Happy Eostre
Apr. 16th, 2006 11:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aggienaut So today was the day that most of us celebrate the fact that one day the goddess Eostre decided it was time for some trolling IRL and turned a bird into a hare ... only it still laid eggs.
Now Eostre being a an anglo-saxon deity, when the Catholics came and set about the mass-converting, they declared that the celebration of this actually has something (God knows what) to do with THEIR favourite demigod --a dude named "Heysuess"-- being stapled to a stick or something.
And in an ironic twist, Easter is now frowned upon by the more anal-retentive nonchristian elements as overly christian. Its a bit like if the United States somehow remained 78% christian for the next 200 years, and then sent emigrants to the newly founded Martian colony, whereupon they tried to continue celebrating Memorial Day, but it was seen as "christian" because it came from those dang christian Americans.
In summary, just because Christians habitually do something doesn't make it an aspect of the Christian religion -- for example let us see Christmas for what it really is, the celebration of the birth of Santa Clause -- and stop hating on holidays just because Christians are associated with them.
Anyway, Kristy & I went to my uncle & aunt Ben & Bev's place for Easter dinner. Uncle & aunt Mike & Sherry were there, along with their childrens Sylvan & Linnea, & Bev's parents (My grandparents-in-law? what is that?). We even had a brief hunt for candy hidden in the yard & had "easter basket" cupcakes made by expert cupcake technician Kristy Heidenberger. And as we were leaving Kristy's apartment we ran into the Easter bunny -- this rabbit was just chillaxin on the lawn (to bless my spreading of the true word about Easter I believe).
Picture of the Day
Kristy, admonishing. From a batch of pictures I just rediscovered from last Fall
Previously on Emosnail
A Week & Two Years Ago Last Thursday: 1st Day of Spring Qtr, 2004 - Taking VEN3 (Intro to Winemaking), HIS138A (Russia until 1881), HIS138C (Russia 1914 to 1990) & ECN162 (Internat'l Econ)
A Week & Two Years Ago Last Saturday: Badly Written Front Page Articles - RECENTLY DECLASSIFIED: ASUCD President Sara Henry & sockpuppet Paloma Perez allege that Chief Justice Kris Fricke should recuse himself from Case 24 since it was filed by the Green Party. Despite the fact that Fricke is not now nor has ever been a member of the Green Party, he recuses himself to steer clear of contention. The Aggie covers this story on the front page (compare to two years later when the Chief Justice & three other high officers getting impeached doesn't get a mention anywhere), in a rather unprofessional article. In particular, statements like "it was believed the case would not be heard by the court," are made as if it were a universal belief whereas in fact its probably something the reporter only got from Sara Henry (as a consequence of an endemic authority-bias, or possibly a primacy-bias being that she talked to her first). Unfortunately the article can no longer be accessed since the Aggie has broken all past links.
A Week & Two Years Ago Today: Medieval Warfare - More on the antics & hijinks of the ASUCD Senate regarding Case # 24 (attempts by VP Perez to stop necessary Court legislation with a minor technicality, overriden by the rest of Senate though), and more complaining about that Aggie article (since this entry was public & the other one wasn't). The reporter in question was Aimee Theron, whom we'd later find out had been intimately involved with two senators while assigned to report on ASUCD and was believed to have squashed a very major scandal story.
Two Years Ago Last Wednesday: Easter Weekend 2004 - I mention that though Perez may have thought she was inconveniencing me the other day by not passing legislation which would have changed the method process is served for ASUCD cases, in fact she accomplished the opposite effect. Instead I am presented with directions from the bylaw which are not possible to accomplish, and so I am left to use my discretion to accomplish the task. If my legislation had passed I'd have been tied down to a very specific method. I endeavoured to do this because I believe in serving justice in ASUCD with the utmost good faith, and as such I adhered to what my proposal would have been anyway. Its just ironic that Perez thought she was spiting me when in fact she was only spiting justice. In unrelated news Kristy & I attended a party hosted by Jenn de la Vega.
Two Years Ago Last Friday: Posh Bagel - Picture from eating with Gabi at Posh Bagel the otherday - I look like zoolander in it. And I get a DeviantArt account. It was better than other existant photo hosting services, but ultimately it was totally pwned by Flickr with its hotlinking and faster loading.
Two Years Ago Today: Courting Justice - Defence for Cases 24 & 25 dispute jurisdiction, a special hearing on jurisdiction is scheduled.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 09:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 09:36 am (UTC)do you think I should lj-cut that previously stuff? I can't decide if its long & obnoxious enough.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 05:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 10:59 am (UTC)Reminds me of Chris Herold and his sockpuppet Spencer Higgins. You should have been there when they were discussing buying portable restrooms.
Scandalness
Date: 2006-04-17 11:20 am (UTC)http://www.daviswiki.org/Budget_Hearing_Scandal?action=recall&date=1108075800
Its also amusingly on Encyclopedia Dramatica.
-The Anonymous Freshman
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 03:16 pm (UTC)And y'know, the Orthodox may take umbrage at the idea that it was Catholics doing the converting. Funny how even non-Catholics in the West tend to take a sort of Catholic view of history.
Eostremonat
Date: 2006-04-17 08:23 pm (UTC)And as to Eostre, yeah I picked up on the unreliability of speculation on its origins, but my point was that the easter bunny cannot be reconciled as having anything to do with either Jesus being made into a scarecrow, or subsequently becoming undead.
And the very name of Easter is given no other explanation than that it is named after the Anglo-Saxon month if not a goddess by that name.
...and of course the for non-Catholics in the West, the Catholic view of history was their view of history until the reformation.
Re: Eostremonat
Date: 2006-04-18 12:15 am (UTC)Easter, as we celebrate it today in the U.S., obviously has both Christian and non-Christian influences. Which ones predominate depends on how you celebrate it. But yah, I agree that it's a little silly to get worked up over eggs and bunnies.
The Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore opines that the most likely possibility is that "Easter" derives from a term for the rising dawn in the east, which got applied to early spring, natch. It also suggests old Bæda simply assumed "Easter" had a pagan origin.
Unfortunately, being a youngster, I wasn't born before the Reformation. I'll take your word for it that that's what you guys believed until 1529.
Re: Eostremonat
Date: 2006-04-18 06:09 am (UTC)Incidently, the United States Supreme Court has promulgated what they call "the plastic reindeer rule" for determining if state sponsered Christmas decorations violate church & state seperation ... I don't know the further details of this rule offhand.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 05:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-17 05:19 pm (UTC)it looks like the guy from Red Alert 2....
name that dictator
Date: 2006-04-17 08:04 pm (UTC)My own expert analysis of the symbols in use on the uniform have lead me to believe THEY took it from a picture of none other than Muammar Kadafi.
Re: name that dictator
Date: 2006-04-18 04:18 am (UTC)Re: name that dictator
Date: 2006-04-18 04:36 am (UTC)-The Anonymous Freshman
Re: name that dictator
I suggest the name anonymous_freshman
Re: name that dictator
Date: 2006-04-18 06:27 am (UTC)-The Anonymous Freshman
no subject
no subject
Date: 2006-04-18 07:00 am (UTC)