Easter, Purim and baptisms, oh my!
For the record, Episcopalians stand up and sit down way more often in their services than Catholics do. I only mention this because I have found that whenever christian (non-Catholic) friends of mine play a few rounds of everyone's favorite interfaith game, "Your denomination is weirder than my denomination," they inevitably adopt their most mocking tone when they accuse Catholic masses of being nothing more than memorized mumbling and random jumping up and down in the pews. Having attended an Easter service last evening at St. Thomas' Episcopal church, I can attest that I got a nice workout from all the standing up and sitting down - and there was no shortage of (sort of) memorized mumbling, either.
The reason I was sitting in a dark church holding a candle in a Dixie cup on a Saturday evening is that my friend Leah was being baptized. Leah, a couple of other adults and three little tiny babies all either smiled bravely or cried loudly when a large amount of cold water was poured over their heads at the front of the old, drafty church. The rest of the service was quite educational, with readings about creation, the flood, the parting of the seas and Abraham's near-sacrifice of his only son serving as useful refreshers for Old Testament 101.
Glancing at my watch around 9 o'clock, my face inadvertently broke into a nervous smile as I remembered that just about 24 hours before, I had been deeply immersed in the task of stenciling "JESUSLAND" on the back of a bright red t-shirt. You see, Jenn and I were going to a Purim party and we needed costumes, since the first point of a Purim party is to go dressed as something that you are not. To that end - I cooked up a couple of very simple costumes and Jenn and I would be going as red states with STATE stenciled across the front of our red T's (purchased, thematically, at Walmart). And even if some people hadn't gotten the "United States of Canada vs. Jesusland" map e-mail in the days following the '04 election, we thought we'd stencil JESUSLAND on the back for added emphasis. Except for a few folks who'd arrived from Europe in the past couple of months, no one at the party took more than a few seconds to figure out our get-up.
After exclaiming, "Cool! I get it, you're a RED STATE!" people seemed to turn quickly to a Purim party's second purpose - to drink until they couldn't discriminate between good and evil. I'm still not sure if they were just thirsty or if my costume had inspired them to blot something out... either way, the drinking began in ernest.
First Purim, then a baptism and and then today, of course, is Easter. Whoa! Big weekend for someone who still has yet to make any solid decisions about Almighties and afterlives. To continue the holiday themes of both Purim and Easter, I will probably wear my bunny ears, just as I and my fellow running peeps did yesterday when we ran around the East Rock neighborhood. The adults who saw us all sort of frowned and looked a little angry. The kids loved it though, many of them pointing and calling out, "Mom! Dad! Look at all the Easter bunnies! They're already here!" Hopefully, the parents of these kids wasted no time before explaining that we were NOT, in fact, Easter bunnies. I would hate to think that any child would grow up thinking that the Easter bunny dresses like my friend James, in black spandex and a t-shirt clearly reading 'QUEER COWGIRL."
Happy Easter everybody!
The reason I was sitting in a dark church holding a candle in a Dixie cup on a Saturday evening is that my friend Leah was being baptized. Leah, a couple of other adults and three little tiny babies all either smiled bravely or cried loudly when a large amount of cold water was poured over their heads at the front of the old, drafty church. The rest of the service was quite educational, with readings about creation, the flood, the parting of the seas and Abraham's near-sacrifice of his only son serving as useful refreshers for Old Testament 101.
Glancing at my watch around 9 o'clock, my face inadvertently broke into a nervous smile as I remembered that just about 24 hours before, I had been deeply immersed in the task of stenciling "JESUSLAND" on the back of a bright red t-shirt. You see, Jenn and I were going to a Purim party and we needed costumes, since the first point of a Purim party is to go dressed as something that you are not. To that end - I cooked up a couple of very simple costumes and Jenn and I would be going as red states with STATE stenciled across the front of our red T's (purchased, thematically, at Walmart). And even if some people hadn't gotten the "United States of Canada vs. Jesusland" map e-mail in the days following the '04 election, we thought we'd stencil JESUSLAND on the back for added emphasis. Except for a few folks who'd arrived from Europe in the past couple of months, no one at the party took more than a few seconds to figure out our get-up.
After exclaiming, "Cool! I get it, you're a RED STATE!" people seemed to turn quickly to a Purim party's second purpose - to drink until they couldn't discriminate between good and evil. I'm still not sure if they were just thirsty or if my costume had inspired them to blot something out... either way, the drinking began in ernest.
First Purim, then a baptism and and then today, of course, is Easter. Whoa! Big weekend for someone who still has yet to make any solid decisions about Almighties and afterlives. To continue the holiday themes of both Purim and Easter, I will probably wear my bunny ears, just as I and my fellow running peeps did yesterday when we ran around the East Rock neighborhood. The adults who saw us all sort of frowned and looked a little angry. The kids loved it though, many of them pointing and calling out, "Mom! Dad! Look at all the Easter bunnies! They're already here!" Hopefully, the parents of these kids wasted no time before explaining that we were NOT, in fact, Easter bunnies. I would hate to think that any child would grow up thinking that the Easter bunny dresses like my friend James, in black spandex and a t-shirt clearly reading 'QUEER COWGIRL."
Happy Easter everybody!
posted by Eva Marie at 10:23 AM
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