encyclopedia of Humor; Prochnow HY and HV Prochnow Jr, Jokes, Quotes and One-liners for Public Speakers; Wikipedia; Internet

ANNEX

222 Ways of saying "Merry Christmas!"

Compiled by Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

 Alphabetical List

1. Afghanistan: De Christmas akhtar de bakhtawar au newai kal de mubarak sha
2. Albania: Gézuar Krishlindjet
3. Algeria: Milad Mubarak
4. American Samoa: - La Maunia Le Kilisimasi
5. Andorra: Bon Nadal

6. Angola: Boas Festas
7. Antarctica: Merry Christmas, Felices Pasquas, Hristos Razdajetsja
8. Antigua and Barbuda: Merry Christmas
9. Arabic: I'd Miilad Said Oua Sana Saida
10. Argentina: Feliz Navidad!
11. Armenia: Shnorhavor Sourp Dzunount
12. Aruba: Bon Pasco, Bon Anja
13. Australia: Happy Christmas
14. Austria: Frohe Weihnachten
15. Azerbaijan: Tezze Iliniz Yahsi Olsun
16. Bahamas: Happy Christmas
17. Bahrain: Milad Mubarak
18. Bangladesh: Shuvo Baro Din
19. Barbados: Merry Christmas
20. Belarus: Winshuyu sa Svyatkami

21. Belgium: Zalig Kerstfeest
22. Belize: Merry Christmas
23. Benin: Joyeux Noël
24. Bermuda: Merry Christmas
25. Bhutan: krist Yesu Ko Shuva Janma Utsav Ko Upalaxhma Hardik Shuva
26. Bolivia: Feliz Navidad
27. Bosnia and Herzegovina: Sretam Bozic, Hristos se rodi
28. Botswana: Merry Christmas
29. Brazil: Feliz Natal
30. British Indian Ocean Territory: Happy Christmas

31. Brunei Darussalam: Selamat Hari Natal
32. Bulgaria: Vessela Koleda
33. Burkina Faso: Joyeux Noël
34. Burundi: Noëli Nziza, Joyeux Noël
35. Cambodia: rikreay​ thngai​ nauel
36. Cameroon: Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël
37. Canada: Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël
38. Cape Verde: Boas Festas
39. Cayman Islands: Merry Christmas
40. Central African Republic: Joyeux Noël

41. Chad: Joyeux Noël, Milad Mubarak
42. Chile: Feliz Navidad China Sheng Tan Kuai Loh
43. Chinese (Mandarin): Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
44. Christmas Island: Merry Christmas
45. Colombia: Feliz Navidad para todos
46. Comoros: Joyeux Noël, Milad Mubarak
47. Congo: Joyeux Noël
48. Cook Islands: Merry Christmas, Kia orana e kia manuia rava i teia Kiritime
49. Costa Rica: Feliz Navidad
50. Côte d'Ivoire: Joyeux Noël

51. Croatia: Sretan Bozic
52. Cuba: Feliz Navidad
53. Cyprus: Eftihismena Christougenna, Noëliniz kutlu olsun ve yeni yili
54. Czech Republic: Vesele Vanoce
55. Democratic People's Republic of Korea: Sung Tan Chuk Ha
56. Denmark: Glaedelig Jul
57. Djibouti: Joyeux Noël, Milad Mubarak
58. Dominica: Merry Christmas
59. Dominican Republic: Feliz Navidad
60. Ecuador: Feliz Navidad

61. Egypt: Milad Mubarak
62. El Salvador: Feliz Navidad
63. Equatorial Guinea: Joyeux Noël, Feliz Navidad
64. Eritrea: Melkam Yelidet Beaal, Poket Kristmet
65. Estonia: Haid Joule, Rôômsaid Jôule
66. Ethiopia: Melkam Yelidet Beaal, Poket Kristmet, Merry Christmas
67. Falkland Islands (Malvinas): Merry Christmas
68. Faroe Islands: Gledhilig jol
69. Federated States of Micronesia: Merry Christmas
70. Fiji: Merry Christmas

71. Filipino: Maligayang Pasko
72. Finland: Hauskaa Joulua
73. France: Joyeux Noël
74. French Guiana: Joyeux Noël
75. French Polynesia: Joyeux Noël, La ora i te Noera
76. French Southern Territories: Joyeux Noël
77. Gabon: Joyeux Noël
78. Gambia: Merry Christmas
79. Georgia: Gilotsavt Krist'es Shobas
80. Germany: Fröhliche Weihnachten

81. Ghana: Afishapa
82. Gibraltar: Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad
83. Greece: Eftihismena Christougenna
84. Greenland: Glædelig Jul, Juullimi Ukiortaassamilu Pilluarit
85. Grenada: Merry Christmas
86. Guadeloupe: Joyeux Noël
87. Guam: Merry Christmas, Felis Pasgua
88. Guatemala: Feliz Navidad
89. Guinea: Joyeux Noël
90. Guinea-bissau: Boas Festas

91. Guyana: Merry Christmas
92. Haiti: Jwaye Nwel
93. Hindi: Shubh Christmas
94. Honduras: Feliz Navidad
95. Hong Kong: Sing dan fiy loc, Merry Christmas
96. Hungary: Boldog Karácsonyt
97. Iceland: Gleðileg Jól
98. India: Natal Mubarak
99. Indonesi: a Salamet Hari Natal
100. Iraq: Idah Saidan Wasanah Jadidah

101. Ireland: Nollaig Shona Dhuit
102. Israel: Mo'adim Lesimkha
103. Italy: Buon Natale
104. Jamaica: Merry Christmas
105. Japan: Merii Kurisumasu
106. Jordan: Milad Mubarak, Merry Christmas
107. Kazakhstan: Hristos Razdajetsja, Rozdjestvom Hristovim
108. Kenya: Merry Christmas
109. Kiribati: Merry Christmas
110. Korean: Sung Tan Chuk Ha

111. Kuwait: Milad Mubarak, Merry Christmas
112. Kyrgyzstan: Hristos Razdajetsja
113. Latin: Natale hilare et Annum Faustum!
114. Latvia: Priecigus ziemassvetkus!
115. Lebanon: Milad Majeed
116. Lesotho: Happy Christmas
117. Liberia: Happy Christmas
118. Libyan Arab Jamahiriya: Milad Mubarak, Buon Natale, Happy Christmas
119. Liechtenstein: Fröhliche Weihnachten
120. Lithuania: Laimingu Kaledu

121. Luxembourg: Schéi Krëschtdeeg
122. Macau: Boas Festas, Sing Dan Fiy Loc
123. Macedonia: Streken Bozhik
124. Madagascar: Joyeux Noël, Arahaba tratry ny Krismasy
125. Malawi: Merry Christmas, Moni Wa Chikondwelero Cha X'mas
126. Malaysia: Selamat Hari Krimas
127. Mali: Joyeux Noël
128. Malta: Il-Milied it-Tajjeb, Festi t-Tajba
129. Marshall islands: Monono ilo raaneoan Nejin
130. Martinique: Joyeux Noël

131. Mauritius: Merry Christmas
132. Mayotte: Krismas Njema Na Heri Za Mwaka Mpya, Joyeux Noël
133. Mexico: Feliz Navidad
134. Monaco: Joyeux Noël
135. Montserrat: Merry Christmas
136. Morocco: Milad Mubarak
137. Mozambique: Boas Festas
138. Namibia: Geseende Kersfees
139. Nepal: krist Yesu Ko Shuva Janma Utsav Ko Upalaxhma Hardik Shuva
140. Netherlands: Prettige Kerstdagen, Zalig Kerstfeest, 

        Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar

141. Netherlands Antilles: Bon Pasco, Bon Anja
142. New Caledonia: Joyeux Noël
143. New Zealand: Happy Christmas
144. Nicaragua: Feliz Navidad
145. Niger: Joyeux Noël
146. Nigeria: Merry Christmas
147. Norfolk Island: Merry Christmas
148. Northern Mariana Islands: Filis Pasgua, Merry Christmas
149. Norway: God Jul, Gledelig Jul
150. Oman: Milad Mubarak

151. Pakistan: Bara Din Mubarrak Ho
152. Palau: Merry Christmas
153. Panama: Feliz Navidad
154. Papua New Guinea: Bikpela hamamas blong dispela Krismas
155. Paraguay: Feliz Navidad
156. Peru: Feliz Navidad
157. Philippines: Maligayang Pasko
158. Pitcairn: Merry Christmas
159. Poland: Wesolych Swiat
160. Portugal: Boas Festas

161. Puerto Rico: Feliz Navidad, Felices Pascuas, Felicidades
162. Qatar: Milad Mubarak
163. Republic of Korea: Sungtan Chukha
164. Republic of Moldova: Craciun fericit si un An Nou fericit!
165. Reunion: Joyeux Noël
166. Romania: Craciun Fericit, Sarbatori Fericite
167. Russian Federation: Hristos Razdajetsja, S Rozdjestvom Hristovim
168. Rwanda: Noheli Nziza
169. Saint Kitts and Nevis: - Happy Christmas
170. Saint Lucia: Happy Christmas

171. Saint Vincent and The Grenadines: Happy Christmas
172. Samoa: La Maunia Le Kilisimasi Ma Le Tausaga Fou
173. San Marino: Buon Natale
174. Sao Tome and Principe: Boas Festas
175. Saudi Arabia: Milad Mubarak
176. Senegal: Joyeux Noël
177. Seychelles: Happy Christmas, Joyeux Noël
178. Sierra Leone: Happy Christmas
179. Singapore: Sheng Tan Kuai Loh, Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
180. Slovakia (Slovak Republic): Vesele Vianoce

181. Slovenia: Srecen Bozic
182. South Africa: Geseënde Kersfees, Happy Christmas
183. South Georgia and The South Sandwich Islands: Happy Christmas
184. Spain: Feliz Navidad
185. Sri Lanka: Subha nath thalak Vewa, Nathar Puthu Varuda Valthukkal
186. St. Helena: Happy Christmas
187. St. Pierre and Miquelon: Joyeux Noël
188. Sudan: Wilujeng Natal
189. Suriname: Zalig Kersfeest, Wang swietie Kresnetie
190. Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands: Hristos Razdajetsja, Gledelig Jul

191. Swaziland: Happy Christmas
192. Sweden: God Jul
193. Switzerland: Fröhlichi Wiehnacht, Joyeux Noël
194. Syrian Arab Republic: Milad Mubarak
195. Taiwan: Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan
196. Thailand: Merry Christmas, Sawasdee Pee Mai
197. Togo: Joyeux Noël
198. Tokelau: Merry Christmas
199. Tonga: Kilisimasi Fiefia
200. Trinidad and Tobago: Happy Christmas

201. Tunisia: Milad Mubarak
202. Turks and Caicos Islands: Happy Christmas
203. Uganda: Webale Krismasi
204. Ukraine: Veseloho Vam Rizdva
205. United Arab Emirates: I'd miilad said oua sana saida
206. United Kingdom: Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Nadolig Llawen
207. United Republic of Tanzania: Krismas Njema Na Heri Za Mwaka Mpya, 
208. United States: Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings
209. Urdu: Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
210. Uruguay: Feliz Navidad

211. Vanuatu: Merry Christmas, Joyeux Noël
212. Venezuela: Feliz Navidad
213. Viet Nam: Chuc Mung Giang Sinh (chúc mừng giáng sinh)
214. Virgin Islands (British): Merry Christmas
215. Virgin Islands (U.S.): Merry Christmas
216. Wallis and Futuna Islands: Joyeux Noël
217. Welsh: Nadolig Llawen
218. Yemen: Milad Mubarak
219. Yugoslavia: Cestitamo Bozic
220. Zambia: Happy Christmas

221. Zimbabwe: Happy Christmas
222. Ilocano: Naragsat nga Paskuayo ~