Answer 6th Day Christmas Past Re-cast: Handel felt close to Heaven while writing Messiah often while foregoing food. It has been noted of moneys raised that “Messiah has fed the hungry, clothed the naked, fostered the orphan … more than any other single musical production in this or any country.” Congrats to 6th Day drawing winner, Jeffrey Abraham, who won a Nauvoo Temple sunstone replica, Nauvoo Temple Christmas card set, Joseph & Hyrum ornament, and Olive wood dish (from Bethlehem) – $60 value! Please contact MHA office 801-272-5601 or info@mormonheritage.com within 30 days to arrange for how to receive your prize. Story still available on yesterday’s...
Read More6th Day Christmas Past Re-cast Question and Story
On the 6th Day of Christmas Past Re-cast… Question: Today’s “Light the World” is to fast and donate the cost to charity. How could fasting have been involved in closer Heavenly inspiration for a composition that has helped charities for over 275 years? To be entered into today’s daily giveaway & FREE tour drawing- Read the story below; “Comment” & “Share” your answer on Facebook or our blog. Click Here for contest rules. “Inspiration Behind Handel’s Messiah” If Handel’s father had had his way, the “Hallelujah Chorus” would never have been written. His father was a “surgeon-barber,” a no-nonsense, practical man who was determined to send his son to law school. Even though Handel showed extraordinary musical talent as a child, his father refused for several years to permit him to take lessons. When Handel was eight or nine years old, a duke heard him play an organ postlude following a worship service. Handel’s father was summarily requested to provide formal music training for the boy. By the time Handel turned 12, he had written his first composition and was so proficient at the organ that he substituted, on occasion, for his own teacher. Young Handel continued to master the clavichord, oboe, and violin, as well as composition through the years. In 1702 he entered the University of Halle to study law out of respect for his late father’s desire. But he soon abandoned his legal studies and devoted himself entirely to music. He became a violinist and composer in a Hamburg opera theater, then worked in Italy from 1706 to 1710 under the patronage of their music-loving courts. In 1712, after a short stay at the court of Hanover, he moved to England, where he lived for the rest of his life. Handel set to work composing on August 22 in his little house on Brook Street in London. Handel never left his house for those three weeks. He did not get much sleep and fasted often. When his assistants brought him his meals, they were left uneaten as Handel was “almost in another world.” A friend who visited him as he composed found him sobbing with intense emotion. After he just finished writing the “Hallelujah Chorus”, Handel had tears streaming down his face. “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself.” Later, as Handel groped for words to describe what he had experienced, he quoted St. Paul, saying, “Whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it I know not.” Within six days Part One was complete. In nine days more he had finished Part Two, and in another six, Part Three. The orchestration was completed in another two days. In all, 260 pages of manuscript were filled in with remarkable speed in a short time of 24 days! Sir Newman Flower, one of Handel’s many biographers, summed up the consensus of history: “Considering the...
Read More5th Day Christmas Past Winner and Answer
Answer 5th Day Christmas Past Re-cast: Two boys shopped with gratitude by overlooking things they desired and buying gifts for the rest of their family instead. Congrats to 5th Day drawing winner, Susan Roberts, who won an Olive wood Nativity scene, Olive oil soap bar, Dead Sea lotion, and clay oil lamp – $40 value! Please contact MHA office 801-272-5601 or info@mormonheritage.com within 30 days to arrange for how to receive your prize. Story still available on yesterday’s...
Read More5th Day Christmas Past Question and Story
On the 5th Day of Christmas Past Re-cast… Question: Today’s “Light the World” is to show gratitude. How did two brothers go Christmas shopping with gratitude? To be entered into today’s daily giveaway & FREE tour drawing- Read the story below; “Comment” & “Share” your answer on Facebook or our blog. Click Here for contest rules. “The Christmas Shoppers” “The stores were bright with the glitter of Christmas and filled with exciting games and gadgets, and with warm and appealing clothing to tempt Timmy, age nine, and his seven-year-old brother Billy who, with Mr. Smith, were doing their Christmas shopping. They had gone from store to store, looking at many possible gifts and then always shaking their heads when a clerk asked if she could help them. Billy had almost bought a game he wanted, and Timmy had paused an unusually long time before a display of books, but after whispered consultation with each other, the boys had decided in each case to look further. Finally impatient, Mr. Smith asked, “Where would you suggest we look next?” He was a member of a club that each year helped to make Christmas happier for poor families. He had given Timmy and Billy each $4.00 and had taken them shopping for gifts they especially wanted. “Could we go to a shoe store, sir?” asked Timmy. “We’d like a pair of shoes for our dad. He hasn’t any to wear when he gets better and can go back to work.” When they reached the shoe store. Billy pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to Timmy, who smoothed a crumbled piece of brown paper before giving it to the clerk and explaining it was a pattern of their Dad’s foot. They had carefully drawn it while their father slept in a chair one evening. The clerk studied the pattern and then walked away. He returned in a few minutes, held out a box holding a pair of shoes, and asked, “Will these do?” The shoes were so beautiful that the boys almost held their breath. Then Timmy saw the price on the box. “We only have $8.00,” he said, disappointed, “and these shoes are $16.95.” The clerk cleared his throat. “They have been,” he answered, “but they’re on special today for Christmas gifts. They’ll cost you just $3.98, and you’ll have money left over for something for yourselves.” “Not for us,” the boys exclaimed, “but we can get something for our mother and our two little sisters. Thank you, oh, thank you, sir!” Over the boys’ heads, the clerk and Mr. Smith exchanged meaningful looks. But Timmy and Billy, filled with gratitude at being able to buy presents for the rest of the family, paid no attention to the men. They could hardly wait to finish their Christmas shopping.” Taken from: Reading, Lucille, “The Christmas Shoppers,” Children’s Friend, Dec 1969, p....
Read More4th Day Christmas Past Recast Winner and Answer
Answer 4th Day Christmas Past Re-cast: Joseph and the others found hope in Jesus Christ. Receiving hope through revelation that The Son of man descended below them all and can deliver them from anything. Congrats to 4th Day drawing winner, MaryEllen Jackman, who won a white Bethlehem Baby Blanket (made in Tel Aviv), Dead Sea lotion, Olive wood keepsake box, and embroidered clutch purse (Palestinian cultural design made by a Bedouin seamstress) -$55 value! Please contact MHA office 801-272-5601 or info@mormonheritage.com within 30 days to arrange for how to receive your prize. Story still available on yesterday’s...
Read More4th Day Christmas Past Question & Story
On the 4th Day of Christmas Past Re-cast… Question: Today’s “Light the World” is that Jesus’s birth brings hope. How did those imprisoned in Liberty Jail during Christmas find HOPE in their hopeless situation? To be entered into today’s daily giveaway & FREE tour drawing- Read the story below; “Comment” & “Share” your answer on Facebook or our blog. Click Here for contest rules. On December 1, 1838, the Prophet Joseph, his brother Hyrum, and several other brethren were imprisoned in Liberty Jail in Missouri on trumped-up charges of murder and overt acts of treason, none of which was ever proven against them. The Prophet and his companions found themselves in very difficult circumstances. Liberty Jail was a basement dungeon of approximately 14 feet by 14 feet with only a trapdoor entrance from the main floor. The ceiling was so low that the men couldn’t stand fully upright and were forced to sit or lie on the dirty, straw-covered floor, their legs shackled. There was no stove for heating, and when they used an open fire, inadequate venting caused the room to fill with smoke, which made breathing difficult. They had few blankets – certainly not enough to keep them warm in the freezing winter conditions – and the food was so bad they could hardly eat it. It was a difficult time. Joseph endured 5 months under these trying circumstances, including Christmas 1838. The prisoners had suffered a week in the jail when Emma brought her 6-year-old son, Joseph, to visit. Having no means by which to travel, Emma had borrowed a two-seat carriage and a “beautiful span of cream horses” to cover the 40 miles from Far West to Liberty. With her were Phoebe Rigdon and Phoebe’s young son, John. John remembered, “We started rather late in the morn and did not get to the jail til after dark and they would not let us go in till the next morn. After taking breakfast at the hotel we were taken to the jail and there remained for three days.” Emma was able to make a return visit on December 20, just before Christmas. In the midst of such dire circumstances, the prisoners were cheered by the presence of their loved ones. Joseph asked Emma if she could possibly bring some blankets for him. But the request reduced her to tears because the mob had recently attacked her home and destroyed all but two of her blankets. If she brought those to Joseph, then their children would go without. Emma’s visits were the closest the family got to a Christmas celebration that year. Within the walls of Liberty Jail, just a week before Christmas when Joseph was at his lowest, Baldwin scribed some of Joseph Smith’s most profound reflections in letters to the destitute Latter-day Saints. Joseph uttered the first words of what is now section 121 of the Doctrine and Covenants: “O God...
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