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b'In this Advent Special of the Foreign Policy ProvCast, Mark Melton speaks with Walter Russell Mead about his annual Yule Blog series, which begins on Christmas Eve and runs through Epiphany on January 6. Mead explains that he originally created the Yule Blog several years ago because Americans have forgotten so much about the holiday\\u2019s religious grounding and message. While the series covers a range of topics over 14 days, Melton and Mead focus on two: first, Mead analyzes the role of Mary in the New Testament and the early church; then he talks about what Jesus\\u2019 Jewish identity and love of his people means for Christians\\u2019 love of their country and home, and what it means that Jesus was able to reach out to people from other nations while still loving his own. They conclude by offering a message of what Christmas means in a year that the COVID-19 pandemic has scarred. Particularly, Mead explains that this year, when many are celebrating the holiday away from family, the separation should remind us that the heart of the Christmas holiday isn\\u2019t about those gatherings or events, but about the birth of Jesus Christ. \\u201cSo what we\\u2019re going to live through this year, is Christmas stripped down to the basics, and that may be a way to get in touch as never before with this eruption of meaning into a dark history.\\u201d\\n\\nTo read the Yule Blog over the Twelve Days of Christmas, be sure to visit the website here: https://providencemag.com/category/the-yule-blog/\\n\\nWalter Russell Mead is a professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College, the Distinguished Scholar in American Strategy and Statesmanship for the Hudson Institute. Global view columnist at the Wall Street Journal.\\n\\nMark Melton is the managing editor of Providence.'