Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna in the Highest!
Palm Sunday marks the day of Jesus triumphant entry into Jerusalem, which always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday.
With accordance to the scriptures, Jesus sent two disciples into a village to untie a donkey from a tree which was never ridden. And the owner would ask about it and the disciples to replied "The Lord needed it..."
Jesus then rode the donkey into Jerusalem, with people putting their cloaks on the road along side with palm leaves so as to make it more comfortable.
But later in the week, Jesus was betrayed by Judas suffered on the Cross, paid the price of sin so that the world may be saved who ever believe in Him.
Holy Communion will be received...
Yes, It is indeed a time of celebration of Jesus triumphant entry! Come tomorrow, Maundy Thursday, my Church will practice this tradition of "Stripping of the Church" ; working in complete silence, everything in relation to worship is removed one by one each and every item of decoration — vessels, paraments, candles, candlesticks, vases, flags, banners — and everything used in worship other than furniture.
It is to symbolize shame in early days that the Saviour has died versus the joy we experience in our worship came at the cost of the death of the One we worship.
After the 'stripping' the Choir will take their leave followed by switching of the lights and the congregation depart in silence with no Benediction given..
Solar Eclipse on 26 January 2009
The best solar eclipse for the decade in Singapore will occur on 26 January 2009. About 72% of the Sun will be covered by the Moon at maximum.
An eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Moon and the Earth form a straight line. A Solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes in between the Earth and the Sun.
This year there will be five eclipses that will occur. Only two out of the five eclipses will be visible in Singapore, subject to weather. The next eclipse, after 26th January, will be another Solar eclipse, which will occur on 22 July 2009.
The first solar eclipse of 2009 is an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse. An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.
In Singapore, the partial eclipse will be begin from 4:30PM to 6:30PM (local Singapore time). Maximum eclipse will be at 5:49 PM. The sun will be in the western sky and during maximum eclipse, 72% of it will be covered up by the moon! It will be a pretty impressive sight. Just pray that the clouds stay out of the way.
Please remember that viewing the sun without proper protection is extremely dangerous. Even when 72% of the sun is covered by the moon, the light is still bright enough to blind your eyes. And please do not try to view the eclipse using sunglasses. They will not protect your eyesight. If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, please do not look at the sun through them without proper solar filters that are fitted at the front of your instrument, not at the eyepiece!
Ok so you don't have any telescope, how are you going to view Monday's eclipse then? There are a few simple ways to view the eclipse safely. One is to make yourself a pinhole projector. Get a long box (the longer the better), a piece of aluminum foil, a pin, and a sheet of white paper or you can opt for a quick and easy version using just two pieces of cardboard. Instructions here.
But of course, you can always pay a visit to the Singapore Science Centre's Observatory to view the eclipse together with other astronomers. They will have a variety of telescopes there equipped with proper solar filters but it could be very crowded. Details here.
What is this Black Friday about? Some might think ah.. another Financial market down trends? Well not really! But it has something got to do with figures.
Black Friday is a day after Thanksgiving (in America is the 4th Thursday of Nov) got its name because historically it was the day when a surge of shoppers will fill the Malls helped stores that are in the reds to break into profitability - 'into the black' - for the full year, thus "Black Friday"
