My View of Life on the Dock
Festive community countdown! 6 Candles lit. Temple Ahavat Achim, Middle Street, Gloucester, MA
Crowds arriving and assembling at Temple Ahavat Achim’s warm and sparkling community lighting, prayer song, jelly donut sufganiyot and pizza on 12/12/2023.
Photos: C. Ryan
Hanukkah falls between December 7th-15th, 2023. Temple Ahavat’s community lighting ceremony to mark the beautiful Festival of Lights and hope will be held on December 12th this season.
I’m reposting a photo from last week that showed how the Lobster Trap Menorah looked in the morning snow, and at night; also public menorahs on Main Street Gloucester and Rockport. Swing by to see a new candle lit daily after sundown.
Photos: Menorahs on Main Street Gloucester and Main Street Rockport
Gloucester neighborhoods are shining bright! There are some 350 houses on the 2022 map. The map is smart phone ready with house pictures. A little light goes a long and welcome warm way. It’s dark so early now!
New homes mapped on December 14th,16th, &18th cover some of Gloucester’s main roads, mostly in West Gloucester, Magnolia, and along Rt. 127. Enjoy scenes from:
(Scroll down to see photos. Pinch and zoom or double click depending upon your phone/desktop. On mine I double click and then have to select “Full size”. Scroll down to map.)
and buoy ornaments inside and out
Annual merry dazzler Rt. 133
Batch 1 photos and gifs published 12/5 here
Batch 2 photos and gifs 12/9 here
Batch 3 photos and gifs 12/13 here
100 more homes mapped as of December 9, 2022. New streets (and/or newly lit homes on previously mapped streets), especially in East Gloucester, include:
Abbott Road, Abbot Place (off Harrison), Bass Ave., Brightside Ave, Chapel St., Crestwood Terrace (off Harrison), Davis St., Decatur St., East Main St., Grapevine Road, Green St., Harrison Ave., Hartz, Haskell, High Popples, Jacques Lane, Mt. Pleasant Ave., Perkins St., Rocky Pasture Rd., Skywood Terrace (off Harrison), Witham
Finch Lane
Gloucester nearing 200 sparkling homes added to the map so far. Batch 2 (this post) streets include :Arthur Ct., Carlisle Ave., Cherry St., Cleveland St., Collins Ave, Doane Road, Essex Ave, Finch Lane, Gloucester Avenue, Honeysuckle Road, Lupine, Maplewood (near Poplar bend), Marchant, Millet St., Montvale Avenue, Mystic Ave., Reynard, Riverside Ave., Sargent St., Shore Hill Road, Riverside Ave., Thatcher, Thornhill Way, Thurston Point, Warner St., Washington St (at Piraino), Washington St. (near Capt. Hooks), Wheeler Street, Whittemore St.
First Batch streets: Centennial Drive, Cherry St (near O’Maley), Crestwood Ter. – Skywood Ter. (off harrison), Derby St., Elizabeth Road, Essex Ave / Rt. 133 (between Kent Circle and Little River), Fleetwood Dr., Friend Ct., Green St., Grove St &Colonial, Grove near Maplewood, Hampden & Gaffney, Hodgkin St., Lendall St off Harrison, Lupine Lane, Maplewood at Derby, corner Mt Vernon & Oak St, Perkins St., Poplar St., Reservoir Road, Reynard St., Spruce St., Starknaught, Washington St. (between Azorean and the rotary)
countdown clock – Millet St.
More to come. photos: c. ryan, Dec. 6, 2022. Click or pinch and zoom to enlarge.
It’s easy touring whether by car or via smartphone, desktop, or preferred device. Grab a hot chocolate and go or view from home! Imagination and themed repeat visits encouraged.
Notes about the map: This map is great in the embed mode because when you scroll down, each house photo(s) pop up, with a big arrow that directs you to that one point. From a desktop, hovering or right clicking the house icons reveal the photos for each pinpoint. For those who prefer a paper copy –which doubles as a seek and find sheet–click on the three vertical dots and then select “print” (horizontal mode best) from pull down menu. You can also google search Holiday Lights and Cocoa Drives Good Morning Gloucester.
2021 Map here
2020 Map here
Finch Lane twinkling tree, Thurston Point Rudolph with your nose so bright, Cleveland chatoyant
Tis’ the season of lights! Bright and colorful festivals of light illuminate dark nights heightening religious and secular celebrations and traditions around the world. October – February holidays include: Diwali, Bodhi Day, Lucia’s Day, Winter Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza, New Year’s, Lunar New Year, Teng Chieh, and many more.
Gloucester’s Lobster trap tree lighting 4:30pm culminates Gloucester’s enchanting Middle Street Walk (program here) all day 10-4:30pm! Holiday Delights 1pm at the Legion. https://middlestreetwalk.org/
Jul Fest Spiran Lodge, Rockport, MA 9am – 1pm
Temple Ahavat Achim’s Lobster trap menorah lighting – Hanukkah 18-26 — celebration Dec. 20 5:30-6pm
mini lobster trap tree – Finch Ln
first snow Dec. 8, 2020
December 22, 2019 the first light Temple Ahavat Achim Gloucester, Ma., 2019 – An additional (buoy) candle on the giant lobster trap menorah will be lit each night until full illumination on the 8th night.
Last Saturday was the final day of Hanukkah, and our Jewish community gathered to celebrate at the Temple! As a Roman Catholic priest, I am not Jewish of course, but I was invited to come along and had a great time (as well as learning a lot – but they will have to forgive me if I am inacurate in my terminology or description of the event…).
It started with some music by a band of members of the congregation, including traditional songs, dancing, and even some rap in Yiddish by David Wesson! Then some children (students of Henry Allen) presented a short play on “The Miracle of Hanukkah”.
Things got more serious with a commemoration of the fire that destroyed the previous temple building. However, the focus was positive. Carole Sharoff and Lou Goldish told how an elaborate and historic hanukiah (given by leaders of the state of Israel to the American embassador in the 1960’s), was saved from the fire by being kept an extra day or two in the Unitarian Universalist church to which it had been lent. Wendy Betts, a very talented performer, then sang a selection from the work “Voices”.
Rabbi Steven Lewis gave a brief and very interesting “D’var Torah” – a commentary on the festival, based on the Torah and commentaries. (I used some of what he said in my homily at Mass the next day, giving due credit to the Rabbi, of course). The ceremonies ended with the lighting of everyone’s hanukiot (a.k.a. menorah) that they had brought from home, starting with the aforementioned historic one. Then we all ate latkes, jelly donuts, and other finger food!
A few photo highlights are included below. For more photos, click on the thumbnails below.
Here are some highlights:
And although Hanukkah is over, here is a great Hanukkah song:
And don’t forget:
Urban Voices: A Choral Music Initiative from the Metropolitan Opera Guild
This program is made possible by a generous gift from the Popplestone Foundation.
On the last day of Hanukkah, I had the privilege of participating in a Hanukkah party at the Temple Ahavat Achim. I haven’t had time to get all the photos ready yet, but here’s one to give you a taste of the evening. More will be forthcoming. Here, the members of the congregation are lighting the candles of the menorahs they brought from home.
On Friday night I taught these four holiday decorations at The Hive. From top to bottom: a relatively simple Santa, a star-like ornament, a menorah, and a modular cube (made from six modules, each folded from a square of paper, and joined together without glue).
The origami class time for Tuesday at Art Haven is going to have to change from the 6:30 time slot I mentioned before, but I don’t have the details worked out yet. I will put up the info as soon as I have it.
Help us decorate Gloucester’s first (annual?) origami Christmas (or “Fishmas”) tree with 1000 origami fish!
For years, people have been decorating Christmas trees with origami for public display in cities around the world. For example, New York City has two famous origami-decorated trees every year: one in the American Museum of Natural History, and another in the Japan Airlines offices on 5th Avenue. I met with David Brooks of Art Haven and The Hive, and he loved the idea of doing one here in Gloucester! The current plan is to display it in the front window of The Hive on Pleasant Street.
Our project has two special characteristics. First, we are making the whole thing – tree included – out of origami. It’s not the first time it’s been done, but it’s not so common! Secondly, we want it to be Gloucester-themed, so it will be decorated with origami fish. This honors both Gloucester’s spirit and history as a fishing port, and the ancient Christian tradition in which the fish is a symbol of Christ, whose birth we celebrate at Christmas.
We want to get as many people involved as possible. In the spirit of the Japanese tradition of folding 1000 origami cranes, we are aiming for 1000 fish, so, we need a lot of help! Come to The Hive on Saturday, starting at 10AM, to help us fold origami
fish! We are folding a specific origami fish model – the “Twist Fish” by Gay Merrill Gross (from her book Minigami). It’s very easy to fold. I will be there teaching for a few hours, and I will teach a few other people so they can teach others when I’m not there. We will have plain paper at The Hive that you can use, but you can bring your own paper too if you want to use fancier origami paper. (You can get paper at Island Art and Hobby on Main Street, or at other art and craft stores.) Also, you can decorate the fish after you fold it – draw a face or scales, paint it bright colors, or whatever!
The tree itself is already in production. I spent several hours yesterday folding with David Brooks and Mary Ann DeLouise to get our origami conifer off the ground:
Plus, next week I will be teaching two classes on origami holiday decorations! We will fold Christmas and Hanukkah themed models and geometric decorations (the variety of models depends on how we do for time). Folding materials will be supplied.
I will try to post a more detailed menu of models I hope we can fold.
Good Morning Gloucester 