The badnjak is a log brought into the house and placed on the fire on
the evening of Christmas Eve, a central tradition in Serbian Christmas
celebrations. The tree from which the badnjak is cut, preferably a
young and straight oak, is ceremonially felled early on the morning of
the Eve. The felling, preparation, bringing in, and laying on the fire,
are surrounded by elaborate rituals, with many regional variations. The
burning of the log is accompanied by prayers that the coming year
brings food, happiness, love, luck, and riches. It commemorates the
fire that—according to folk tradition—the shepherds of Bethlehem built
in the cave where Jesus Christ was born, to warm him and his mother
throughout the night. Scholars regard the ceremony as inherited from
the old Slavic religion. As most Serbs today live in towns and cities,
the badnjak is often represented by a cluster of oak twigs with which
the home is decorated on Christmas Eve. Since the early 1990s, the
Serbian Orthodox Church has, together with local communities, organized
public celebrations on the Eve in which the badnjak plays a central
role.
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badnjak>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1066:
Harold Godwinson was crowned King of England, widely regarded as the
last Anglo-Saxon king before the Norman conquest.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Godwinson>
1449:
Constantine XI Palaiologos was crowned Byzantine Emperor, the last one
before the Fall of Constantinople.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_XI_Palaiologos>
1907:
Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day care
center for working class children in Rome.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori>
1953:
The first Asian Socialist Conference, an organization of socialist
political parties in Asia, opened in Rangoon, Burma, with 177
delegates, observers and fraternal guests.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Socialist_Conference>
1994:
Two-time American Olympic figure skating medalist Nancy Kerrigan was
clubbed on the right leg by an assailant hired by Jeff Gillooly, the
ex-husband of her rival skater Tonya Harding.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonya_Harding%23The_Kerrigan_attack>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
exigent (adj):
1. Urgent; needing immediate action.
2. Demanding; needing great effort
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/exigent>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what
will be.
--Khalil Gibran
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran>
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