Kutya For a Julian Christmas.

While the Russkies are lazying around airports, they are missing their Christmas at home, because they are a day ahead in Russia and it's Friday already out there.

After the 1917 revolution, Russia lost her Christmas holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus but the people kept the holiday alive hidden under the guise of Ded Moroz or Father Frost with a red nose.

To this day Kutya is one of their important dishes to make since meat is not allowed, if you follow tradition.

Kutya symbolizes hope happiness and peace and is served at the Holy Supper before church service.
This is when they cover the table with a white table cloth, to represent Christ's swaddling clothes.
They put a few pieces of hay stocks to represent poverty.

Pagach or lenten bread is made to represent Christ as the bread of life.

A white candle is lit and represents the light of the world.

A prayer is then said with each family member being crossed with a cross of wet honey, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, for sweetness to last in their life.

Then pieces of bread, is dipped into honey and chopped garlic to represent life as being both sweet and bitter.

Then they would sit and eat.

Kutya would be thrown up onto the ceiling and if it stuck, then this meant they would have a year of plenty. It was a custom to eat Kutya from the same bowl to represent unity between family and friends.

The Holy Supper consists mainly of 12 dishes representing the 12 disciples.

Usually you find mushroom soup, pagach bread, grated garlic, a bowl of honey, baked cod,
(apricots, oranges figs and dates), nuts, kidney beans with shredded potatoes seasoned with garlic,salt and pepper, peas,
parsley potatoes and biscuits with sauerkraut or poppy seed with honey to be completed with red wine.

Then carolers walked from house to house singing songs.

Santa is known as St Nicholas. He is said to come from Myra of Lycia, which was a Greco Roman city. Since he was also outlawed, Father Frost replaced him. He was the spirit of winter who traveled with a snow maiden and they gave out gifts.

Since the Christmas tree was also banned, they still put up a tree for new years, decorated in fruit.

Our Christmas comes earlier because we follow the Gregorian Calendar and they, in Russia, follow the Julian calendar, which is 13 days later, on Jan 6 th.

This makes it hard when trying to figure out birthdays. lol

Kutya is a very healthy dish especially for children. It's sorta like a porridge made out of wheat berries, poppy seeds, honey, sugar, and walnuts.

I tasted it once and it was delicious!!!
Definitely worth trying to make.

Merry Christmas Russia!!!
Congrats on the Gold in Hockey!!

:)

Joss Sticks and Wild Cinnamon

Joss Sticks are a very big part of Asian life.
They come in all sizes ranging from bamboo thin, sticks, to huge thick sticks which burn for months in temples.
They are used in daily prayers as well as Ghost festivals and funerals.

The name Joss comes from a household deity god named Joss.
They are not all made the same. Some have clay and perfumes in them which are not good for the health.

I came across one family joss stick business in Singapore, which went public with this art because no one wanted to continue it in the family. They called it a dying art.

They made joss sticks out of wild cinnamon saw dust. But they did even more.

They would add water to the wild cinnamon saw dust and then kneed it like dough.
It became exactly like dough, on which they then used a rolling pin, to roll out into a nice thin piece, and then proceeded to make statues of anything you liked from Chinese warriors on horses, different deities, animals etc....
The products, when dry, go back to the original wood state.

They then shellac it and you take it home.
I have a few pieces in boxes I still have to dig out but I found this wild cinnamon wood art to be quite extraordinary.
The cinnamon saw dust had natural glue in it which allowed it to be used in this manner.

We took some home to make Christmas decorations for our tree. It was fun to do.

Cinnamon has a wide variety of uses including medicinal. The red cinnamon is very good and many Chinese drink it in tea mixed with honey or apply it as a paste onto the skin.

2 tsp of honey to one tsp of cinnamon is used as medicinal aids to cure heart disease, arthritis,colds, hair loss, bladder infections, tooth ache, upset stomach, gas ,cholesterol, weight loss, skin infections, pimples, cancer, bad breath, fatigue, immune system, infertility.
Hot water is always used to combat thirst out there, as opposed to cold and hot water also dilutes fats in your system, so they are flushed out.

Nature provides us with soo many interesting things to discover . Trained, old people, carry these old arts holding answers to many secrets doctors are still ignorant of.

It is too bad the young do not value the teachings of their old ancestors.
The info should be carried on throughout time as it can be useful one day to know.

In the meantime I am glad to have learned this wonderful art of wild cinnamon statue making and search to find more info about this wild cinnamon tree, to make saw dust out of.
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The old people in Singapore, are quite upset with their kids, in that they began using knives and forks as opposed to chop sticks.

They constantly pointed at foreigners, saying we had more respect for their traditions than their own kids did.
I just love chop sticks because it makes you eat food one piece at a time, so you enjoy it a lot more.
Plus its fun to be able to hold food in a different way.
:)