Newsletter 22 December
Important Dates
- Annual Leave
Alexia will be on annual leave from the close of business Friday 24 December and will be returning on Tuesday 4 January. During office hours Hester Canterbury will be staffed by our General Manager of Community Services – Helen Brightman. - Meal Orders
The 27 & 28 of December and 3 of January are Public Holidays and there will be NO staff on duty; if you have ordered meals please do not forget to collect them after 4:30pm from the Hester Canterbury kitchen fridge. - Wednesday, 19 January
Carpet cleaners will be on site to clean all the carpets in all common areas on all levels of Hester Canterbury. Please see more details in House keeping.
Hester Newsletter 22 December
Housekeeping Notices
- Usually when carpet contractors are on site to clean the carpets in the common areas residents are given the option if you would like to have your apartment carpets cleaned at your expense. As this is the first time we are employing these contractors, it has been decided to see what the standard of their results are before this extra service is offered. As a follow up to one of the subject discussed in the recent Hester Canterbury Annual General Meeting there will be 2 scheduled demonstrations to show residents how to manually open the Hester Canterbury garage gate if needed. The first will be held at 10:30am Wednesday 15 December and the second will be held at 10:30am Tuesday 21 December. All welcome.
- During the Christmas/New Year period there will not be a weekly newsletter The first newsletter for 2022 will be available on Wednesday 12 January. Please note no new meal orders will be taken until the week beginning January 3.
- Tim, Rebecca, Giovanni and Alexia would like to thank you for your kindness and thoughtfulness concerning the staff Christmas gifts – we are all truly touched and appreciative of them.
- The Board of Directors, Executive Management and all the staff at BASScare would like to extend the best of the Festive Season to you all, and a healthy and happy 2022.
Week Three of the Summer Menu starts on Monday 27 December.
Please place any orders by lunchtime the Thursday before.
Bon Appetit!
The Story behind the Christmas Carol “Silent Night”….
The song’s lyrics were originally written in German just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars by a young Austrian priest named Joseph Mohr.
In the fall of 1816, Mohr’s congregation in the town of Mariapfarr was reeling. Twelve years of war had decimated the country’s political and social infrastructure. Meanwhile the previous year was dubbed “The Year Without a Summer” and had been catastrophically cold causing crops failed and there was widespread famine. Mohr’s congregation was poverty- stricken, hungry and traumatized. So he crafted a set of six poetic verses to convey hope that there was still a God who cared. Mohr, a gifted violinist and gifted violinist and guitarist, could have probably composed the music for his poem. Instead he sought help from a friend.
In 1817, Mohr transferred to the parish of St. Nicholas in the town of Oberndorf, just south of Salzburg. There, he asked his friend Franz Gruber, a local school teacher and organist to write the music for the six verses.
On Christmas Eve, 1818 the two friends sang “Silent Night” together for the first time in front of Mohr’s congregation with Mohr playing his guitar.
The song was apparently well received by Mohr’s parishioners, most of whom worked as boat builders and shippers in the salt trade that was central to the economy of the region.
The song became popular across Europe, at the same time, German speaking missionaries spread the song from Tibet to Alaska, by the mid 19th century “Silent Night” had even made its way to subarctic Innuit communities.
Perhaps no time in the song’s history was the song’s message more important than The Christmas Truce of 1914, when at the height of World War One, German and British soldiers on the front lines in Flanders, lay down their weapons on Christmas Eve and together sang “Silent Night”.
The song’s fundamental message of peace, even in the midst of suffering, has bridged cultures and generations. Great music does this, speaking of hope in hard times and offer comfort and solace. It is inherently human and infinitely adaptable.