Preparing for the Christmases

Now that we've celebrated Hannukah, Ra's al-Sana, and ‘Ashura, our ecumenical holiday season can start preparing for Christmases. As I've noted previously, whatever the many problems facing Middle Eastern Christians in too many countries today, they still have more Christmases than we in the West. Latin Catholics, Protestants, and some Eastern Catholics celebrate the Western Christmas on December 25, while the Orthodox and Oriental varieties of Christianity mark the Julian Christmas on January 7. Except for the Armenians who generally celebrate on the Epiphany on January 6, but the Armenian Churches of the Holy Land mark it under the old calendar on January 18. Our impoverished Western 12 days of Christmas seems rather limited.

As the Christmases approach I'll be posting new material and perhaps a rerun or two of classics in last year's Christmas-tagged posts, which kept appearing through all possible Christmases. To start with a perennial, the great Lebanese singer Fairuz (now in her 70s; clearly much younger in the clip) singing "Silent Night," but in Arabic of course:



And for those with more secular tastes, Jingle Bells in Arabic:



And one I don't think I've run before, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" in Arabic:



Don't worry, indigenous Middle Eastern Christmas music will be showing up as well.

And let us all, whatever holidays we celebrate, hope there will be no repetition of last year's Nag Hammadi killings on Coptic Christmas.

Oh, and the Weekend Historical Videos due up later today will have a seasonal theme, too.