Going Home for Easter

Going home for Easter Sunday this year was a bit different for me. The day started as usual with Mass. After that, we visited my grandfather's grave in the local cemetery, which we've been doing every holiday since his passing. At this point we deviated from what I we used to do when I was younger. We used to travel an hour to Ludlow, MA to visit my grandmother's sister and her family, on my dad's side. It was enjoyable. We ate traditional Polish food and the past few times, had an Easter Egg hunt with her granddaughter. This year, however, we stayed closer to home, having an early dinner at my other grandparents' house.

This was very strange for me. I grew up doing one thing and now that I have grown up, a family tradition has changed. Family traditions come and go, but religious ones seem to be going more than coming these days. I know it may not be true for all families, but it is with mine and in others I have seen. This hits me especially hard being here at college while all this is going on.

This goes back to our discussion at the beginning of the semester when we talked about traditions that we each have. I believe that as we grow older, some of those traditions have to change and others may disappear entirely. But when we strike out on our own and have a family that we need to care for, some of those old traditions will come back in our households and will become a reminder to us of how we were raised.

Altars

This week we spent time a full class going around the room discussing each of our altars. They all represented our personalities and who we are as people. It got me thinking about how we each our own person and this brought me back to the old saying that the USA is the Great Melting Pot. This brought back some memories of School House Rock and this video:



This brought me to thinking about the slide show of altars that we saw in class earlier and how even within a single religion there are vast differences in what people believe and how they show that belief.

Zombie Jesus

So, I was surfing the web right after class and cam across this. I thought it might get some laughs and kinda pull out a lighter side of religion.

Symbols

We've discussed symbolism many times already in the two weeks we've had class. Symbols can mean different things to different people. I see the "Jesus fish" as a symbol for Christianity and I see the historical context of it while someone else may not see it the way I do. This can be said for things from religion to flags to simple colors.

In "Material Christianity," religious takes on pop culture symbols are shown on page 250 (McDannell). These show one persons view and that person has something in mind to convey to his audience. The problems is that not all people will get the same message. This can be seen very well in different cultures. Colors are an easy way for people to convey a message. Emotions can be seen easily: red for anger, light blue for calm. Or even things we never think twice about like pink for female and blue for male. For Americans, these things seem common place and natural, but other cultures see these colors in a different light. We use green as a symbol for money and luck, but in Islamic cultures green is a symbol for Heaven. More about this can be read here.

This simple site, while it doesn't cover everything, shows in basic terms that not everyone thinks the same. We each have different views of life. We each have our own minds, our own experiences, and these things contribute to the way be see things and the inferences we make. In order to see what people truly mean we must understand their backgrounds and see things through their eyes.