It’s the second day of my online Advent Calendar. What lies beyond the cut? Only one way to find out…

A Tale of Two Cities (though maybe towns is more appropriate)

The Christmas story is inextricably linked with the town of Bethlehem. That is, of course, where Jesus was supposedly born, in a manger, surrounded by animals. Bethlehem was important because it’s also accepted as the birthplace of David, King of Israel, from whom Jesus was descended (though as far as I remember that was through Joseph who wasn’t truly Jesus’s father, so…yeah). Modern day Bethlehem is now in Palestine and is, as expected, a popular tourist site.

The Bethlehem I’m most acquainted with, however, is Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Lehigh University, the university I attended, is located there. Bethlehem, PA was historically a steel town, like nearby Allentown (popularized in the Billy Joel song), though by the time I attended school, most of the steel mills were closed.

Pennsylvania, of course, was founded by William Penn, an Englishman who converted to Quakerism. Quakers are also known as The Religious Society of Friends, which sounds nice and inviting. Some Quakers now celebrate Christmas, but traditionally many did not, or indeed any of the other major Christian holidays, feeling like it was more honest to celebrate the values of those holidays on every day instead. Quaker Oats, the company, has no official affiliation with Quakers, though. Instead one of the founders of the company liked the qualities that the Quakers stood for and thought it was a good image for his oats company. Quaker makes two of the cereals I enjoyed most as a kid – Cap’n Crunch and Life Cereal.

While William Penn was a Quaker, it was a different Protestant sect that established the town of Bethlehem, PA. It was founded by Moravians on Christmas Eve in 1741, named after the Biblical city (nearby Nazareth, PA was also a Moravian settlement, named after the town where Jesus grew up — Intercourse, PA, however, was not). The native inhabitants of the region were of the Lenape. Both Quakers and Moravians purportedly practiced peaceful and tolerant coexistence with the Lenape, though the Moravians converted many. Still, the Lenape were eventually displaced and suffered as a result of the new colonists.

Speaking of displacement, back to the original Bethlehem, the story goes that Mary and Joseph went there to participate in a census. Of course, as we all know, there was no room at any of the inns, so they were forced to stay in a stable, a scene that is depicted in numerous nativity scenes all over the world. Often, the Three Wise Men, or Magi, or sometimes even the Three Kings are depicted in the stable with Jesus, Mary and Joseph. However, there’s no actual Biblical support for this. The wise men are only mentioned in the gospel of Matthew. He doesn’t mention how many or their names or where they came from. He also indicates that they visited Jesus as a young child in his house. So odds are they didn’t arrive at the moment of his birth.

Still, I love the additional details that gathered around those few lines. It’s thought that they were assumed to be three because the number of the gifts was three. The names – Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar – came later, though what great names they are. They also inspired one of my favorite Xmas songs, We Three Kings.

Frank

Speaking of the Nativity, and the Three Wise Men, and the gifts that they bring, N had been telling me forever about this TED Talk by Ken Robinson where he talks about children and creativity and learning. Jump to about 4:12 in the video for the part that I mean.

And for today’s quote, I will take one from Ken Robinson himself:

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.”

Frank sent this. 🙂