Chinese New Year is fast approaching and with it, the year of the Dragon! The Chinese New Year is always an amazing spectacle but this year it will be better than ever as 2012 is the year of the Dragon and the lucky colour is yellow.

As the Chinese saying goes…Yellow generates Yin and Yang, implying that yellow/gold is the center of everything. In Chinese culture, yellow/gold aslo signifies good luck!

Why not purchase a Gold St Christopher Pendant this year to wish you good luck on your travels in 2012? Hung on a 9ct gold chain the Gold St Chrsitopher Pendants look superb and are a great trinket to take with you on your travels.

To beat the Christmas rush, we recommend that you make your purchases as soon as possible to ensure delivery before Christmas. The last dates for posing for Christmas are:

UK
Tue 20th December – 12 noon – First Class and Recorded Signed For™
Thu 22nd December – 12 noon – Special Delivery™
Thu 22nd December – 12 noon – Special Delivery™ with Saturday Guarantee

International Airmail
Mon 5th December – 12 noon – South & Central America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East, Asia, Far East (including Japan), Australia and New Zealand
Fri 9th December – 12 noon – Eastern Europe, USA and Canada
Mon 12th December – 12 noon – Western Europe

Special Delivery™
Thu 22nd December – 12 noon – Special Delivery™
Thu 22nd December – 12 noon – Special Delivery™ with Saturday Guarantee

British Forces Post Office (BFPO)
Fri 2nd December – 12 noon – Airmail to Operational BFPOs
Thu 15th December – 12 noon – Airmail to Static BFPOs

At St Christopher Pendants, we only sell the finest .925 sterling silver rosary, with some designs incorporating semi-precious beads including black onyx and goldstone, purple amethyst, faux pearls and striking turquoise.    

Many rosary beads will be made with a material of special significance – for example enclosing a sacred relic or drops of holy water. Blessed rosary beads is a Sacramental.

Rosaries can also be made in other forms for ease of use, such as a ring with ten knobs and a crucifix or a bracelet with ten beads and cross or medal.

Well, they are Catholics devotions used to help prayer and meditation although they are also used in similar forms in other religions including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.  Each bead in the rosary is used to count prayers in sequence, allowing you to keep tracks of how many times you have said a particular prayer.  This is argued to help you focus on the prayer itself and allow you to meditate more effectively.  Counting prayers can be traced back to the 11^th and 12^th century in Western cultures, when people would carry pebbles and stones in their pockets to count with.  It should also be noted the making of prayer beads can traced even earlier in Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam.

Why ‘Rosary’?  Some trace the word ‘rosary’ back to the Romans and their travels to India from the Latin word rosarium meaning rose garden or galand of roses, and the term bead appears to come from the Saxon ‘bede’, which means prayer.

For Roman Catholics, the rosary refers both to the string of beads said as well as the prayers said using them. Particular beads correspond to a particular prayer and therefore the string of beads are put together is in a very specific and considered order.

Typically, there will be a crucifix, one larger bead, three smaller beads (faith, hope and charity), another larger and then a medal.  After the medal will be one larger bead again followed by 10 smaller beads. Around the chain, there are 5 sets of 10 small beads and 1 larger bead.

One large bead followed by a set of 10 small beads is called a decade, and each decade represents one particular prayer set.  The Apostle’s Creed followed by Our Father and Hail Mary is recited whilst holding the crucifix. A more complex Hail Mary is recited whilst holding the medal.

Black Rosary Bead

The rosary is part of the Catholic veneration of Mary, heavily promoted by many popes and most notably ‘The Rosary Pope’ – Leo XIII.  Devotion to the Rosary is a very notable feature of Catholic spirituality, and it was named ‘the finest and most praiseworthy traditions of Christian contemplation’ by Pope John Paul II.  In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI declared a new ‘springtime’ for the Rosary – and the resurgence of their popularity is evident in their adoption by the high street and celebrity culture.