February 09, 2005

• I like to greet people with a cheerful, "Dust to dust!" on Ash Wednesday. As an aside, I have heard that Howard Stern's book, "Private Parts," was released on Ash Wednesday and had the original title of "Ass Wednesday." Is that true?
• Interesting note I saw in Wikipedia about this: In New Orleans, Louisiana it is sometimes jokingly referred to as "Trash Wednesday" due to the large amount of refuse typically left in the streets by the previous day's Fat Tuesday Celebrations.
• As I said in the Mardi Gras thread, we used to get the Ash Cross on the forehead at Mass in the north of England, but bless me Father, it's been twenty years since my last confession. My sister's started going to Mass again since she had my nephew. We joke it's just so she can get him into a Catholic school later on, but it's obviously more than that. And she's the family scientist. Don't we save the cheery greetings for Easter?
• Fat Tuesday is the best name for a day ever.
• Every ash wednesday I ritually insert my penis into the VCR. cleaning the heads, indeed.
• *hits rewind button, cackles with glee*
• I doubt that anyone who's not Catholic in NZ even knows what Ash Wednesday is, and I don't think I've ever heard of even a practising Catholic here dabbing ash on their forehead (I'm not privy to what happens during Mass, though). And I bet most people here didn't know what Lent was about until that movie came out a couple of years ago - you know, the guy who gives up sex for Lent or something. My friend gives up chocolate every year, although I offered her some yesterday and she took it, so I guess she's not this year.
• trac, the priest doesn't put ashes on your forehead down there? interesting. is it still a sin to wash off the ashes? like it's a sin to bite down on the communion wafer? because, you know, blood will ooze out. *recovering catholic*
• I spend all day reciting Bruce Campbell quotes. Who wants some?
• bring it! who's bruce campbell?
• You're the one that dropped out of therapy! Bruce Campbell's a B-movie actor who can be seen in such fine films as Army of Darkness and Maniac Cop
• (His character is called Ash.)
• mmmm... Bruce Campbell... He's great.
• Yes he is....
• I can't believe I'm so out of touch with the news as to miss pancake tuesday, what a nightmare! Still I'll have some at the weekend (as another recovering catholic, well aware of the implications). Tracicle: Your friend would have been legit to eat chocolate yesterday, lent only started today. In fact she would be allowed something of a blow out on the tuesday, this is the origin of 'Fat' or 'Pancake' tuesday, using up all the stuff that you should be skimping on in lent.
• Shop smart. Shop S-Mart.
• First you wanna kill me, now you wanna kiss me. Blow.
• That was just pillow-talk, baby...
• Groovy.
• Holy Monkey
• Ah, but biffa, we're a day ahead of you in kiwiland. It's 1pm on Thursday right now.
• I like the Ash Wednesday service because, at one level, it has very little to do with Christianity at all. It's about dirt and death, expressed through the primitive symbolism of the ash mark on the forehead. To have this -- as I did tonight -- against a background of Bach, Byrd and Tallis is a profoundly unsettling experience .. webs of polyphony spun over an abyss .. I don't have the words to describe it. I don't think it is a bad thing to contemplate one's own mortality once in a while.
• I'd kind of agree there SlightyFoxed. I don't know if it's just because childhood catholicism laid the ground for it, but even after a life of conciousness atheism I'm always entranced by the beauty of sacramental ritual. I equate it with the pleasure I get from dancing - letting go of an over-reflexive conciousness of self into something bigger through signified activities. It's the charm and danger of religion. And of course, as you say, it addresses questions that matter to me like mortality, morality and meaning.
• err - conscious atheism that should have been in the ramble above.
• I got my ashes tonight. Listened to a pretty good sermon, too. And this wasn't at a Catholic church, either. It was the Presbyterian Church (USA).
• Doohickie - I had heard that was a new trend (here on the East Coast anyway) amongst the Presbys. Next thing you know, they'll be copying confession too. I got my smudge today, and that's just what it has become thanks to forgetfull forehead rubbing. The best part of Smudge Day is getting to go around and guilting all the other Catholics in the office to get their smudge on. Short Version: Happy Smudge Day!
• Tracicle - I grew up in Whangarei, and at least there we did the ash on the forehead thing as a kid at my Catholic school (raised Catholic, but a god-damned atheist since 11). So some places do it in NZ (this was a good 18 or more years ago though...)
• Are you still in NZ, Gestas?
• tracicle: But of course :) Dunedin - Otago Uni, and a veeeeerrryyy long PhD to be done with (but that's neither here nor there). In fact, knowing you were a fellow Kiwi was what encouraged me to register here!
• Hmm, I detect a kiwi meetup next time rodgerd heads south!
• Sorry, tracicle, was somehow under the impression you were one of them. Hearty apologies. The only way to deal with your friend is a stake through the heart, she'll thank you for it.
• me got some crepes to boot sir!
• happy Maundy Thursday everone! I'd better see some clean feet!
• Here we clebrate Utter Bunk Friday by walking around naked and asking passerby to admire our fabulous new clothing, and by selling one another jars and bottles of home-made ointments and unguents made entirely out of mud and slop from the compost bucket. Then we get out of our minds on ground up baby laxatives and fennel seeds while dripping oil on to our toes down shredded dry-cleaning bags.
• ugh. yeah we got some special slop for you coppermac
• Mmmmmm, I like the special slop.
• On Ash Wednesday, the forehead is used as advertising space for God. The guy on ebay probably stole the idea.