Epiphany - Giveaway

Today is the Feast of Epiphany and so I thought it was a very good day to offer a few gifts of my own. Although may I  ask you kindly to enter if you are a regular follower of my blog or comment regularly. Sorry to put this restriction on the giveaway,  but I do want those who genuinely would like to win the shuttle to enter and not people who try their chance for the sake of it.   So please comment if you would like to win the pop-a-bobbin shuttle and the box at the same time adding your favourite all time gift, but it has to be an object and not a person!

The shuttle is made from plum cherry and this is what it looked like before it was worked upon.  Also the shuttle is unvarnished, sometimes this helps to show up the colours better. However, there are times times when the varnish enhances the grain.  Now the other side of the shuttle.

Last night I went to a 'Pies and Punch' evening to celebrate Epiphany and won this oil  diffuser, for those unfamiliar you place the sticks in it and they absorb the fragrance contained in the oil and make the room smell nice.  In front you can see a couple of bags with frankincense and myrrh and a gold decorated star.

There are many traditions associated with Twelve Night, Epiphany Eve (The first night of Christmas is December 25–26, and Twelfth Night is January 5–6), in England it was a time for mumming and the wassail. The yule log was left burning until this day, and the charcoal left was kept until the next Christmas to kindle next year's yule log, as well as to protect the house from fire and lightning.   

The Irish call Epiphany Little Christmas or "Women's Christmas" (Irish: Nollaig na mBan). On the feast of the Three Kings the women of Ireland in times gone by had a bit of rest and celebration for themselves, after the cooking and work of the Christmas holidays.

Another tradition at Christmas is hanging mistletoe, as seen in my previous post. In ancient times whenever enemies met under the mistletoe in the forest, they had to lay down their arms and observe a truce until the next day. From this has seemingly come the ancient custom of hanging a ball of mistletoe from the ceiling and exchanging kisses under it as a sign of friendship and goodwill. The picture shows mistletoe growing on a tree next to one of the churches, you can just see a part of the building at the bottom right hand side.

So my friendship and goodwill is to offer you the shuttle and box and you have until Friday 11th January to leave a comment (which happens to be the same day as the start of Jane's TIAS).  I will then announce the winner (using a random number generator) sometime over the weekend.  I must also add that this is my 250th blog post.  So the best of luck to all my friends near or far.