Easter traditions
Source : Muscat Daily
By Mahesh Verma
A very Happy Easter to all those who celebrate the occasion and also to those who don’t. Easter was actually the day before (logically Easter Sunday should fall on a Sunday, and so it did!) but as the TT appears only on alternate Tuesdays, it sort of makes logical sense to wish everyone a belated Happy Easter today.
And for those of you, who either forgot or chose to forget and didn’t send me the Easter basket, this is a not-too-subtle hint that you can still redeem yourself and send me that basket, though with a Fabergé egg in it please!
Despite not wanting to, I still feel that one needs to let those animals, who were behind the bomb blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, know that if you thought that you could actually scare the innocent and ‘let slip the dogs of war’ unleashing a reign of terror, you are so bloody mistaken!
You cowards have obviously never interacted with the tenacious and brave Lankan Lions, and are therefore unaware that such dastardly acts will be treated with the scorn that it deserves; and though we deeply mourn the innocent lives that were lost, we will not allow you to gloat and attach any importance to your pathetic display of being the lowliest of the lowly or what in the sane world is identified as being ‘a louse of the first order’.
That being said, allow me to point out to those who are not aware, that the custom of the Easter egg actually originated in the early Christian community of Mesopotamia, who would stain the eggs red, in memory of the blood of Christ that was shed at his crucifixion.
The Easter egg is thus considered to be a symbol of Christ’s empty tomb while another integral part of this festival is the Easter Bunny, which is a popular legendary anthropomorphic gift-giving character, analogous to our good old Santa Claus.
On the Easter Monday, it became a tradition to colour the hard-boiled eggs and give them away in baskets filled with candy, and following this age-old practice, the President of the United States normally holds an annual Easter egg roll for young children on the White House lawns.
True to that tradition, yesterday the FLOTUS hosted the 141st annual Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House.
For the uninitiated, ‘anthropomorphic’ is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities; and
FLOTUS is an acronym for the ‘First Lady of the United States’ and though not really required but one would want to clarify that the acronym in question has no correlation to the anthropomorphic, lest some think otherwise. And though acronym could be confused with acrostic, it wouldn’t really matter!
Incidentally, as per the folk tradition of Poland and other Slavic countries, the Easter eggs are also a widely popular symbol of new life and quite similar to the tradition in most other countries, the Easter baskets are given as gifts and even though the Easter Bunny doesn’t actually deliver the baskets ala Santa and his subordinate clauses, the adults and children alike all love receiving them – so please do remember to give me the Fabergé eggs!
While yesterday on Easter Monday, you may have read about the children playing with Easter bunnies and going on a hunt for the eggs, today on Easter Tuesday (if it’s Tuesday after Easter it will be Easter Tuesday!) you received the TT in your Easter basket and get to play around, albeit vicariously with eggs, bunnies, baskets and FLOTUS.
In the week preceding Easter, you may have read about the GOAT that roared like a Tiger when he won this year’s US Masters and his fifth Green Jacket by just one stroke, while the three runners-up who were hot on his heels got pipped to the post.
Although this was Woods’ 15th major win, it happened to be the first in over a decade, as he had last won the US Open way back in 2008, and is now just one shy of Jack Nicklaus’ record of six GJs.
With due apologies to the purists and the fans, by referring to Tiger as the GOAT, one is not being derogatory in any manner whatsoever…ala Roger Federer, Messi or Tendulkar, Woods is indeed the ‘Greatest of All Times’ and proved that he is a Tiger in GOAT’s clothing, or perhaps the other way around?
Though a ‘Cablinasian’ (Tiger’s way of describing himself by using a syllabic abbreviation he coined from Caucasian, Black, American Indian, and Asian), he is a Master amongst the Masters! And here’s an attempt to capture last week’s brilliant win-my ode to the maestro:
On the course we saw him roar, after sinking the putt that brought him ashore,
Off the course after his win, we saw him hugging his mother and the other kith and kin;
The roaring Tiger with tears in his eyes, metamorphosed into a gentle lamb as he silently said his byes
To his mentor-his Dad, and all that he had taught,
He had come back from near oblivion and had finally got back all that he sought,
The love and adulation of his fans far and wide,
But most of all, he now had his kids at his side!
The crouching Tiger-the doting father, with his new jargon
Is now out of the Woods like a hidden dragon!
And before I sign off, a few random thoughts:
Do you know that intelligent people are found in nearly every corner of the globe? Unfortunately the globe is round!
Do you know that the problem with Internet quotes is that it’s extremely difficult to ascertain their true origin? So said Abraham Lincoln!
Do you know that after watching The Lord of the Rings, I started having dreams of Hobbits and Frodo, and some say I was apparently Tolkien in my sleep?
And though it’s still a week away, guess it’s really not too early to wish a very Happy Birthday to my friend, philosopher, guide and mentor. Boss…shall raise a toast or two or three on the 29th, to your health and happiness!
Till next fortnight…
