The Reason For The Season, Part 2

December 11, 2008

It's been interesting to receive several comments regarding my previous posting and my comment, "it begs the question..." I have been informed that the Immaculate conception has to do with the celebration of the conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus; not Jesus himself. Further research indicates:

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

"The Blessed Virgin Mary..."
The subject of this immunity from original sin is the person of Mary at the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her body.
"...in the first instance of her conception..."
The term conception does not mean the active or generative conception by her parents. Her body was formed in the womb of the mother, and the father had the usual share in its formation. The question does not concern the immaculateness of the generative activity of her parents. Neither does it concern the passive conception absolutely and simply (conceptio seminis carnis, inchoata), which, according to the order of nature, precedes the infusion of the rational soul. The person is truly conceived when the soul is created and infused into the body. Mary was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin at the first moment of her animation, and sanctifying grace was given to her before sin could have taken effect in her soul.

So, my thanks to those of you who set me straight regarding the day and the meaning behind the celebration.

Evening Strolls....

December 10, 2008

One of our new evening activities is to take a walk around the city; there are so many lights and decorations--it's amazing. Crowds of people are out shopping or just walking and the atmosphere is festive and electric. They just put up a carousel and the children are begging their parents for rides. One little girl who was denied a ride shrieked bloody murder for over 10 minutes as her parents walked 10 steps in front of her, ignoring her pleas and cries. No one in the crowd seemed to mind; it seems that that's life with a bambini...


Two other things strike us as very interesting as well: They have mounted speakers (outdoor) throughout many of the streets and wherever we walk, there's music playing. The music has varied from Spanish sounding meringue music to Christmas carols (all in English) to piano music playing The Beatles "Let it Be" or "Don't Cry for me Argentina"...

The second item of interest is the decorated store windows. Throughout Italy, they are a work of art. It matters not what your business is, you put your all into presentation. It seems to be a matter of honor and they all deserve prizes. It's just a delight to walk the streets, listen to the music and be part of the hustle and bustle as people stroll and shop and take in the windows.

As I write this, it's mid-afternoon and it's been snowing for a couple of hours. There's about 2 or 3" of new snow. This new blanket will add beauty to our walk, a need to bundle up, and most importantly, make sure our "presentation" matches the standards. ( Neither Kim or I have ever seen so much fur in one outing- every other woman has a fur coat). Yes, we fit right in.

A Holiday Stroll Around Alessandria...

Remember those wooden shelters that we were wondering about a couple posts ago? Well, they are booths for holiday crafts and just add more to the overall holiday celebration here.

Many booths have little nativity scenes in all shapes and sizes.

These are little gnomes with a story attached that we could not quite understand.

People are out in droves doing their shopping and the atmosphere, day or night. is very festive. In the middle of this same piazza, there is a statue of a famous Alessandrian. Today, he has disappeared and this is in his place, covering him:

There are three or four huge trees stuck into what is a huge pile of sand with a wooden fence built around it all. As we examined the set up, we concluded that it is not a live tree exhibit and those huge beauties will go the way of many Christmas trees...

But, on the live tree front, throughout the shopping areas there are live trees decorating the outside of stores. Many have red ribbons that shopkeepers give out and as people leave the shop, they put the ribbons on the tree. Some trees are full of ribbons, some have none.

As we continued our stroll toward home we spotted this clever sight outside someone's apartment.

The Reason For the Season....

Today is a national holiday and holy day of obligation. Since my catechism studies were so many years ago I have forgotten so much regarding many of the holy days. I am left wondering why the celebration of the Immaculate Conception takes place in December? It begs many questions....

A Friday Afternoon....

Today, at my request, we skipped the gym and did a bit of walking around Alessandria. We ended up at the library and the above pictures are of an exhibit at the entrance. They are made of papier mache and were created by an artist over the course of seven years. I think that we've mentioned before how much we like the fact that Alessandria emphasizes the arts and here is yet another example. We enjoyed our time catching up on a few weeks worth of Newsweek and Time magazines. Kim discovered their hot drinks vending machine and found herself going back twice for the hot chocolate. At .40 Euro, it's the best bargain in town!

Walking home just a bit after 5PM, it's already dark and all of the holiday street lights are alive and twinkling. It's cold, in the 30's (2C), and people are dressed in their winter best.
It's holiday shopping time and folks are out doing their part to buck up the economy.

Something's Coming!......

Yesterday while walking to the post office we encountered these little buildings being built. They are located in one of the main squares, Piazza della Liberta.

We don't know as yet what they are for but we anticipate that something good is coming and about to happen!

BOOKS!!!

Since we lugged so many books over here (how could a former bookseller NOT bring a ton of books... as books in a suitcase will win over clothes every time!) and both Jean and Louise have each given or loaned us many, too, we thought we would share "our reads in Italy" with you. (the image above is a stock image, not our book shelves, so don't think we brought a book about Florida to Italy) To find the list, you'll have to scroll down to the end of the entire blog where you'll see the books we've read thus far (we will update the list as we finish a book). Kim, of course, couldn't resist putting stars next to ones she really enjoyed- Rachel who is much less opinionated declined to use the star system. We both enjoyed the mystery novels (Leon and Hiaasen) but they were not starred either. And should you be interested...there is a world map showing the locations of our blog readers and also links to the blogs of Louise in Lucca and Steve in Copenhagen. So keep scrolling!