When Jesus is Born, Angels Tell the Local Shepherds 1st

 

Illuminated ManuscriptAnnunciation to the Shepherds who include a woman and a man getting dressed.

One of my favorite Christmas stories is the annunciation to the lowly shepherds of the birth of the baby Christ child. Whom did the angels tell first? The community's outcasts, including some women working with the wool, who lived in the countryside year-round with dogs & sheep. And Mary welcomed them to visit her new baby. Only later did the important nobles arrive. The common man came first, and these lovely little illustrations imagine the stunned herders hearing the news.  

    

1500s The Adoration of the Shepherds

Attributed to Angnolo Bronzino, Agnolo di Cosimo, (Italian Mannerist artist, 1503-1572) 

Adoration of the Shepherds

It happened, when the angels went away from them into the sky, that the shepherds said one to another, "Let's go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." They came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in a manger. When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child. All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told them.  Luke 2:8-20

1590 The Adoration of the Shepherds

1590 Gerrit van Honthorst (Dutch painter, 1590–1656) Adoration of the Shepherds

The shepherds said one to another, "Let's go to Bethlehem, now, and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." They came with haste, and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby was lying in a manger. When they saw it, they publicized widely the saying which was spoken to them about this child. All who heard it wondered at the things which were spoken to them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these sayings, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, just as it was told them.  Luke 2:8-20

HARK! the Herald Angels sing Glory to the new-born King!

Abbott Handerson Thayer (American artist, 1849–1921) Angel 1889

Trade Routes between Europe & Asia during Antiquity

 

Trade Routes between Europe & Asia during Antiquity

Long-distance trade played a major role in the cultural, religious, artistic, & plant exchanges that took place between the major centers of civilization in Europe & Asia during antiquity. Some of these trade routes had been in use for centuries. The trade routes served principally to transfer luxury goods, raw materials, plants, & foodstuffs between the East & West.

As far back as the 6th century CE, great caravans of camels traveled regularly over the Arab trade routes between India and the Middle East carrying prized Eastern goods, such as drugs, hemp, opium, incense and spices. In the Middle Ages, these goods were transferred on to the Levant and to merchants in Venice for distribution throughout Europe.

The Silk Road, a series of ancient trade routes stretching across Central Asia to Europe, evokes exotic images of camel trains laden with bales of fine Chinese silk, spices, and perfume;, of desert oases surrounded by snow-capped mountains; of bustling markets thronging with travelers buying and selling grapes, coriander, Baltic amber, and Mediterranean coral. The silks & spices & incence evolved as ancient mankind experimented with the products of Nature.  Along this route, silks were sent from China to ancient Rome; princesses were dispatched in marriage alliances across the deserts; bandits and thieves launched attacks throughout history. Spanning more than 5,000 years, the Silk Road was more than just a trade route, the Silk Road witnessed the movement of Man's cultural influences intermingled with Nature's changing landscapes.

Some areas had a monopoly on certain materials or goods. China, for example, supplied West Asia & the Mediterranean world with silk, while spices were obtained principally from South Asia. These goods were transported over vast distances— either by caravans & pack animals overland, or by seagoing ships—along the Silk & Spice Routes, which were the main arteries of contact between the various ancient empires of the Old World.

Another important trade route, known as the Incense Route, was controlled by the Arabs, who brought frankincense & myrrh by camel caravan from South Arabia. The demands for scents & incense by the empires of antiquity, such as Egypt, Rome & Babylon, made Arabia one of the oldest trade centers of the world.

The original Spice Trade, or 'Incense Route', from the Mediterranean to India and the East was closed off to Europeans due to the spread of Islam after the Prophet Muhammad's death in 632 CE. Traders from the Arabian world controlled overland and sea routes from India to the Levant and Venice. Arabs monopolized trade in drugs, hemp, opium, incense and spices for centuries until the Ottoman Turks broke their stranglehold on Eastern trade in 1453. 

Cities along these trade routes grew rich providing services to merchants who rested in oasis towns (known as a "caravanserai"). These centers served as international marketplaces, & areas where knowledge was also exchanged. Cities such as Palmyra & Petra, on the fringes of the Syrian Desert, flourished mainly as centers of trade supplying merchant caravans & policing the trade routes. They also became cultural & artistic centers, where peoples of different ethnic & cultural backgrounds could meet & intermingle. 

The trade routes were the communications highways of the ancient world. New inventions, artistic styles, religious faiths, cultures, languages, & social customs, as well as goods & plants, were transported.

Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art. “Trade Routes between Europe and Asia during Antiquity.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. 

14-1500s The Adoration of the Shepherds

 Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556) Adoration of the Shepherds

This is the sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in a manger." Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly army praising God, and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest, 

on earth peace, good will toward men."  Luke 2:8-20

Happy New Year! British Botanist celebrates Christmas & the New Year in 1790s America

Henrietta Liston (1751-1828) 

Henrietta Liston (1751-1828) was a British botanist. The National Library of Scotland has digitized her journals. Henrietta married diplomat Robert Liston when she was 44, & he was 53, on 27 February 1796.  After their wedding, they traveled directly down to London where Robert met with King George III, ahead of his posting to the United States in 1796.

They took up residence in Philadelphia, the capital. Genuinely curious about the New World, they began an extended trip from Philadelphia to Charleston, South Carolina in the fall of 1797. The couple also established friendships with George Washington & John Adams, of whom Henrietta's diaries contain favorable impressions.  She also praises Alexander Hamilton, as "lively & animated in his conversation, gallant in his manners & sometimes brilliant in his sallies."

Henrietta documented their trip in her journal, noting facts that she found interesting, the foods they ate, & their astonishment at the natural beauties, particularly the flora, of the countryside. Traveling the east coast of North America must have been a challenge for the 45-year-old Mrs. Liston & her 55-year-old husband.  She wrote:  On Christmas eve, the Listons reached Fayetteville, named after the Marquis de Lafayette who had fought on the side of the Americans in the Revolutionary War. It is a flourishing Town, upon a Branch of the Capefear River & nearly at the head of the navigation—before the War it was called Cross Creek. 

We were visited by a Scotch Gentleman, named Donaldson, with whose family we passed Christmas day very agreeably. No doubt they were happy to spend the day with a fellow Scot, but Mrs. Liston does not give any details of the festivities. However, she does describe a particular meal she & her husband enjoyed en route.

Our most frequent food, & infinitely the best of its kind, was Pork & Corn bread, it happened to be the Season for killing Pork, it was fresh & most excellent meat,...always broiled upon the Coals, & when we happened to get a few fryed Eggs to it, it was the best food possible & with Corn bread—no other is known—baked upon a hoe, in general, & call hoe cake.

On New Year’s Eve, Henrietta & her husband arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, where they spent a week before returning to Philadelphia, receiving “very marked attentions” from the “polished Society” that characterized Charleston. 

A book on her diaries & journals The Travel Journals of Henrietta Marchant Liston: North America & Lower Canada, 1796-1800, edited by L.V. North was published in 2014.