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Mar. 31st, 2002 10:56 pmMarch 30, 2002
Busyish day.
Did some cleaning work around the house, then took part in what is, as far as I can grab, a very Polish Catholic custom: I got our food blessed. Some explanation is necessary here, I think: On Holy Saturday (the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday), you gather all the food for the Easter feast (usually in a basket-we use our only-used-once-a-year-for-exactly-this-occasion picnic basket) and take it to the church to have it blessed by the priest. Thus in this way is all your food for the year blessed. It's an absurd little thing, but I kind of enjoy it (for one thing, it makes the church smell (pardon the term) heavenly). There's a blessing for each category of food, and every year I usually end up forgetting something. This year's basket was:
Ham
Fresh and smoked kielbasa
Rye bread (lamentably, not homemade-I plan to correct that next year)
Polish sweet bread, known as paska
Four eggs, hard-boiled and dyed
Salt
An orange (representing fruits and vegetables)
A butter lamb
Candy (this year, a tray of Marshmallow Peeps)
Horseradish (this year, Manischewitz)
A bottle of wine (this year, an imported (German?) red)
Like I said, there was a blessing for each, after which the priest came around and sprinkled everyone's basket with holy water. The whole thing's not much more than superstition (though not as much as St. Blaise's Day), but I find it charming.
After that, there was some downtime during which I visited with people who'd just rolled back home from a week-long nearly-spontaneous road trip; they had fun and brought me back a deck of cards purchased at the Jack Daniel's plant in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Then came the other big churchy thing of the day: every year, M and I attend the Easter vigil mass at the nearby Benedictine abbey. It's well, it's two and a half hours of bells and smells is what it is. There are many readings, chanting, incense, candles (distributed to the crowd, and by the end of the night, mine was little more than a puddle of wax on the surface of the piece of cardboard used to protect my hand).
You're probably wondering why I, who have often professed my lack of faith, so willingly attend these very Catholic events: domestic tranquility. If I were to try to dodge them in some manner, it would make my life at home very difficult indeed. And some of the things are kind of cool-remember, I love ceremonies. On top of all that, it's a good time to collect thoughts-forced silence is wonderful for that.
Finally, after I got out of Mass, I saw "Panic Room", directed by David Fincher. And, as was mentioned in mass (Gen 1:31) "indeed, it was very good". Look for a full review elsewhere.
Yeah, I put off writing this for a long time-I figured no one would be reading it on the day of, anyway.
Today's Link Of The Day is, simply, proof that the Bad World can get out into the establishment sometimes. http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/record/02rs/HR256.htm
JHR
3/31/2002 10:53 PM
Busyish day.
Did some cleaning work around the house, then took part in what is, as far as I can grab, a very Polish Catholic custom: I got our food blessed. Some explanation is necessary here, I think: On Holy Saturday (the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday), you gather all the food for the Easter feast (usually in a basket-we use our only-used-once-a-year-for-exactly-this-occasion picnic basket) and take it to the church to have it blessed by the priest. Thus in this way is all your food for the year blessed. It's an absurd little thing, but I kind of enjoy it (for one thing, it makes the church smell (pardon the term) heavenly). There's a blessing for each category of food, and every year I usually end up forgetting something. This year's basket was:
Ham
Fresh and smoked kielbasa
Rye bread (lamentably, not homemade-I plan to correct that next year)
Polish sweet bread, known as paska
Four eggs, hard-boiled and dyed
Salt
An orange (representing fruits and vegetables)
A butter lamb
Candy (this year, a tray of Marshmallow Peeps)
Horseradish (this year, Manischewitz)
A bottle of wine (this year, an imported (German?) red)
Like I said, there was a blessing for each, after which the priest came around and sprinkled everyone's basket with holy water. The whole thing's not much more than superstition (though not as much as St. Blaise's Day), but I find it charming.
After that, there was some downtime during which I visited with people who'd just rolled back home from a week-long nearly-spontaneous road trip; they had fun and brought me back a deck of cards purchased at the Jack Daniel's plant in Lynchburg, Tennessee.
Then came the other big churchy thing of the day: every year, M and I attend the Easter vigil mass at the nearby Benedictine abbey. It's well, it's two and a half hours of bells and smells is what it is. There are many readings, chanting, incense, candles (distributed to the crowd, and by the end of the night, mine was little more than a puddle of wax on the surface of the piece of cardboard used to protect my hand).
You're probably wondering why I, who have often professed my lack of faith, so willingly attend these very Catholic events: domestic tranquility. If I were to try to dodge them in some manner, it would make my life at home very difficult indeed. And some of the things are kind of cool-remember, I love ceremonies. On top of all that, it's a good time to collect thoughts-forced silence is wonderful for that.
Finally, after I got out of Mass, I saw "Panic Room", directed by David Fincher. And, as was mentioned in mass (Gen 1:31) "indeed, it was very good". Look for a full review elsewhere.
Yeah, I put off writing this for a long time-I figured no one would be reading it on the day of, anyway.
Today's Link Of The Day is, simply, proof that the Bad World can get out into the establishment sometimes. http://www.lrc.state.ky.us/record/02rs/HR256.htm
JHR
3/31/2002 10:53 PM
