adiva_calandia

New blog post: "kyrie eleison, christe eleison" -- an American Catholic in Greece.

What has two thumbs and totally forgot today was Passion Sunday? . . .

So, some thoughts on Easter Vigil masses while I continue to avoid homework:

A few weeks ago, we read Wole Soyinka's The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite. I talked about it some here, I'm pretty sure. Most everyone in the class either didn't understand it, didn't like it, or both, largely because of the final scene: Agave, still in a Dionysian frenzy, hoists her son Pentheus' head onto a pole in triumph. Cadmus, her father, finally makes her see that it's her son, not a lion, and she breaks down -- but then the head begins to jet red liquid. "More blood, always blood," mourns Cadmus, but Tiresias (who has to be there to make it a real Greek tragedy) tastes the liquid and murmurs, "It's wine." The people -- the nobles, the slaves, everyone -- slowly move forward and drink.

The class -- including the prof -- thought that this was weird, kind of gross, incomprehensible, and comic.

I was the only one who felt like it was both understandable and beautiful.

I tried to explain why I felt like that. I wrote up a whole presentation comparing Dionysus to Christ, and I tried to explain the sacrament of communion by the seat of my pants (which is pretty well impossible). Finally, I said that we as a class don't have context for something that is both joyful and solemn and sad and ritualistic all at the same time, and without any kind of personal, emotional context, we can't understand the play.

But I understood it, I thought to myself, because of Easter Vigil.

( Religion is not everyone's thing, so I'll cut this explanation of why I find the pagan/Christian ritual of Easter Vigil mass so powerful. )

I'm sure there are other ceremonies, holidays, experiences like this in other faiths -- Passover? Diwali? And lacking context, the way my classmates lack context for my Christian experiences, perhaps I can't understand them the same way people who are raised in them can. I want to try, though.

(As long as I'm mentioning examples I tried to use for solemnity and joy all at once, I should probably say that one of the other examples I gave -- visually -- was Woodstock. Soyinka says in his stage directions that the Bacchae's frenzies should have the feel of a rock concert, so I feel justified in that.)