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CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait — Soldiers from the 1st Theater Sustainment Command and the 143d Sustainment Command (Expeditionary) participated in various social and spiritual activities to celebrate the holiday season.
On Christmas Eve hundreds of service members, Department of Defense civilians and contractors gathered at a hangar decked out for the holidays. Put together by 1st TSC and 143d ESC Soldiers along with the helping hands of Morale, Welfare and Recreation employees, the event included a buffet dinner, a visit from St. Nicholas and a secret Santa gift exchange in front of a Christmas tree. Several Soldiers and civilians demonstrated their singing or dancing skills on stage during a “Camp Arifjan’s Got Talent” show judged by members of the 143d ESC’s junior enlisted ranks.
Though the celebration generated much laughter and applause from the lively crowd, some Soldiers opted to spend Christmas Eve at a more solemn venue.
Chaplains and chaplain assistants deployed to Camp Arifjan hosted a Christmas Eve vigil at the post chapel that evening. The nondenominational Christian service wove scripture readings and traditional Christmas carols before the congregation brought the service to its climax as it illuminated the chapel with hundreds of lit candles.
The celebration continued the next day with a 5k run and a Christmas feast served by the 1st TSC and 143d ESC’s senior leadership at Camp Arifjan’s Dining Facilities. The 143d ESC also hosted a barbecue lunch as well as various sporting activities such as volleyball and cornhole.
Photos by 1st Lt. Nicole Rossman, Staff Sgt. Ian Shay and Sgt. John L. Carkeet IV, 143d ESC
Hatibagan Sarbojanin 2016
Modern pandals in Kolkata are innovative, artistic and decorative at the same time, offering a visual spectacle.....
Experience Kolkata Durga Puja........ An Experience of A Lifetime!
October 7 -11, 2016
Durga Puja, the ceremonial worship of the mother goddess, is one of the most important festivals, is celebrated every year in the month of October with much gaiety and grandeur in India and abroad, especially in Bengal, where the ten-armed goddess riding the lion and killing the Buffalo-Demon (Mahishasura) is worshipped with great passion and devotion.
The traditional icon of the goddess worshiped during the Durga Puja is in line with the iconography delineated in the scriptures. In Durga, the Gods bestowed their powers to co-create a beautiful goddess with ten arms, each carrying their most lethal weapon. The tableau of Durga also features her four children - Kartikeya, Ganesha, Saraswati and Lakshmi.
The huge temporary canopies - held by a framework of bamboo poles and draped with colourful fabric - that house the icons are called 'pandals'. Modern pandals in Kolkata are innovative, artistic and decorative at the same time, offering a visual spectacle for the numerous visitors who go 'pandal-hopping' during the four days of Durga Puja.
Often, when I come across some scripture that 'speaks' to me, I'll drop it into a very simple PS template I put together.
It's not fancy, or really skillful. Rather it lets me pause for 5 minutes or so and find relationships between text and imagery.
The actual worship of the Goddess Durga as stipulated by the Hindu scriptures falls in the month of Chaitra, which roughly overlaps with March or April. This ceremony is however not observed by many and is restricted to a handful in the state of West Bengal. The more popular form, which is also known as Sharadiya (Autumnal) Durga Puja, is celebrated later in the year with the dates falling either in September or October. Since the Goddess is invoked at the wrong time, it is called "Akaal Bodhon" in Bengali.
Public announcement by Shobhabazar Rajbati on the origins of Durga Puja.While the most recent revival of the Autumnal worship of Goddess Durga can be traced to revivalist tendencies in the early freedom movement in Bengal, differences remain in the historical reason behind the revival. One school of thought is of the opinion that the first such Puja was organised by Raja Nabakrishna Deb of the Shobhabazar Rajbari of Calcutta in honour of Lord Clive in the year 1757. The puja was organised because Clive wished to pay thanks for his victory in the Battle of Plassey. He was unable to do so in a Church because the only church in Calcutta at that time was destroyed by Siraj-ud-Daulah. Indeed many wealthy mercantile and Zamindar families in Bengal made British Officers of the East India Company guests of honour in the Pujas. The hosts vied with one another in arranging the most sumptuous fares, decorations and entertainment for their guests. This was deemed necessary since the Company was in charge of a large part of India including Bengal after the battles of Plassey and Buxar. However, this particular claim has been refuted by the Sovabazar Rajbari. In a public announcement during the Durga Puja of 2011, notice boards were placed at the entrance of the puja, clarifying the Rajbari's official position.
Church of the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. Also known as the Church of All Nations, it is east of the Western Wall and across the Kidron Valley from the Old City. It is build over the rock where Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives prior to his arrest and crucifixion. Just behind it in this photo is the Church of Mary Magdalene.
The mosaic on the church's facade depicts Jesus' interceding between God and man, which was the content of his prayer in the Garden prior to his Crucifixion. The mosaic was designed by Giulio Bargellini.
Beneath the mosaic is the Latin verse from the New Testament letter to the Hebrews 5:7:
"Preces supplicationesque cum clamore valido et lacrymis offerens exauditus set pro sua reverentia", which translates to English as, “He offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears and he was heard because of his reverence.”
The church was designed by Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi.
View from Derekh Ha-Ofel.
Jerusalem, Israel.
May 13, 2015.
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