blood red
Tomorrow night I’ll introduce my son to the Greek Orthodox tradition of dying eggs red (using onion skins) as part of the Easter celebration. Old-school Greek homes don’t usually dye eggs pastel colors the way mainstream American families do. My mother did both when I was a kid because she wanted my sister and me to have the full Easter egg experience (even though we didn’t do an Easter egg hunt). That meant we had our teacups filled with Paas dye on the table while she had her vat of blood red dye simmering on the stove.
Greeks dye their eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ. I learned this early on as a kid. However, there is another more apocryphal story that is told to Greek children about why eggs are dyed red, and it goes like this: On Easter Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene was returning to Jerusalem after discovering the empty tomb and then the risen Christ. She was carrying a basket of eggs (I’m not sure why) when she encountered some of the disciples on the way to the tomb themselves. When she informed them that the tomb was empty and their beloved Jesus, alive and well, they reacted in disbelief. Not one to back down, she confidently declared that if the words she had spoken to them were true and Christ truly risen, the eggs in her basket would turn red. Naturally, they did.When I saw the above picture of a stretch of Route I-495 in Littleton taken this morning after a truck spilled red dye all over the road, I immediately thought of the story my mother used to tell me as a child. While I’m not one to argue the cosmic primacy of Christianity over other religions, I couldn’t help but feel that a red road is appropriate during Holy Week when so many are caught up (myself included) in commemorating the Easter story. It struck me not as a symbol of any objective spiritual reality or historical event, but rather as evocative of the very potent religious myths that occupy such a central place in Western thought.
Verily I say unto you, if Christ is risen, this road shall turn red.
Καλή Ανάσταση, φίλοι μου.
posted by Sandouri Dean Bey at 3:10 PM
3 Comments:
I drove that stretch of 495 on Easter Sunday afternoon--it's still pretty red and the dye has now spread outwards from the road to include the grass on both sides.
I heard on the TV Sunday morning that our dear friends the American religious fundamentalists had an anti-Easter egg/anti-Easter Bunny campaign going on, claiming that these symbols secularize Easter. I knew of Greek red eggs and of colored eggs being baked into Greek easter bread, and knew the fundies had it all wrong--again. I did not know of the Mary M. story and am delighted to have learned it from you.
thanks, will.
on the way to see my family on sunday, joe and i explained to our son how the name "easter" derives from the near eastern fertility goddesses ishtar, astarte, and ashtoreth showing that these ancient religions and ways of celebrating the onset of spring survived and were incorporated into christianity (hence the use of eggs and bunnies as symbols of fertility).
anyway, i think the fundies would consider the greek orthodox religion to be a corrupt form of christianity.
And I consider the fundamentalist Evangelical Churches to be a corrupt form of Christianity. In fact, I'm beginning to consider any form of Christianity that developed after about the year 250AD to be corrupt.
Before my house sells and I move up to southern New Hampshire, I'd love to get together with you guys and talk a bit over some good food and good wine. You should come over to my house while there's still some furniture left and I'll make something Moroccan and really good.
Post a Comment
<< Home