I was just thinking about how people say "Never judge a book by its cover." While I wish this wasn't true, I know that at least I do. I like realistic fiction so I tend to go for new looking books with a person on the cover. My sister likes fantasy, and the books she looks for tend to be hard covers with some sort of drawing or design on the cover. Depending on which country your in you will get a completely different cover. Why? Is it to give us something to spend money collecting? Or maybe it's just to appeal to different audiences? Prevent one artist from getting to rich? Or maybe it's just toconfuse people like me who think it's a completely different book.I won't post them here but while I was looking for the image above I found a bunch of book covers for people that didn't want to be caught reading Harry Potter. The covers are..... I'm not quite sure how to describe them. If you want to know more go search them yourself. 

Some of us may know today as simply the "day after Christmas." But it's also the fifth day of Hanukkah, and the first day of Kwanzaa.

I've never celebrated Kwanzaa before, and I admit that I didn't know much about it before I began researching it to include in the celebrations at NewMoonGirls.com. Although this holiday began as a way for those of African descent to celebrate their heritage, I the values of Kwanzaa --unity, cooperation, and creativity, just to name a few -- are worth honoring for all people. Because it's not a religious holiday, those who celebrate Kwanzaa in addition to -- and not instead of -- religious winter holidays.

Kwanzaa lasts for seven days, and each day focuses on one of seven principles. There is also the lighting of a candle on the Kinara every day of the festival. There are three red candles (to symbolize noble African blood), three green candles (to symbolize the vegetation of Africa) and one Black candle (to symbolize the skin color of those of African descent). Like Christmas and Hanukkah, Kwanzaa can also include gifts, but the gifts are most often given to children from adults as a show of love, and the gifts tend to be educational or cultural in nature.

You can learn more about Kwanzaa on NewMoonGirls.com or at the official Kwanzaa website. If you know other interesting facts about Kwanzaa or have participated in a Kwanzaa celebration, I'd love to hear about it!

Today is a Thursday (Gabrielle blogging day) and also, funny enough, Christmas. To chime in with the season, here is a little Christmas 101 for those of you who may not know as much about this Christian holiday (or some of you that do!)

Not the Biggest Deal Christmas is not the "highest holy day" of the Christian church calendar. While Christmas celebrates the birth of Christ, the most important day is Easter (usually in April: hence the bunnies), that celebrates the resurrection of Christ.

What Exactly Happened? According to the New Testament books of Matthew and Luke, a young girl (about 14 or 15 by most guesses) called Mary saw an angel, who told her that she was going to have a baby. This baby wouldn't be the product of a normal human union, however, because this baby would be the son of God and be the deliverer of Israel. The angel spoke to Joseph, Mary's fiancee, as well, because otherwise Joseph would have divorced her.

They travelled, with a fully pregnant Mary, to Bethlehem to be counted as part of the Roman census. Bethlehem was packed and when Mary needed to deliver her baby, there was only a barn for her, Joseph and Jesus. God himself came into the world as a vulnerable baby sleeping on a horse's feedbox.

The whole Gift-Giving Thing. Although the commercialization of Christmas is sad, the whole idea behind giving gifts is appropriate for Christmas. Christians celebrate the fact that God gave the gift of salvation to the world that night. To honor this, we give gifts to each other, as a reminder of what we have been given.

Wasn't there snow and Wise Men? Not exactly. Last I checked, it doesn't snow much in Israel. And the Wise Men (or "Magi") did not visit the scene of Jesus' birth, but came a year or two later.

What?! No Christmas trees, no mistletoe, no ornaments, no December 25th?! What is this? These holiday traditions developed over the past two thousand years, some for theological reasons and some not. The celebration of Christ's birth was moved to December to provide an alternative to the Roman festival of Saturnalia (an R-rated event. Really.)

Something that my church has focused on in the past few weeks is the season of Advent. In the church calendar, Advent is the season before Christmas that allows us to prepare for what is going to happen. Yet, instead of being a happy, exciting time, Advent is meant to be melancholic and reflective. We look at what the world looks like without a savior God-- what we look like without Jesus-- and it's not a pretty picture. That way, when Christmas morning arrives with stockings and fruitcake and too many presents, we are even more thankful for what we have.

So, Merry Christmas, Orb28! I'm thankful for my opportunity to blog here, and to have such a thoughtful, open-minded community that listens and gives and celebrates. Have a lovely holiday.

Hey, girls! Today Glam.com, a website for women that has 25.5 million visitors every month, is running an inspirational slide show with quotes from YOU! Thanks to everyone who shared their thoughts about the holidays. You can see the slideshow here.

Today is the first full day of Hanukkah. Since we're celebrating Winter Holidays at NewMoonGirls.com right now, I asked some girls who celebrate Hanukkah a little bit about this tradition. Our very own Snowflake and RandomLogic came through. Here's a bit of Hanukkah history from Snowflake:

“Thousands of years ago, Alexander the Great acquired so much land that he couldn’t control it all, so he split it into three parts to be ruled by his closest advisors before he died. One of those was the Seleucid Empire. After a few generations, Antiochus Ephiphanes came into power. By this time, the three empires as well as other kingdoms were constantly at war, and the Seleucid Empire was located so its enemies could converge and squash it to pieces. So when Antiochus suspected that the Jews were going to rebel, he began to take away their freedoms, such as Jewish worship and sacrifices. When he ordered a Greek idol to be placed in a Jewish Temple, it was the last straw for many Jews, especially Mattitiahu (Mattathias) the Hashmonai (Hasmonean) and his sons, a family of ritual priests from the city of Modiin. He refused to worship the Greek gods, and his son Judah led a revolt with a group called the Maccabees. They stormed the Greek forts, and they defeated the army, regaining their religious freedom and restoring the temple.”

And a note from RandomLogic about the Hanukkah tradition of lighting the Menorah:

“When the temple was once again in Jewish hands, they had to burn holy oil through the night. They only had enough oil for one night, but miraculously it lasted for eight, which was enough time to find more oil! Today, Jews traditionally light eight candles on a Menorah (candle-holder) over the course of eight days, saying a prayer as each candle is lit. They put the candles in a window so passersby can see it.”

I've loved learning more about this holiday in the last few days here on the orb28 blog and through the great email conversations with girls who celebrate it. It's an honor to be celebrating with you!