#givingbacks

[lesorciercanadien]

La Chandeleur

Candlemas, or La Chandeleur as it is known in French-speaking Catholic communities, starts on the evening of February 1st into February 2nd. It commemorates Jesus's presentation at the Temple (Luke 2:22-40) as the Light of the World.

The Blessed Candle

This time of year is full of light festivals all over the world. For Acadians, la Chandeleur is celebrated with the blessing of a candle at church at 8am, and bringing it home to in turn bless the home.

The blessed candle is kept at the parents' bedside, or on a tiny shelf in the kitchen. It would be lit during big storms, as a foil to lightning, during periods of illness, a hard childbirth, and when a death occurs in the house. When a priest would visit the house to provide communion to a sick parishioner, the candle would be lit and carried to guide the priest to the ailing person's bedside, and the same rite would apply to the final rites of a dying person. The flame remains lit during the wake. The candle is also lit during Marial devotions during the month of May. If healing is prayed for during a novena, it also doesn't hurt to light this candle.

Once those candles are blessed, the master of the home is to bring the lit candle to every corner of the house to bless it with its light. They would also bring this light to the barn and the fields for blessings. Many families boast of a special candle holder just for this candle.

On Prince Edward Island, pieces of this candle's wax were also brought aboard on fishing boats along with woven palm fronds, and were meant to keep the fisherman safe during storms at sea.

Acadian Candle Blessing

"Daignez bénir et sanctifier ces cierges pour notre usage, pour la santé des corps et des âmes, sur terre comme sur mer."

"May these candles be blessed and sanctified for our use, for the health of our bodies and souls, on land as on the sea."

Chandeleur Crêpes

It's also a crêpe-making day!!! On the eve of this holiday (Feb.1), families would make crêpes for dinner, often using the last of last year's flour. This stems from medieval France, when peasants would use the previous year's flour (most likely their only flour left) to ensure the next year's harvest would be bountiful. It is tradition in Acadie to have every member of the household flip their own crêpe, to determine if a successful flip would grant them luck for the year. Some families even kept a piece of the crêpe in their cupboard all year long to ward off bad luck.

Crêpe recipe

One cup white flour

1 1/4 cup of milk

1/2 tsp of salt

1 cup of freshly fallen snow, compacted (nowadays, I wouldn't recommend it. Snow falls on the ground polluted. It used to be a common ingredient in Acadian and Quebecois cooking. You can skip it and the recipe would still turn out fine.)

Frying grease or vegetable shortening, or butter for the pan.

Serve with molasses or grated maple sugar.

A Season of Giving

It is also a time in Acadian villages where folks would go around and ask for donations to their local food banks or church soup kitchen service. They would parade with a tall staff with a rooster figure on top (called a chief's cane) and with each donation, a ribbon is added to the stick. In the evening, when the village would gather for a community potluck, people could reclaim their ribbons from the rooster staff. Festivities of fiddle playing, dancing and merriment were in order in most homes and community centres.

Acadian communities like Chéticamp and other small Acadian hamlets still celebrate to this day!

Ideas for Anyone Far from a Community

Seeing as I don't live in an Acadian community sadly, here are some ideas of things I can do, and maybe you can do too, to celebrate today!

Make crêpes and perform the best flip! Your luck depends on it!

Bless your own candle with holy water, parade it to every corner of your home.

Create a chief's cane, and plant it in your front yard. With every donation you accept for a food bank or other charitable effort, add a ribbon, heck, ask your neighbours and friends to participate!

Organize a potluck!

Use the wax from the candle to bless the lintel post of your doors, or other objects you wish to bless.

Bonus photo: Moonshadow blocking my holiday book's Chandeleur page and refusing to move.

Source

Georges Arsenault. La Chandeleur en Acadie. Editions la Grande Marée. 2011.

Painting

La Chandeleur. Painting by Camille Cormier, painted in 1984. Oil on canvas. Coll. Musée Acadien, Moncton University. Acq. 1986-17.

[adafruit]

Giving Tuesday – KiCad open-source design #GivingTuesday 💻🔧🌍❤️🤝

KiCad is an open-source software suite for electronic design automation (EDA), enabling users to design schematics and printed circuit boards (PCBs). KiCad is a great, free, open tool for creating complex designs, from hobbyist projects to professional-grade hardware. As an open-source initiative, KiCad promotes accessibility and collaboration, making advanced EDA tools freely available. Supporting KiCad helps the development of features, bug fixes, and community-driven improvements, empowering engineers, educators, and hobbyists worldwide. Consider donating to KiCad to strengthen the open-source hardware community and help make high-quality EDA tools accessible to everyone.

In the past year, they posted this nifty chart that shows what your support can help accomplish.

If KiCad is valuable to you, please consider donating to help make it even better.

[slaterdevil]

Hello fwends it’s Slater. So in 12 days is my birthday and instead of receiving gifts I’ll be giving. So during the 12 days I’ll be drawing chibi’s of as many artists, animators and inspirators that I love and adore even if I don’t get to everyone on time I’ll still be doing it after my birthday as a show of thanks for being you and amazing at what you do. ❤️

[gracead]

Kindly Help in this case: Major car accident and struggling

https://gofund.me/7a379391

Hi. My name is Rayne. I live in Perth, Australia, and am a single mum to four beautiful children. Life is hard as it is but things just got so much harder. https://gofund.me/7a379391

I was involved in a very serious, high-impact car accident. I have been on pain medication since the accident. My back spasms constantly, and I cannot move my head. It is awful. Life has changed a lot in a very short time. I have tried to return to work but I end up dizzy, in pain and unable to walk the next day. https://gofund.me/7a379391

The cost of repairs is 20K and the cost of medical expenses is at 5K, at this stage. I need the car to get back to work ASAP. I am very fortunate that my workplace will switch my role until I am well again. I am therefore asking for help, which I have never done since I moved out of home at the age of 14.

Rayne and her 4 little munchkins. (Who are not so little anymore.)

[1genofficial]

100+ lives transformed in 10 days with only $10 through the 10-10-10 Campaign!

Our team made it happen, and your kindness fueled lasting impact, one small action at a time. Thank you for being part of this incredible journey!

From empowering young minds to warming hearts, these stories prove that kindness knows no bounds.

Let’s continue making a difference together!

[megajoyfultimemachinestudent]

Inspirational Moment

When last have you hugged yourself real tight knowing everything was going to be alright?

You are more than enough

So step into your magnificent self today

NDC❤️🙏🏾❤️

[canadianmoneytalk]

Video: Non-Financial Considerations prior to Retirement

Retiring is a significant #life #transition, and considering #non-financial #factors is just as important as #financial #planning. Here are some key aspects to think about: #Health and #Wellness, #Social #Connections, #Purpose and #Fulfillment, #Routine and #Structure, #Housing and #Living #Arrangements, #Personal #Growth and #Education, and #Legacy and #Givingback. By considering these…

[the-danis]

https://t.co/Q8BIqeJtkj

Help me out!

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[shanghaibuhay]

We are not only to be thankful one day a year; it can be an attitude we carry with us every single day. But Thanksgiving is really just about being thankful, and enjoying one another—not something that requires a holiday to do. When we begin to treat each day as a chance to acknowledge the positive, express gratitude towards those around us, and contribute in small manners, we embody Thanksgiving throughout the entire year.

What if every single day you woke up and took a moment to think about what your thankful for, the same way that you might around a Thanksgiving table? Those few silent seconds every day, albeit intermittent, will gradually adjust your mindset — you become more conscious of the positives. The gift of gratitude could be given anytime during the year instead of waiting until Thanksgiving, when we share our thankfulness with coworkers, friends and family.

Every day Thanksgiving could look like noticing the small gifts of life more often; a sunny morning, a nice cup of coffee, A stranger’s kindness or simply someone to talk with. And when we share good deeds—like offering a compliment, assisting someone out, or being of service to volunteer—we continue the spirit of Thanksgiving alive in each house.

Thanksgiving as a holiday may only come once a year, but the spirit of Thanksgiving is close at hand throughout the year. As we infuse gratitude and generosity into our daily lives, we are designing for ourselves an everyday Thanksgiving — it just so happens that this season is ripe for those traditions.

[adafruit]

Giving Tuesday – Sponsoring on GitHub… Debian, Ubuntu, PHP packaging … #GivingTuesday 💻📦

If you're on GitHub and see that your favorite open-source code, tools, or packages have a sponsorship for the developer, please consider doing it today.

We (Adafruit) sponsored oerdnj on GitHub, and we get a massive benefit from Ondřej Surý, who maintains Debian and Ubuntu packages that allow installing multiple versions of PHP. This includes backporting security updates to PHP7.4 and PHP8.0, which are no longer officially supported by the PHP.net folks.

OR! Check out Ondřej Surý's Patreon -

==

Join a worldwide celebration of generosity – GivingTuesday is an opportunity for people worldwide to come together through generosity in all its forms by sharing acts of kindness and giving their voice, time, money, goods, and advocacy to support communities and causes. More about Giving Tuesday on their site – https://www.givingtuesday.org/

The posts on Adafruit and its social media are resources, groups, causes, organizations, and more from the Adafruit team and community.

Since we’re in the techy and maker circles, we’ll spotlight many charities and open-source efforts.

The posts are not sponsored in any way. Adafruit provides paid time off for charity for all team members all year. We also want to thank the Adafruit team for the biggest gift one can give: their time. Many posts are about the charities, groups, and organizations in which the Adafruit team participates.

This year, we are getting the word out about ones we have not covered before, so don’t worry if you don’t see a previous one here!

Check the past and present posts on Adafruit with the #GivingTuesday tag.

[jimmied333]

make a donation get a free vacation https://gofund.me/e25a9ab7

choose from 8 exotic destinations when you make a donation today

[1genofficial]

Small Contributions, Big Impact – The 10.10.10 Initiative by 1GEN

🌟 Can $10 change the world? At 1GEN, we believe it can! That’s the idea behind the 10.10.10 Initiative. It shows how small efforts, when combined, can make a big difference.

🚀 How Does It Work? It’s simple:

$10 investment 10 days of action 10x impact, helping 10 lives It’s not about the money—it’s about using your creativity and compassion to make a meaningful change in the lives of others. 🔑 What We Accomplished in 2024 Last year, we came together to make a real difference: 🏡 Helping Women in Need: At the Mother Teresa Home, we delivered groceries and care packages to support women going through tough times. 🏋️‍♂️ Helping Kids Stay Active: We gave yoga mats and gym equipment to kids at Pingalwara, helping them stay healthy and fit. 🌳 Protecting Nature and Supporting Schools: We planted trees in Ludhiana for a greener city and provided clean water filters to schools in Assam to keep kids healthy.

Caring for Stray Animals: We helped stray dogs and cats by giving them medical care and vaccinations. Building Skills for a Better Future: A domestic worker received a sewing machine to start her own small business. Supporting Seniors: We gave wheelchairs to seniors and people with disabilities to improve their mobility and independence. 🌟 Why It Works This initiative shows how small actions and teamwork can make a big impact. It’s about inspiring each other to create positive change. 💡 Join Us in 2025! Be part of the 10.10.10 Initiative and experience how small actions can lead to extraordinary results. Together, we can create a kinder, better world—one step at a time. 👉 Ready to make a difference? Let’s do it together!

👉 Learn More About the 10.10.10 Initiative

[soweroftheword]

Your Reaping Is In Proportion To Your Sowing

We are encouraged to give to fellow believers who are in need and we will reap according to our giving, whether little or much.