| In The Spirit of The Season |
It's Beginning to feel like Christmas - around the world! | It's beginning to feel like Christmas ...
Why not Click on the Movie Icon to the left so you can watch the big evergreen tree (planted nearly 100 years ago) in Courthouse Square flash with colored lights while you listen to the last verse of the song. You may also hear the children and adults in the crowd who are all excited! This event and others bring the Quad Cities (Prescott, Prescott Valley, Chino Valley and Dewey-Humbolt) together so we can feel the unity within and around our diversities.
|
| Arizona's Christmas City, in Stories & Pictures
ARIZONA'S CHRISTMAS CITY
That "Holiday Feeling" begins, here in North-Central Arizona, on the first Saturday in December. Each year, on the weekend preceding the first Saturday of December, the City of Prescott holds their annual Christmas "Light" Parade. This year it will start at 6 PM on the last Saturday in November, with a procession of Lighted floats parading around Courthouse Square in downtown Prescott!
On the following Saturday, the first one in December, the City and Chamber hold their annual Christmas Parade at 1 PM, in "Arizona's Christmas City".
Then at 6 PM on that same evening of December, the Prescott Courthouse Lighting Ceremony starts with music and messages from local choirs, schools, churches and politicians. At 7 PM the Prescott Courthouse Square and many of the trees surrounding it are lit up with Seasonal splendor as the entire Square (pictured to your right) becomes emblazoned in Holiday light and color, including a real Singing Christmas Tree (with electronic assist). Is it any wonder why they call this "Arizona's Christmas City"?
The following weekend, the downtown of the City of Prescott comes alive with Christmas Spirit as the Acker Holiday music event graces many downtown shops with music and carolers. The next evening features "A Dickens of a Christmas" on the Courthouse Square.
ARIZONA'S CHRISTMAS TOWN
And in neighboring Town of Prescott Valley, the Town Hall is all lit up with a Tree of Lights this year.
Nearby, in the Prescott Valley Entertainment District there is a featured Tree of Joy and Song from 6Pm to 9 PM in the middle of the plaza, from Thanksgiving to New Years!
Plus, we have the newly expanded Valley of Lights display near Fain Park and the Fain Chapel, every night from Thanksgiving until the end of the year! After driving through a tunnel of lights, you will enjoy over two dozen lighted displays - in the comfort of your warm car. 'Tis the season to be Merry!
Holiday entertainment and events are going on throughout the Season from Thanksgiving to the end of the year all around this Tri-City area. Come see us sometime!
A PERSONAL INVITATION ... to enjoy the local activities
And should you decide to come here for these events on or near the first weekend of December, we have a Church Service on the first Sunday of December, and most months, in Prescott! (See our Calendar & Map page for details) You can attend our Spiritualist service and then return home refreshed and full of Christmas Spirit or stay, as you like, and experience more Spirit of the Season and the Good Tidings of Love, great joy and fleeting fears.
CAUTION:
You are advised to dress warmly for night time activities, as seasonal temperatures prevail in this mile-high city in the mountains on the edge of the high desert. So, the outdoor evening temperatures may be between 32 and 40 degrees (F) at the Courthouse Lighting Ceremony or as you drive through the Valley of Lights. Later, during the night, the temperatures will typically drop into the teens; coming back into the 40s or 50s during the next day.
Happy Holidays to all and to all a Joyous New Year!|
Feliz Navidad ... Joyeux Noel!
|
![]()
|
 |
| What's happening in the Alternative Spirituality Community? Click on this image to see the article. |
|
|
Alternative religions embrace a variety of activities
during the winter season
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
A number of tri-city area residents don't celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah, but observe winter solstice and other spiritual events.
They pray, meditate, beat drums, sing and light candles.
The winter solstice, whose celebration can be traced to pre-Christian practices, generally falls on Dec. 21, the first day of winter.
"Winter solstice is a time for reflecting on the blessings and challenges of the old year, a time to prepare our minds and hearts for the new year," said Karen Hagberg of the Granite Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Prescott. "It is a time of hope, a time to strive for peace, and then a time to move from darkness to light."
Hagberg said her congregation plans to observe winter solstice from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Dec. 20 at Granite Peak, 882 Sunset Ave.
"There will be some drumming, meditation, and we conclude with the burning of the yule log (outside)," Hagberg said.
Participants will put notes inside the log to symbolically let go of the past and affirm the new year, she said.
The Mystical Spiritualist Church in Prescott Valley plans to observe a solstice candlelight service and new (celestial) year feast at 6 p.m. Dec. 19, according to the Rev. John Kohlenberger. The church, which embraces beliefs such as life after death, meets at the Peaceful Heart Healing Center, 3147 N. Robert Road.
Kohlenberger said he will pass out billets, pieces of paper with a number on them. "At the end of the service we collect those (billets), and we give a reading" or angel message to each person with a number", he said.
Kohlenberger, a Presbyterian who discovered his new faith in 1991, said he will use electric candles during the ceremony to comply with fire codes. He added the church will provide turkey, carbonated drinks, water and utensils; participants will bring their favorite dish to share for the potluck.
The White Mountain Community Church plans a full moon ceremony for meditation and prayer at an undetermined date in December, the Rev. Carolyne Sue Stout said.
"It is ageless wisdom teachings," she said.
Teachings of Native Americans will take place during medicine bag ceremonies set for 6 p.m. Dec. 17 and 19 in the Mountain Spirit Co-Op (the old Masonic building), 107 N. Cortez St., Prescott.
"We are going to be honoring the Spirit of the West and celebrating the time to come, which is the Spirit of the North," said the Rev. Rebecca Cutehands, a Cherokee.
Cutehands said the Medicine Wheel of Life honors "our connection to all of creation" and is "very gentle."
She said participants will fill medicine bags with herbs, crystals and oils. She advises people to make reservations for the $20 event by calling her at 759-9049.
|
Click to Download our 2008 Feast of Lights Presentation | READ AND HEAR ABOUT OUR DECEMBER 2008 FEAST OF LIGHTS AND SOLSTICE CELEBRATION
This Power Point Presentation runs about 2 and a half minutes, with interesting text, graphics, music and narration. CLICK ON THE ICON ON THE LEFT TO DOWNLOAD THIS PRESENTATION!
If the presentation does not auto start, simply click on its icon to open it and press F5 to start.
Optionally you may use your mouse to select "Slide Show" from the Menu Bar (or Ribbon) and select "View Show". Further insttructions, if needed, are on the first slide.
NOTE: To view this presentation, you will need to have either PowerPoint or PowerPoint Viewer loaded on your computer. PowerPoint Viewer is available as a FREE DOWNLOAD from the Microsoft Website.
ENJOY!
|
12 New Years Resolutions … Twelve Ways to Lighten Up
- First, you would never entertain a negative thought in your mind again.
- Second, if a negative thought did occur, you would put it out of your mind immediately by replacing it with something better. You would simply ‘change your mind’ about what ever you were thinking.
- Third, you would not only understand Who You Really Are, but to honor and demonstrate that. That is, you would move from what you Know to what you Experience as the measure of your own evolution.
- Fourth, you would love yourself fully, just as you are!
- Fifth, you would love others fully, just as they are!
- Sixth, you would love life fully, just as it is!
- Seventh, do these and you will find that you are forgiving everyone everything.
- Eighth, you would never deliberately hurt another thing again—emotionally or physically. Least of all you will ever do this in the name of God.
- Ninth, you would never mourn the death of another again, not even for a moment. You might mourn your loss, but not their death.
- Tenth, you would never fear or mourn your own death, not even for a moment.
- Eleventh, you would be aware that everything is vibration. Everything. And so you would pay much more attention to the vibration of everything that you eat, of everything that you wear, of everything that you watch, read, or listen to, and most important, of everything that you think, say, and do.
- Twelfth, you would do whatever it takes to adjust the vibration of your own energy and the life energy that you are creating around you if you find that it is not in resonance with the highest knowing you have about Who You Are, and the greatest experience of this that you can possibly imagine.
For further reading or information, see “HOME WITH GOD” by Donald Neale Walsch - Pp 214- 215, in the chapter about In A Life That Never Ends
|
|
