My Gift to You

(Click me, I am a song!
“Mein Geschenk für Dich”/”My Gift for You” by Hans-Jürgen Hufeisen)¹

This year has been a very difficult year for many of my friends, both offline and online.

Friends of mine have lost family members, friends and pets. They lost their jobs. They became sick. They had accidents. They had difficulties at school and at work. Their relationships fell apart. Friendships ended.

But …

Friends of mine also had babies, found new love, got married, got new jobs, got promoted, discovered a new faith, bought houses, managed to go on in spite of sickness and depression.

And through it all, every one of them was a blessing for their loved ones, and for me.

Now the last month of the year is rolling around, the darkest and coldest month in the northern hemisphere. Many of us are looking forward to Christmas, others to Winter Solstice or to Hanukkah, or simply to the beginning of a new, a better year.

I’d like to try and brighten up this time of waiting with a phenomenon that is not only shared by all faiths and religions around the globe, but that extends beyond the sphere of the religious: with blessings.

I’ve spent some time during the last weeks to find blessings online. Buddhist blessings, Christian blessings, Muslim blessings, Native American blessings, Tibetan blessings, you name it. I have discovered many beautiful, inspiring texts, and songs to go with them. I would like to share them with you.

This is my gift to you this year: 31 days full of blessings, old and new, from many faiths and many corners of this earth.

I hope you will enjoy this advent calendar of blessings.

Yours
JunoMagic

Blessing²

(…)
2. Authoritative declaration of divine favour; benediction; and hence
b. Invocation of divine favour. (Old English.)
3. Favour and prospering influence of God (So now ‘to ask a b.’) (Old English.)
4. Anything that makes happy or prosperous; a boon. (Middle English.)
b. A present.
5. Grateful adoration. (Middle English.)
(…)

If you have questions about what a “blessing” is, here’s a starting point:

“Blessing” at answers.com

If you are interested in a Christian explanation, you might want to take a look at the entry for “blessing” in the Catholic Encyclopedia online.

By the way, did you know that the English word “blessing” actually has Pagan origins?

“To bless” derives from Anglo-Saxon blÄ“dsian or blÄ“tsian, Common Germanic blōdisōjan, and originally meant “to sprinkle with blood” during the pagan sacrifices called “Blót”. By the way, in German the word for “bless” is “segnen” and is derived from Latin “signare” – making a sign (that of the cross).

Oh, and did you know that there are 200 blessings that belong to the Roman ritual of the Catholic church?

Some of those blessings probably everyone is familiar with – marriage or baptism for example. But did you know that there are also blessings for silkworms? And against other kinds of worms? Or for mobile film units and wheelchairs? Here is a list.

¹Picture by kalilo at stock.XCHANG
²Shorter Oxford Dictionary