Is Easter creepy?

[I.J. Reilly]

WWJFKD?

As a modern western society, I think we've largely lost our connection with death. People expect to live a long time. We're shocked when children die. We treat our pets better than millions of human slaves throughout history. Unless you're cowboy, meat comes from the grocery store rather than from the ranch or the farm.

I obviously don't think this is a bad thing, but it makes for intensely sobering moments when we momentarily glimpse just how brutal, brief, and painful life was even a hundred or two hundred years ago.

As LA Ute would say, "Life is pain. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something."

I find the topic of death and the modern western disconnect to be a very interesting one. We have sanitized death and divorced itself from our common experience in a way that has never been done before. Death is no longer a family event, as it once was - even as late as the early 20th century - when death most often happened in the home, with the family around. We have effectively outsourced our general experience with death. I think it has profound effects on how we see ourselves, what we do in our daily lives, how we approach spirituality, and many other things.

Here is a Victorian mourning photo. These pictures were taken after the loved one had passed away, and were often the only photos ever taken of the person.



You can find a whole website/museum dedicated to these types of photos. It's not morbid curiosity that drives the interest, but rather a connection to ritual - an important aspect of life. Here is the url should one be so inclined: http://mourningphotography.com/

I once listened to an interview with Thomas Lynch, who is an author/poet and also an undertaker. I was so fascinated by the interview that I checked out his book, The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade, and found it to be very, very interesting. By trade, he is one of the very few who is still connected to death in an intimate way, and his take on the subject is worth reading.

Anyways, its a bit off topic and a thread jack, but I thought you might enjoy, regardless.

[Babs]

No. You're the only one screwed up enough to hate the second best holiday.

what, are you kidding? I love Thanksgiving!

[wuapinmon]

I think culture explains many of the excesses. As you know, during Semana Santa in Central America (well, Guatemala, which is the only Central American place I have been during Holy Week) there is quite bit of ritual focusing on the bloody aspects of the Passion. Large groups of men carry huge platforms with statues depicting various events leading up to the crucifixion. For example, there is always one with a life-size Jesus being flogged, complete with bloody back; one with him on the cross, and so forth. Here's a photo[/URL] one of the tamer depictions, in Quetzaltenango, where I served:



There are usually 10-20 of these platforms. In some cities (Antigua, e.g.) the locals lay out on the streets beautiful carpets of colorful sawdust with intricate patterns. The men carrying the platforms walk through those carpets and destroy them. It is quite a spectacle and moving in its own way.

But never did I see a platform with the resurrected Christ on it. Again, it's mainly culture. You'd never see this in the U.S. or Canada.

Well, the processions are re-enacting the path to Golgotha. That's why you don't see a resurrected Jesús up there. And all the cool kids call it Xela.

[LA Ute]

Well, the processions are re-enacting the path to Golgotha. That's why you don't see a resurrected Jesús up there. And all the cool kids call it Xela.

I plan to name my next dog Xela. You're right, a name known only to the wise.

BTW, there are no processions about the resurrection, which was kind of my point. And Xela (en el occidente del pais) is much more Catholic than, say, Zacapa in el oriente. Even within cultures the approach to Easter varies. That's certainly true within Mormonism.

[DapperDan]

after looking at some of these pictures, I'm going to have to side with creepy.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/holy_week_2010.html

[TripletDaddy]

after looking at some of these pictures, I'm going to have to side with creepy.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...week_2010.html

Yikes! No thanks.

[Babs]

after looking at some of these pictures, I'm going to have to side with creepy.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/201...week_2010.html

this is my favorite:

[TripletDaddy]

I did find these pics to be particularly beautiful, though