SD
January 8, 2016
NEWS from the CATHEDRAL
A Twelfth Night Celebration this Sunday, January 10th at 5pm.
This special service, a new favorite on our calendar, closes the celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas with carol settings, hymns and the Procession of the Three Kings. Reception to follow at The Casino located at 51 Cathedral Ave in Garden City.

Twelfth Night
It's the eve of Epiphany, the official end of the Christmas holiday season, and the day on which many people take down their Christmas decorations or risk bad luck for the coming year. Poet Robert Herrick wrote: "Down with the rosemary, and so / Down with the bays and mistletoe; / Down with the holly, ivy, all, / Wherewith ye dress'd the Christmas Hall." It's a last Yuletide hurrah before everyone returns to the mundane workaday world of the rest of the year. Though the origin of the celebration dates back to the Roman Saturnalia, most of the traditional observances of the holiday that have survived date back to medieval England. It was the end of a holiday season that began with All Hallows Eve and, in some cultures, it also marks the beginning of the Carnival season.
 
It's a Twelfth Night tradition to choose a king and queen for the festivities. Usually, this involves beans and baked goods. In English celebrations, a plum cake is baked with a bean and a pea inside. If a man finds the bean, he is crowned the Twelfth Night King, also known as the Lord of Misrule. The woman who finds the pea is crowned Queen. But if a woman finds the bean instead of the pea, she chooses her own king.
 
Part of the Twelfth Night tradition involves pranks, role reversals, and general chaos. Servants dressed as masters, men dressed as women, and people roamed the streets in gangs, decked out in costumes and blackened faces. Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night features many of the traditional elements of the holiday.
 
In some parts of England, Twelfth Night was also traditionally associated with apples and apple trees. People would troop out to their fruit orchards bearing a hot, spiced mixture of cider and ale for the "wassailing of the trees." They would pour the wassail on the ground over the trees' roots, and sing songs, and drink toasts to the health of their orchards. They also hung bits of cider-soaked toast in the trees to feed the birds. The attention paid to the orchards during the wassailing would be repaid with a bountiful harvest the following fall.
 
English settlers in the Colonies brought the Twelfth Night tradition with them. In colonial Virginia, it was customary to hold a large and elegant ball. Revelers chose a king and queen using the customary cake method; it was the king's duty to host the next year's Twelfth Night ball, and the queen was given the honor of baking the next year's cake. George and Martha Washington didn't usually do much for Christmas except attend church, but they often hosted elaborate Twelfth Night celebrations. It was also their anniversary; they'd been married on January 5, 1759. Martha Washington left behind her recipe for an enormous Twelfth Night cake among her papers at Mount Vernon. The recipe called for 40 eggs, four pounds of sugar, and five pounds of dried fruit. It wasn't until the mid-1800s that Christmas became the primary holiday of the season in America, and at that point, Twelfth Night celebrations all but disappeared.
Save the Date

Our Prayer Shawl Ministry will meet this Sunday, January 10th in the Chapel of the Resurrection at 10:15am. All are welcome, experienced knitters, crocheters and beginners. For more information please contact Kathy Janoff at 516.485.4352.

J2A will meet this Sunday at 4:00pm in the Cathedral House. 

Stewardship Committee will meet on Tuesday, January 12th at 7:00pm in the Stewart Room of Cathedral House.

Conversation in Scripture will resume this Wednesday, January 13th at 7:00pm and will meet at Mercer School of Theology.

Council Meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 19th at 7:00pm in the Stewart Room of Cathedral House.
Please Pray For...
...the Church: Michael the Presiding Bishop, Lawrence our Bishop, Geralyn our Assisting Bishop; Michael, our Dean; Michael, Andrew and Bruce our Cathedral Clergy;  
the Cathedral Staff; Shirley, Kristin, Larry, Vince, Charlie, George, and Rafael;
...the Nation: Barack, our President; Andrew, our Governor; Nicholas, the Mayor of Garden City and, the members of our Armed Forces, especially Deepak, Raymond, Jason, Thomas, Liam, Adam, Charles,  and their families;  
...In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we remember the Diocese of Agra in North India and in the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer we remember Church of the Atonement in Quogue. For those who have asked of our prayers, especially Taylor, Teresa, Headley, Karen, Niyjah, Eladio, Mary, Wayne, John, Janet, John R., Steve, Rob, Barbara, Jean, Peggy, Dianne,  Diana, Danielle, Kathy, Brenda, Tommy, Linda, Lauren, Bob, Carey, Elizabeth, Andrew, Kathleen, Dorothy, Barratt, Tommy, Ricky, Emma, Jean,  Louis, Hank, Kerry, Gregory, Bridget, for all those who in transitory life, are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity, may they find healing, patience and strength in the days to come. 
...and for those who have died, especially Richard P. Laun nephew of Pat Guy and for those who are grieving the death of a loved one, may they find comfort and peace.    
THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD
Sunday, January 10, 2016
                              
  8:00am: The Holy Eucharist, Rite I
  9:30am: The Holy Eucharist Rite II, Followed by Coffee Hour
10:15am: Prayer Shawl Ministry in the Chapel of the Resurrection
10:30am: Church School at Mercer School of Theology
10:30am: Wellness Walk, Main steps of Cathedral
11:15am: The Holy Eucharist, Rite II
  4:00pm: J2A in Cathedral House
  5:00pm: Twelfth Night Celebration in the Cathedral, Reception to follow

This week the Holy Eucharist will be celebrated at 12:15pm on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in the Mercer Chapel.
          
 Cathedral Office Hours
   Monday - Friday
   9:00am to 4:30pm
50 Cathedral Avenue, Garden City, New York, 11530  516.746.2955