Interlude

Ever have one of those days when you wake up and just feel like it's going to be a bad day? You know, when you are in a bad mood for no good reason and it's really not a bad day... Just asking. I've got a bunch of non-related stuff to talk about today, so for your viewing pleasure, try to keep up.

Firs I come to the significance of the day... that is, the day after easter. On easter I read a good many facebook posts that questioned the origins and significances of the day. Many of the suppositions were dreadfully wrong (sorry, Americans did not invent easter) and others were reasonably far off. So to start I wanted to set some things straight. There is a reason that bunnies and eggs are connected to easter, and that it falls in the time of year that it does. Easter is a complicated day to calculate calendar wise as it moves around (the first sunday following the full moon after passover or some such similar method). The human ritual class I took equated easter to what was at one time a Norse fertility holiday based on the phases of the moon (as most norse times of year are either based on the phases of the sun or moon). The fertility link ties in eggs and bunnies quite well (think about it) and like many things pagan, got absorbed and replaced by a Christianized event (resurrection of Christ).

Irony of Easter: In my vast and varied studies of human folk practices I came across a great irony that I'm surprised I have never heard brought up. I'm gonna get a bit religious here for a sec, forgive me. So crucifixion was theoretically invented around 600bc by northern Mediterranean peoples as a means of sacrifice. Originally intended to please the gods of the harvest (possible practices directed to a proto-ceres deity) for "good luck" in the harvest year to come. The person chosen for crucifixion was normally a young male or female virgin (as the sacrifice had to be pure to please the gods) and although it was an honor to be the sacrifice it was also a curse. The sacrifice, in a sense, gave up their life (unknown if this was fully willingly) for the greater good of the population. Originally crucifixion would bind (possibly with ropes before nails) the sacrifice to a crossed timber (note the word cruc, crux which is latin for cross or X) above the ground. The person would be bound there alive until they died of exposure to the elements which normally took place within a week's time (possibly death from dehydration first, its hard to tell for reasons that I'll explain next). The sacrificed person was considered cursed, and was not to be touched, spoken to, or even handled in any way as they were given up to satisfy the wrath of the gods. The person would die and decompose on the spot, undisturbed by others. One of the main reasons the person was seen as cursed was because in not being handled, they were never properly buried. Mediterranean culture, even in the early bronze and pre-bronze stages, held a strong belief that if one was not properly buried or immolated, they would not properly reach the afterlife. So all this being taken into account, its perfectly suitable that Jesus died on a cross to cover the sins of mankind based on the original use and tradition that the cross held (the word excruciating was invented by the romans to explain the level of pain a person went through while on the cross). So there you have it, a sermon found in the folklore of the past that applies to the purposes of a modern re-written pagan holiday. Cool huh.

In the news lately there have been some interesting happenings. I will only focus on the funny ones that teach good morals though as I am not some trashy Internet columnist. First we have a story about Woody Harrelson. The moral of this story is: when in doubt, remember that zombies can be anywhere and anyone, even photographers disguised as popperatzi, so never let your guard down. Better safe than sorry right?

The second breaking news story concerns a man we all know and love. Aside from being on the hit list for Scientology, he recently appeared in the news under these circumstances. The moral of this story is, if your famous, prostitutes cost more, a lot more. So, don't get famous...

But now back to serous-ish stuff. The question has been on my mind lately about taking action. Namely, to act or not to act, that is the question. Simply put, although waiting for everything to be right in every way is not laziness and takes effort, there is something to living by faith and knowing you're not totally ready for what is coming. I'm thinking on this currently and shall continue...