Easter and UUism

One holiday that I’ve often wondered “How does that work in a UU context?” is Easter. I mean, at Christmas time we can talk about the birth of Jesus, and winter solstice traditions and such, and yes there are pagany springy trappings that go with Easter. But it seems much more unavoidably, traditionally theologically Christian, focused on the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus,

I was told that one traditional Unitarian view of Easter was a focus on the “resurrection of community”.I guess in a seasonal context that could make sense, since in winter people tend to be more isolated and keep to themselves, while we come out and see our neighbors as spring rolls around. However, this was a theological idea from presumably a much warmer place, so my own interpretation wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense!

On this post here, it’s discussed that in some places, particular the southwestern U.S. Easter is combined with Flower Communion at U.U. churches. “Flower Communion was a ritual developed by Norbert Čapek as a ritual specifically for Unitarians.  He chose to celebrate the diversity of humanity through flowers as no two flowers are exactly alike.  The first Flower communion was held in June of 1923 in Prague just before the summer holidays. According to his wife, Maja Čapek, the ritual was to be more secular in its associations so as to be the most inclusive of all people, regardless of creed.   An important aspect that would grow over time as their neighboring country of Germany grew in power and intolerance of Jews and those of political differences grew deeper.  She stated in a letter[1] that conflating it with Easter would probably not have met Norbert’s approval and an alternative date to June could be to commemorate the last Sunday that he preached which was March 23 before being arrested and subsequently killed by the Nazis in Dachau concentration camp.  These meanings of diversity and acceptance found in the Flower Communion have nothing to do with Easter. I believe the two should be kept separate so that the fullness of each message can be contemplated.”

I completely agree that the two should be separate! Spring Equinox of course, may be celebrated in addition to Easter by U.U. Pagans and earthy humanists- Nowruz, the Persian New Year is also celebrated on the same day. Personally I find the themes of Passover- liberation from slavery and oppression- to be more relevant than Easter. And indeed I do celebrate Passover if one of my Jewish friends invites me to do so. But otherwise, it is not really my holiday. A couple years ago I went to Minicon, a science fiction convention that is held in the Twin Cities during Easter weekend. One of the coolest people I met there was an older Jewish lady from New York. She shared with me, an anecdote- a conversation she had with African-American friends. She told them- you folks need your own Passover! Once again, such a holiday wouldn’t be mine to create or celebrate. A while ago while celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, and watching all the inaccurate memes posted by my fellow Pagans, I thought about how disconnected St Pat’s is from actual Irish history. It seems like we celebrate Irishness in this rather shallow way without really contemplating what our ancestors (spiritual or physical) went through to get to this country. So maybe we also need an Irish-American equivalent of Passover. There are also various historical events we could be commemorating, such as the Easter Rising. Once again, I feel pretty darn ignorant about Irish history!

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Untangling the Wyrd Wide Web

Folks- I have put the post about Transphobia into draft mode. I am still very much opposed to transphobia, however I am also very much opposed to racism, and individuals have been sharing that they have experience hurtful racist comments as part of conversations that I personally was not a part of. I also have been called out for comments I made about other people’s status as rape survivors, which is also very wrong of me, and for those comments I apologize.

I typically try to stay out of other people’s interpersonal drama be it online or in person, however sometimes I feel a need to speak up when something is wrong. However, in this case I do not feel I know enough about the people and the situation to truly make a fair judgment. Also to begin with, these conversations took place on semi-private Facebook posts which I only could read because of screenshots being posted. Oy vey.

Cultural appropriation– What this is, is really up to the culture from whom ideas/concepts/rituals et al are being borrowed from- or outright stolen. I kind of got the impression Kathryn nic Dhana was playing “cultural appropriation police” and specifically going after people (like Erynn Laurie & Ellen Evert Hopman) that she seemed to have some sort of rivalry with. This may be a mistake on my part, and I may have let my feelings about past Celtic Recon political faultlines color my impression of Kathryn. She is in contact with Native leaders/elders and is in conversation with them about possible appropriations when they take place. Also since Erynn & Ellen are both authors and semi-public figures, I think its OK to e-mail them and ask them about these things yourself if you are concerned. Kathryn has done so, and said situations have not been resolved to the satisfaction of Native communities involved.

Personally I tend to stick to confronting things that happen in my in-person local community. I am fortunate to have multiple local communities I can participate in, and sometimes disrespect towards other cultures occurs. It’s an ongoing learning process for me, including figuring out what is the best way to share this information to prevent further disrespect from occurring.

Transphobia– I do think there were transphobic comments made in the conversations Allec posted. I also feel like there are some generation gaps in regards to ideas about women-only space, and gender identity. Some people feel that their privacy, and possibly safety was violated, names of minor children were on the screenshots, gender identity status and other things of a sensitive nature.

Gaol Naofa– I am not a member of Gaol Naofa, I am not familiar with how their leadership structure works. There is disagreement over whether these conversations reflect upon the culture of GN as a whole, or whether they were unrelated. I was a member of the Gaelic polytheism group run by GN at one time and left it of my own choice, not due to anyone doing anything wrong, we just had some differences of opinion, that’s all I remember at this point.

Racism– Sky (a friend of Kathryn’s who is also on the board of CAORANN, Celts Against Oppression, Racism & Neo-Nazism) has shared with me that someone in this conversation threw around the word “genocide” in a inappropriate manner (in re: to a cultural practice of exiling violent people from their community). I don’t know why the heck that was dragged in, but it is definitely not OK to make false accusations of genocide, WTF, people! (BTW, the practice of exiling criminals was also done by both the Norse and Irish- and is still probably more humane than our prison system!) There are also allegation of multiple vulgar, racist insults towards Sky and her associate, a Two-Spirit elder.

I am going to say for now though, since all this essentially took place behind virtual “closed doors” that should not have been opened I am reserving judgment about Kathryn & Gaol Naofa in general.