Antiquitopia

One last post on Halloween, although I fully realize it is now All Saints Day. In my reading this morning, I ran across a passage from Victor Turner, who discusses Halloween in a series of cross-cultural calendrical rituals (as opposed to rites of passage) that emphasize the temporary reversal of roles and the importance of masks in those rites: In Western society, the traces of rites of age- and sex-role reversal persist in such customs as Halloween, when the powers of the structurally inferior are manifested in the liminal dominance of pre-adolescent children. The monstrous masks they often wear in disguise represent mainly chthonic or earth-demonic powers--witches who blast fertility; corpses or skeletons from underground; indigenous peoples, such as Indians; troglodytes, such as dwarves or gnomes; hoboes or anti-authoritarian figures, such as pirates or traditional Western gun fighters. These tiny earth powers, if not propitiated by treats or dainties, will work fantastic and ca...

According to the London Times , the Spanish Catholic Church with the backing of the Vatican has come out completely against the celebration of Halloween. The article quotes an earlier, more lenient position taken by the Vatican as follows: The Vatican appeared previously to take a more lenient position. Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, once said: “If English and American children like to dress up as witches and devils on one night of the year, that’s not a problem. If it is just a game, there is no harm.” But the Spanish hierarchy begs to differ. Wearing skeleton suits, dressing up as vampires, witches or goblins or slapping on fake blood is not far removed from communing with the Devil, according to the country’s bishops. However, the bishops, with Vatican backing, have reserved their venom for the millions of parents who allowed their children to celebrate this “pagan” festival. Father Joan María Canals, the director of the Spanish Bishops Conference Committee o...

As all hallow's eve approaches, the NYTimes has an article on the polytheistic background of the highly commercialized holiday (well, aren't all holidays these days?): the autumnal festival of Samhain. Many people probably know that most of our "Christian" holidays rely upon an older calendar of European religious festivals, referred to as "pagan": Certainly, there is nothing new about Paganism per se. From Halloween to May Day to Yuletide, said Prof. Diana L. Eck of Harvard Divinity School, “There’s a way in which all of us, especially in the Christian tradition, follow a religious calendar that is pegged to ancient Pagan festivals.” One might add all of the fertility imagery (rabbits and eggs) in Easter. It was recognized early on by Christian leaders that it would be easier to convert people and keep them in the fold if many of the practices and festivals of the older religions were retained in some form and re-framed in Christian terms--that is why Chr...

I wish I knew modern Irish, but, alas, I do not. So, I'll just have to say in English, "Happy St. Patrick's Day." Liam has the Irish here . I'm celebrating by continuing to grade midterms. For your Irish enjoyment, and appropriate for a Bible scholar, here are some images from the Book of Kells: The Book of Kells is one of the most famous manuscripts from the medieval period, and its artistry is justly famous. It dates to approximately 800 CE. The second image, by the way, is from the Gospel of Matthew.

If you want to celebrate Hanukkah Reggae-style, you can see Matisyahu and his giant mirrorball dreidel this week: Matisyahu deployed what may be the only large, mirrored, rotating dreidel in show business — a Jewish answer to a disco ball — at Webster Hall on Sunday night, the first night of Hanukkah. It was also the first of eight New York City shows for Matisyahu in his third annual Festival of Lights series, bringing different opening acts and guests each night. A large menorah was set up for a mid-concert lighting ceremony, with the blessings declaimed in Hebrew by an audience volunteer. See more here .

On Narnia and Christmas: two things created out of a conglomeration of elements...but how old are they? An article from the NYTimes claims that MOST of our ideas of Christmas are...Victorian! December 18, 2008 Op-Ed Contributor It’s a Narnia Christmas By LAURA MILLER EVERY Christmas, I re-read C .S. Lewis’s novel “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” The holiday seems like the ideal time for an excursion into my imaginative past, and so I return to the paperback boxed set of “The Chronicles of Narnia” that my parents gave me for Christmas when I was 10. For me, Narnia is intimately linked with the season. I’m not alone. In Britain, stage productions of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” are a holiday staple, for good reason. The book rests on a foundation of Christian imagery; its most famous scene is of a little girl standing under a lamppost in a snowy wood; and Father Christmas himself makes an appearance, after the lion god Aslan frees Narnia from an evil witch who decreed ...

I just saw this cartoon strip in the NYTimes . It is a modern day Christmas story. Merry Christmas to all with pinecone necklaces.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those celebrating! May Macy's Day Parades with big balloons and cameo performances, may Turkey however you make it (fried, broiled, or, as we are doing it this year, grilled...and I cannot forget my Tofu Turkey readers), may napping, may game playing all fill your day! In sum, may the warm glow of food and fun envelop your day.

Today is July 14th, and, for those who are French, happy Bastille Day! See some celebratory pictures of the Champs-Elysees here .

By the way, I almost forgot, but today is the Mexican Independence Day! Happy Cinco de Mayo! As someone in my class said today, there should be a huge party on the U.S./Mexican border, perhaps around the wall on the Rio Grande! In any case, it is a good excuse for a party!

Today is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere! Not that it has 25 hours instead of 24, of course, but the most daylight of any day of the year (for those of lucky enough to have good weather as we happen to be having in NYC). Such an event is also an important religious holiday, especially, it seems, in the ever overcast environs of northern Europe. In case you do not know, thousands of people gather every year for the summer solstice at Stonehenge (note for full disclosure, I pulled this link off of Paleojudaica's posting), the famous stone-age site that remains a riddle to this day. So, happy summer solstice! Let's all find a way to celebrate the sun in our own ways. (I do seem to recall that "Paideia" held a winter solstice party a few years back.)