Author: Leigh Hatts

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The Holy Family leaves Bethlehem

Today is Candlemas and forty days since the birth of Jesus. We now remember Holy Family leaving Bethlehem and taking Jesus into the Temple in Jerusalem to give thanks for his birth. He would return on the first Palm Sunday 33 years later and today’s readings link us to Holy Week. This is Candlemas because […]

Leigh Hatts 
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THREE KINGS ARRIVING THIS WEEKEND WITH CAKE

Three Kings biscuits by www.biscuiteers.com  This Saturday night 5 January the figures of the Three Kings will be seen arriving in towns and villages all over Spain. The street processions are big family occasions. Another feature of today is enjoying cutting the Twelfth Night cake. In Spain it is a cake ring called Rosca de […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Boxing Day is St STephen’s Day

The Isle of Man has issued a £2 coin depicting the Boxing Day custom of hunting the wren. This is no longer a cruel tradition involving killing a bird but an opportunity for community dancing, dressing up and ‘penny for the wren’ charity collections. The revived custom is also observed in Dublin’s Sandymount Green where […]

Leigh Hatts 
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CHristmas Eve

The service of Nine Lessons and Carols this afternoon at King’s College Cambridge has an extra resonance. It is the last time that the choir will be conducted by Stephen Cleobury who has been responsible for the music over the last 37 years. He was appointed Director of Music in 1982. It is also the […]

Leigh Hatts 
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GAUtete SUNDAY

The focus as we light the third Advent candle is on John the Baptist who tells of the coming of Christ. This Sunday’s Gospel reading speaks of ‘a feeling of expectancy’. We are on the cusp of looking expectantly ahead to Christmas On Monday there is the start of the O Antiphon countdown to Christmas […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Holy House at Loreto

At The Church of Our Lady of Loretto & St Michael in Musselburgh today the Sunday congregation sang the parish’s own Loreto hymn. Monday 10 December is Our Lady of Loreto which marks the translation in 1294 of the Holy House from Nazareth to Loreto in Italy.  Lovely imagery depicts the Virgin Mary’s house being […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Immaculate Conception

In Paris lights in a window on 8 December often indicated that the occupant was from Lyon. This evening’s mega La Fête des Lumières  light show in Lyon has grown out of the local tradition of placing candles in windows on the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception doctrine was first developed in Anglo-Saxon England and celebrated […]

Leigh Hatts 
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St Nicholas Day in Italy, Spain and Turkey

In 1885 Father Christmas made his first appearance in a British department store. This was Beales in Bournemouth and his annual arrival during the 20th century was much like the appearance in procession of St Nicholas in the main square of Nancy in Lorraine last Saturday. The French town was crowded with families seeing St […]

Leigh Hatts 
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It’s not Christmas yet! #SLOWCHRISTMAS campaign

Leigh Hatts, author of Keeping Advent & Christmas, is calling on churches and businesses to discover the riches of Advent and not celebrate Christmas too early. “Putting up Christmas trees and decorations before Remembrance Sunday or Black Friday is devaluing Christmas,” says Leigh Hatts. “First comes the Advent season of Old Testament prophesies and expectation […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Advent begins

As dusk falls we are entering Advent. Tonight Advent carol services are starting in Salisbury, Winchester and other darkened  cathedrals lit only by candles. In parish churches Advent wreaths are ready to have their first candle lit in the morning. We are entering a period of reflection on Old Testament prophesies and the coming of […]

Leigh Hatts 
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