But there\nis more: October 4 is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi [who almost alone\nof all Christian leaders of his generation opposed the Crusades; who studied\nwith Islamic teachers; and who connected deeply with all the creatures of the\nearth];<\/p>\n\n\n\n
October 2\nis Mahatma Gandhi\u2019s birthday and Worldwide (Protestant\/Orthodox) Communion Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, from October 4 through 12, Hindus celebrate the\nfestival of Navratri (which honors female cosmic energy, or the Goddess within\neach of us). And on October 20, Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00eds celebrate the birthday of the B\u00e1b. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since WTB is devoted to fostering our understanding of\ndifferent religions and ethnicities, we asked a panel of women to speak about\ntheir own faith experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protestant: World Communion Sunday\u2014Tanya Atwood-Adams <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanya has lived in 11 states but spent most of her growing-up\nyears in California. She and her husband, Bud, share four adult children, all\nliving in different states. Tanya received her master of divinity degree from\nYale Divinity School. She is the chaplain for the palliative care consult service\nat St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital and the director of spiritual care for the InterReligious\nCouncil of Central New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tanya explained that growing up in diverse neighborhoods and\nexperiencing communion with friends of different cultures, she recognized that\nthere are many paths to God. As she prepared for this talk, she asked others\nabout their Protestant traditions and found \u201ca happy lack of uniformity\u201d:\ncustoms that had been bent to accommodate the needs and preferences of different\ncongregations, and perspectives that had been shaped by each individual\u2019s childhood\nexperiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n World Communion Sunday originated in the Presbyterian Church USA\nin 1936. It was meant to mark the unity of the Christian church and designed to\nbe a worldwide ecumenical service. By 1945, many Protestant denominations were\nobserving it as a celebration of their oneness in Christ. World Communion\nSunday commemorates the life, work, death and gift of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike Catholics, Protestants view communion not as taking on\nthe specific properties of the body and blood of Jesus, but rather as a\nsymbolic representation meeting a biblical requirement; in some traditions it\nis also considered to confer special grace. Communion celebrations vary in many\nways: Some are open to all; others require communicants to be members,\nbaptized, or believers, with this decision frequently being made by a governing\nbody. Communion is served by deacons, elders, or members of the congregation. Some\ncongregations use leavened bread; others, unleavened wafers. Some use wine;\nothers, grape juice. Presentation varies as well: People might receive\ncommunion while standing, kneeling, sitting in pews (as trays are passed from person\nto person), or sitting at long tables (as for a meal). The frequency of\ncommunion can vary from weekly to annually. Tanya illustrated her explanations\nwith trays, plates, chalices and breads used during communion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jewish: Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur\u2014Lynda Fuchs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lynda has been the director of the Religious Coalition for\nReproductive Choice, a national interfaith coalition, for more than ten years.\nShe is also a teacher and a designer and creator of jewelry, with emphasis on\nthe multiculturalism of beads. Lynda has two 20-something daughters\u2014an engineer\nand a second-year medical student. During her moves around the Northeast she\nhas been an active member of communities in which she has lived. She calls\nReform Judaism her home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lynda explained the intricacies of the Jewish calendar and\nhow it relates to the Gregorian calendar. The Jewish calendar has 12 lunar\nmonths of 29 or 30 days each, totaling 354 days per year. To keep up with the\nsolar year, a leap-year month is added\u2014seven times in a 19-year cycle. Days\nbegin at sundown because Genesis, chapter 1, says, \u201cAnd there was evening, and\nthere was morning, one day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the Gregorian date of October 3, 2005, Jews across the\nglobe listened to the sound of the shofar, or ram\u2019s horn, and began to\ncelebrate Rosh Hashanah and welcome the Jewish year of 5766. The sounds of the\nshofar trigger a memory of Isaac bound and waiting to be sacrificed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rosh Hashanah is followed by Days of Repentance and then Yom\nKippur. This period, known as the High Holy Days, is a time of reflection,\nrepentance, and a spiritual inventory consisting of four steps: recognition of\nwrongdoing, regret, resolution not to repeat, and restraining oneself in the\nface of temptation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, adults abstain from food\nand water for 25 hours. Services continue throughout the day, and they stress the\nconfession of sins, using \u201cwe\u201d so that the sinner is not isolated; the\ncommunity recognizes that the group must assume some responsibility for the\nacts of individuals. Many congregations share a communal \u201cbreak the fast\u201d meal\nat the end of Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Four days after Yom Kippur is the holiday of Sukkot, the\nFestival of Booths. Sukkot has two origins: One is God\u2019s release of the Jews\nfrom captivity in Egypt, when the people lived temporarily in sukkot (sukkot <\/em>is the plural of the Hebrew word sukkah<\/em>,\nmeaning \u201cbooth\u201d or \u201chut\u201d). The other origin is the harvest, when farmers lived\nin booths beside their fields so as to avoid having to travel back and forth to\ntheir homes. Jews build these booths of natural materials and decorate them\nwith the fruits of the harvest. Many eat their meals there for seven days. These\nholidays are rich with music, poetry, foods, and family traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roman Catholic: Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi\u2014Sister Jeanne Karp<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sister Jeanne has been a Sister of Saint Francis for 20\nyears. She is a nurse practitioner and runs a free rural clinic part-time in northern\nOswego County for persons without medical insurance. She is currently a full-time\nvocation minister for her community. Her hobbies are camping, canoeing and\nwoodworking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Catholics celebrate the Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi\non October 4. Sister Jeanne first explained that the Church confers the title\nof saint on individuals who lived special lives. Catholics look up to these\nindividuals as heroes or models for their own lives and, recognizing that\nprayer is powerful and important, ask the saints to pray to God as\nintercessors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Francis was born in 1182 to a wealthy merchant and lived a\nparty life. Then he chose to join the Crusades. He was captured, put in jail,\nand experienced a profound conversion, after which God appeared to him saying,\n\u201cRebuild my Church.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When Francis returned home, he stressed the importance of\nbeing kind because all people and things are created by God. He had no\ntolerance for individuals who abuse God\u2019s creation, and he is today the patron\nsaint of ecology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his own time, Francis was also recognized as a peacemaker,\nmediating between warring villages and kings and between Christians and Muslims\nin the Crusades. The World Day of Peace was started in Assisi by Franciscans.\nToday, Franciscans International is a nongovernmental organization with a seat\nat the United Nations and has a voice in the policies put forth there. As a\nfollow-up to Tanya\u2019s explanation of World Communion Sunday, Sister Jeanne told\nus that today, October 16, is the end of the Year of the Eucharist, a\nliturgical year that has been celebrated by Roman Catholics worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Muslim: Ramadan\u2014Danya Wellmon<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Danya is a medical technologist currently working for the Red\nCross. She lives in Chittenango with two of her three children and is active in\nthe Islamic Society of Central New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Danya explained that there are five pillars of Islam:\ndeclaration of faith, prayer five times a day, fasting during Ramadan,\ncharitable giving, and pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims follow a lunar calendar\nthat does not provide leap months to keep it with the solar year. Thus, over\ntime, Ramadan, the ninth month, travels through the year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During Ramadan, a holy month of 29 days, Muslims seek to\ntrain and purify their inner selves through prayer, fasting and alms-giving.\nRamadan is the most blessed month of the year for three reasons: (1) God sent\nthe Qur\u0384an down to the lower heavens during the month of Ramadan, and then it\nwas revealed by the Angel Gabriel to Prophet Muhammad, verse by verse over a 23-year\nperiod because it would have been too overwhelming all at once. (2) Ramadan\nincludes the Night of Glory, a period of all-night prayer. (3) Beginning at\npuberty (the age of accountability), healthy adult Muslims are required to fast\nfrom sunup to sundown, sharing their break-fast meals (where it is prohibited\nto overeat) and celebrations with other Muslims as well as non-Muslims. The\nRamadan fast disciplines the individual physically and spiritually, teaching\ncontrol of passions, anger and emotions. Portions of food should be given to\nthe poor so that everyone shares. Those unable to fast are required to feed a\nhungry person every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each evening of Ramadan, portions of the Qur\u0384an are recited\nfrom memory in Arabic, with the goal being to recite the entire sacred book\nduring the month. Muslims are urged to give to charity, even in excess of the\nrequired 2.5 percent of their wealth. One\u2019s faith is manifest in actions and\ndeeds. Ramadan ends with the Eid celebration, which includes communal prayers\n(in Syracuse, these are held at the Oncenter), a festive dinner, a children\u2019s\nparty, and the giving of gifts to children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hindu: Navratri\u2014Helina Mehta <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Helina is from Guntersville, Alabama. Currently she is a\njunior in a predental program at Syracuse University. She is president of the\nHindu Students Council, a board member and vice president of the Student\nWishmaker Foundation (which sponsors and helps children with terminal illnesses\nat nearby hospitals), and an e-board member of Masti, a cultural event of the\nSouth Asian Students Association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Helina explained that Navratri (translated as \u201cnine nights\u201d)\nis one of the most celebrated festivals of the Hindu year, intended to thank the\nmother goddess Durga for the female principles of nature. It is celebrated with\nworship, dances and music directed to the goddesses of energy and valor, peace\nand wealth, knowledge and art. There are many stories of the gods, and Helina\nshared two of them with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord Brahma was pleased with the buffalo demon Mahishasura\nfor his excellent meditation and told him that no man or god would be able to\nkill him. Pleased with this invincibility, Mahishasura set out to conquer\nheaven, earth and hell. When he invaded heaven and drove the gods out, the\ngods\u2019 anger was incarnated in the goddess Durga. After a battle lasting nine\ndays, Durga beheaded Mahishasura. The tenth day, Vijaya Dashami, celebrates the\ntriumph of good over evil as well as the power of women, education, and the ability\nto learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In another story, Lord Ram was married to a beautiful woman,\nSita. The demon king Ravan kidnapped her and took her to his land, Lanka. With\nhelp from the Kingdom of Monkeys, Ram beheaded Ravan and rescued his wife, then\nreturned home to become king in his own land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Helina showed us photos of people doing Navratri folk dances\u2014raas\nand garba\u2014in the Indian state of Gujarat. The women were wearing jewel-toned\ndresses decorated with beads and tiny mirrors; the men too were in traditional\ngarb. All of them were dancing with small, polished, wooden sticks that they were\ntapping together. The enthusiasm and happiness of the dancers were evident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed: Birthday of the B\u00e1b\u2013 Mary Roderick<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary was born in\nPortugal and immigrated to the United States in 1960 when she was nine years\nold. She and her family settled in Rhode Island. Mary is a wife, mother of\nthree wonderful adult children, and proud grandmother of two. She is a retired hospice\nnurse, currently works at St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital as a transcriptionist, and has\na part-time home-based business as a distributor of USANA Health Science\nnutritional supplements. Mary became a Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed when she was 19 years old and has\nserved the community in various appointed and elected positions both in the\nUnited States and in Portugal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary explained that the birthday of the B\u00e1b is one of the\nnine holy days of Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed and is celebrated from sunset October 19 through sunset\nOctober 20. In Central New York, which has a small Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed community, services\nand celebrations are held in members\u2019 homes. Since there is no clergy,\nvolunteers organize readings, music, food, ceremonies, and children\u2019s programs\nsuch as plays. Religious practices are not set, but they are reverent and\nreflect the local culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The B\u00e1b (which means \u201cthe gate\u201d) was born Siyyid \u0384Ali-Muhammad\nand grew up to become a merchant. He was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad\nand was known, even as a child, for his wisdom. In 1844 he made a declaration\nof faith, stating that he was a messenger of God and had come to prepare the\nway for \u201cHe Whom God Will Make Manifest.\u201d His fame spread quickly. He was\npersecuted and executed in 1850. Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00eds believe that the B\u00e1b prepared the way\nfor Bah\u00e1\u0384u\u0384ll\u00e1h, the founder of the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In response to Joan Burstyn\u2019s question about the importance\nto us of this confluence of holy days and the direction it should give us, Mary\nsaid it should bring us to a realization that we are all made by the same\nCreator. We can picture ourselves being on different lanes of the same highway,\nbut all going in the same direction. Each of us contributes to the whole, and\nwe should open our hearts and be more tolerant and accepting of each other. We\nare interconnected not only in our religions but even in the very air we\nbreathe, in our atoms. This creates strengths in us to go forward. When we see\ninjustice, we have a part to play in making situations better and changing what\nis near us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Smita pointed out that the Hindu lunar calendar also adds\nleap year months. Important life events, such as getting married or buying a\nhouse, are not done during these months. Mary noted that the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed calendar is\na solar calendar, with 19 months of 19 days each, plus a few extra days. Sabra\npointed out that the Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed fast is similar to the Ramadan fast and done for\nthe same reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Janet Donoghue said she had read a biography of St. Francis. During\nthe Crusades, St. Francis had offered to cross enemy lines to speak to Muslims.\nThey were willing to make peace, but the Christians were not. Sister Jeanne\nresponded that this biography scrambled the order of some actual events in\nFrancis\u2019s life. She noted that Franciscans are known for pushing the envelope,\nattempting to make necessary changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nancy Sullivan Murray noted that this convergence period\nfalls under the astrological sign of Libra, the balance scale. She said that nature\nis out of balance. The poor, the nameless, the faceless are caught in the\nupheaval. How can we better balance our lives to promote justice in the natural\nworld and in our communities? Global warming is a symbol of social injustice\u2014the\ndeveloped world\u2019s use of fossil fuels without concern for the effect on others.\nThe Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed faith warns of the excesses of civilization and calls for\nmoderation. The commonalities in our faiths are an expression of the need to\nconnect with God with humility and reverence, the opposite of the excesses of\ncivilization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Betsy reminded us that this confluence of dates will continue\nfor three years. We can continue this conversation and expand on it, looking at\ndifferent perspectives of the impact we can make on the world. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wtb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/helina-Hindu-Convergence-of-Holy-Days.jpg\")
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