It is a season of fasting and of almsgiving, of denying our own appetites as we attend more consciously to the needs of others -- and this, even as we descend into serious interior work.
Such was the origin of Christmas almsgiving: gifts for the poor, not just gifts for our friends.
Earning a place in heaven usually requires meritorious activity, such as almsgiving, caring for the sick, performing sacrifices or other sacramental rites pleasing to the heavenly powers, exhibiting heroic virtue as a warrior, ascetic, or martyr, or enduring great suffering.
The rebels enforced the "zakat" form of almsgiving under Islamic law, taking one goat for every five camels held by a family, for example.
He made the care of the poor an organized, civic obligation by proposing that a common chest be put in every German town; rather than skimp along with the traditional practice of almsgiving to the needy and deserving native poor, Luther proposed that they receive grants, or loans, from the chest.
Then, beginning on Clean Monday (so named because it ushers in a period of strict fasting) and lasting for 40 days in addition to the Holy Week, Orthodox Christians are invited to transform themselves through ascesis, through almsgiving, through forgiveness, through repentance and through prayer.
For it's these early morning excursions that yield incredible moments like watching the dawn almsgiving to a silent procession of burgundy-robe clad monks, or catching what has to be one of the world's best sunrises in Bagan, where the darkness lifts to reveal a landscape of delicate silhouettes and a sky full of hot air balloons.
The holiday has its roots in Catholicism, which encourages donations to the poor, or "almsgiving" around Christmas time.
Likewise, while Muslims are encouraged to give charitable acts and almsgiving in every month, they especially donate more of their time and money to worthy causes locally, nationally, and internationally.
It is also the time for Zakat, which means almsgiving.
Then Isis diwans (departments for health, complaints, preaching and mosques, education, almsgiving, hisbah and services) were established.
