I mention this because Easter is a season I - an unbeliever - have always responded to. I'm sort of reassured that its existence pre-dates Christianity. Obvious really, the theoretical end of Winter and a backing-off of the central heating. But it's more than that. I drove VR to art on Good Friday and the traffic seemed subtly changed. There was less of it and other drivers, enclosed in their metallic bubbles, seemed remote, even contemplative. How fanciful I am but I can't help it; Easter was in the air and in the sky.
There are musical associations with Bach in a dominant mood. Twice on successive Maundy Thursdays I covered the St Matthew Passion for the newspaper. The Easter Oratorio (note the odd CD sleeve, above) is less well-known than the Christmas Oratorio but even without hearing a note you can imagine the triumphant noise. After all Bach once wrote a cantata celebrating coffee; imagine his reaction to something reckoned to be rather more big time.
In my youth Easter was an opportunity to resume rock-climbing - a solemn moment for fanatics.
The event that marked the start of Irish resistance to English colonialism is referred to as the Easter Uprising. Not that the Irish needed that as encouragement. This year its centennial is marked.
Me? I seem to sense vibrations, paradoxically mixed with tranquillity. Oh, and there'll be a bread-and-butter pudding tonight based on hot-cross buns. All the senses are involved. No need for bunny rabbits or those disappointing chocolate eggs full of nothing.
My favorite writer. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteI always feel Easter is special, like you I don't officially subscribe to the religious significance, and don't bother much with the chocolate (too true about the hollow eggs), but the music is great, and somehow patterns seem to form themselves around the time which take on significance in spite of myself. It's frequently challengingly cold, I remember far more chilly Easters than fine ones.
ReplyDeleteHave a good one yourselves, whatever!
Well, I managed a run out on the ebike on Good Friday, )which may warrant a post on my blog). Sunny, warm and windless. Glad I made the effort, since it has been very wet and windy ever since (and looks to continue well into next week.
ReplyDeleteTypical English Easter!
Here in the Ohio Valley, I celebrated with the first Biergarten outing of the season! The wind still has a bit of nip in it, but the sun was friendly enough. I'm with you on the bunnies, dear Robbie; however, a magnificent Ur-Hase ... now that's the symbol for me on Easter. It gives me the feeling of having survived the cold.
ReplyDeleteDo they still say, "mad as a March hare"?
MikeM: Appreciate that - assuming you're talking about me and not dear old Johann Sebastian. My guideline is if I haven't much to say (or if I'm tending towards speculation) I try and dress it up a bit. But there's always the risk of the emperor's new clothes.
ReplyDeleteA correction is due: on yesterday's 10 pm news I noted the events in Ireland are referred to as the Easter Rising (not "Uprising"). To tell the truth I prefer my misremembered version; theirs sounds hubristic.
Lucy: Difficult to grasp, isn't it, but it's there. Your intentional vagueness ("somehow patterns seem to form themselves around the time which take on significance in spite of myself") touches at the heart of the matter. And perhaps the chilliness, evocative of the tomb, is appropriate.
Avus: Are ebikes the right thing at this time of redeemed suffering? How about crawling on your knees to the end of your driveway, always assuming it's a long driveway.
RW (zS): I looked up Ur-Hase but all didn't become clear. Looked like a marmoset to me. But don't let this discourage you from being enigmatic.