We begin counting down to Christmas.
Today is the day before Advent. It’s the first day of our daily Advent calendar.
The season of Advent is a time of preparation for the arrival of the celebration of the coming of Christ. Throughout this Advent time we will take this preparation journey together.
This year our theme is ‘A Pinch of Spice’. Every day throughout Advent this year, we’ll reveal a spice. With a little pinch of spice, we find comfort and refreshment. We don’t need much to make a difference and add flavour. As we count down to Christmas we’ll explore adding a pinch of spice to our own lives, our own faith journey, and to the way we interact with others around us.
In the tradition of opening a door on an Advent calendar, we open today’s post to reveal…
… there’s 29 days until Christmas Day…
and today’s spice is…
…Cinnamon
A pinch of spice
The smell and taste of cinnamon has been a comforting part of Christmas celebrations for centuries. Cinnamon’s smell is subtle, warm, citrusy, fruity, and slightly woody. As a flavour enhancer, cinnamon adds warmth to dishes while providing a subtle kick. Christmas mince pies, cinnamon cookies, cinnamon flavoured breads, and Christmas teas are all possible uses for a pinch of cinnamon spice during the festive season.
A pinch of the Christmas story
From the very beginning
the Word was with God.
And with this Word,
God created all things.
John 1:2 (CEV)
A pinch of reflection
Tomorrow is the first day of Advent for 2022. It’s a brand-new Advent, counting down to a fresh celebration of Christmas and the birth of Christ and yet in our familiar celebration rituals and traditions we find comfort. In the cycles of the years, we reflect on the beginning. It’s much further back than the first Christmas. We go back to the beginning of creation when God’s Son, also known as the Word, was with God creating all things.
A pinch of prayer
Take a pinch of cinnamon.
Look at it. Feel it.
Bring it closer to your nose.
Smell your pinch of cinnamon.
Close your eyes.
Let an image or a word come to mind.
Focus on the image or word.
Turn your focus into a prayer.
Our God,
I reflect on the cycle of the seasons and how once again Advent begins.
Let this season of preparation bring fresh understandings to me.
Be with me and help me find comfort and surprises in the familiar rituals of this season.
Draw my attention to little things and let me find ways to offer a pinch of comfort in your name.
Amen.
A handful of spicy facts
Cinnamon comes from the Cinnamomum verum tree which is native to Sri Lanka.
Branches are cut from the tree and soaked in water, the outer bark is stripped away and then the inner bark is carefully prised loose and peeled off by hand, creating rolled sheets of bark. These rolls are dried in the shade before being ground into cinnamon powder or cut into shorter quills.
Egyptians used cinnamon as a preservative in cooking and embalming 2000 BCE
In the 1st century CE, the Roman philosopher, Pliny the Elder recorded 350grams of cinnamon to be equivalent in value to five kilograms of silver.
Cinnamon appears in the Bible in the books of Exodus, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, and Revelation.