BY ANN E. KEATING
Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church is having an Epiphany Sale and Celebration on Friday, January 26th and Saturday, January 27th from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm as we vacate our historic church at 725 East 25th Street.
Come wander the rooms and reminisce. Pick through the books, take home a poster or a hymnal. Sit in the sanctuary one more time and listen to our wonderful organ.
I am sure you will meet many of your old friends. Refreshments and places to sit and visit will be provided where you can share memories with each other.
Check out the archives, maybe you would like to take home our bowling trophy from 1950 or a really old Bible. See the wedding dress of the first bride married at Messiah. Look at the photographs and find members of your family or maybe even one of your friends. They probably will look a little younger.
Have you always wanted a church pew? This will be your chance to buy one. There is always a need for a folding chair for that special occasion. They are available for sale too.
All these items and many more will be available at bargain prices.
For those who would like to do so, an opportunity to share your nostalgia, your memories and have them videoed and recorded for posterity will be made available so they, too, can be stored in our archive room and shared with future generations.
* Definition of Nostalgia is a sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word nostalgia is learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning “homecoming”, a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning “pain” or “ache”, and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Described as a medical condition””a form of melancholy””in the Early Modern period, it became an important trope in Romanticism.
Nostalgia is associated with a wistful yearning for the past, its personalities, and events, especially the “good old days” or a “warm childhood”.
Smell and touch are strong evokers of nostalgia due to the processing of these stimuli first passing through the amygdala, the emotional seat of the brain. These recollections of one”'s past are usually important events, people one cares about, and places where one has spent time. Music and weather[ can also be strong triggers of nostalgia. Nostalgic preferences, the belief that the past was better than the present, has been linked to biases in memory.
**Definition of epiphany
On January 6 Epiphany is observed as a church festival in commemoration of the coming of the Magi as the first manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles or in the Eastern Church in commemoration of the baptism of Christ; 2: an appearance or manifestation especially of a divine being; 3a (1) : a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something (2) : an intuitive grasp of reality through something (such as an event) usually simple and striking(3) : an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure b : a revealing scene or moment.
