Speaker 1: Welcome to you. Stuff you should know from how Stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot com. Oh and middle d d welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. Wow, I was giving the traditional Easter greeting,
Speaker 1: I said, it isn't that how Mr Burns answered his phone? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that was what they did, like, you know when
Speaker 1: the phone was first admitted, right, that was funny. I
Speaker 1: said that for Actually my first cell phone said oh
Speaker 1: boy on it when it was super advanced and you
Speaker 1: could like program something on your home screen so that
Speaker 1: would flash when somebody was calling you. Yeah, that's how
Speaker 1: I tech. Yeah at the time, a little sprint flobone
Speaker 1: brick phone. Yeah. Uh well, like I was saying, Happy Easter, Chuck.
Speaker 1: Do you do anything for Easter these days? Not really? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean we we got like a bath, get a
Speaker 1: traditional Easter bass. Yeah, yeah, we do that. I mean
Speaker 1: it's not like we just don't observe it at all,
Speaker 1: Like like me. Have you noticed though, that like a
Speaker 1: lot more stores close on Easter now than they used to?
Speaker 1: I have not noticed. That seems to have been a
Speaker 1: recent occurrence, like the last couple of years. I have noticed. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a it's weird. I think it's not off putting
Speaker 1: unless you're like trying to buy something, but it's more
Speaker 1: just like, wait, when did this start? That's my whole thing, Right,
Speaker 1: when did this start? Like you didn't get the memo,
Speaker 1: no one asked, you know, And usually, you know, there's
Speaker 1: a national conversation about whether to close stores or not.
Speaker 1: We'll do an episode on it sometimes, that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: But this one just slipped past me. So Easter has
Speaker 1: caught me by surprise, or at least closing the stores
Speaker 1: on it. Yeah, I don't do anything I used to,
Speaker 1: you know, do the whole spiel when you're a little kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, growing up and then the sunrise services. It's
Speaker 1: a young Baptist. We would Climbstone Mountain. It was very pretty. Actually,
Speaker 1: climbing some out in the dark wasn't so much fun.
Speaker 1: I was always like, it's kind of dangerous. Well, there
Speaker 1: were flashlights and plenty of people around. That's a good
Speaker 1: thing about being in the church. They would pick you
Speaker 1: up and carry you if you broke your leg. That's
Speaker 1: why there was only one set of footsteps. That's right.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Well, back when I was a kid, we
Speaker 1: get the Easter basket with what one or two maybe
Speaker 1: little presents in there I got the break into Electric
Speaker 1: Boogaloo soundtrack on cassette. Did you really? Easter? Probably my
Speaker 1: best Easter president of all time? Yeah. Yeah. And we
Speaker 1: also observed the tradition of dressing up even more than
Speaker 1: you would normally for Sunday Church, like your special Easter clothes,
Speaker 1: like my pot on a tuxedo and like rub lobster
Speaker 1: on it. No, it would usually be like, you know,
Speaker 1: I got some new pinks of Spenders and well that's
Speaker 1: actually like an old traditions of Spenders. Well no, but
Speaker 1: like a new new Yeah, exactly, that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: Did you realize that you were following like an ancient
Speaker 1: Anglo tradition? Yeah, my mom taught me all about ancient
Speaker 1: Anglow traditions. That was just Easter was just a little
Speaker 1: more specials he would dress up a little more basically. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got you. You know, I got my new Uh Paisley,
Speaker 1: did I have to bust out for Easter to go
Speaker 1: with my mullet? Yeah? I'm not allowed to buy anything new,
Speaker 1: but you makes me comb my hair before I'm allowed
Speaker 1: to search for the Easter basket. Well that's nice. Uh, Well,
Speaker 1: let's talk stuff. Yeah, I mean in researching this came
Speaker 1: down to a couple of conclusions. One is that, like
Speaker 1: everything else that we hold dear, it had its roots
Speaker 1: and pagan rituals. And uh, two is the Easter, so
Speaker 1: like it's all over the map, man, Like we could
Speaker 1: do ten episodes on Easter, let's do it in different traditions,
Speaker 1: and like when it falls a to who you are,
Speaker 1: and it's just crazy in its variety. Agreed. Even like
Speaker 1: when Jerry asked when she were stamish, she just wins Eastern.
Speaker 1: We're like, who knows? Could be in March, could be
Speaker 1: in April. The ecclesiastical Council knows because they're crunching the numbers.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and drop the dope there, Okay, so um,
Speaker 1: the dope is that Easter can conceivably fall any time
Speaker 1: between March one, the the vernal equinox, and April, and
Speaker 1: it follows after the Paschal moon, which is a full moon.
Speaker 1: But if you think you're following along so far, prepared
Speaker 1: to be thrown from the horse, because the Paschal full
Speaker 1: moon isn't necessarily an actual full moon that you can see. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily the astronomical full moon. No, it was
Speaker 1: at one point in time based on astronomical lunar cycles,
Speaker 1: but they have since been decoupled from what we currently understand,
Speaker 1: and so now Easter supposedly falls on the first Sunday
Speaker 1: after the Paschal moon, which is the first full moon
Speaker 1: after the vernal equinox. That's right, but there may not
Speaker 1: be a full moon anywhere in sight as far as
Speaker 1: you can tell. But if you're a churchy type who's
Speaker 1: in charge of crunching these numbers, you know when the
Speaker 1: Paschal moon comes and goes and that's when MS will be.
Speaker 1: Is that the same as the ecclesiastical moon? Is that
Speaker 1: just another name for it? Yeah, the the Paschal moon
Speaker 1: is a type of ecclesiastical moon, an ecclesiastical moon. Is
Speaker 1: this church titious? Yeah, church based lunar cycle. Um that
Speaker 1: in the Paschal moon in particular is the full moon
Speaker 1: that comes after the vernal equinox. And Pascal comes from
Speaker 1: the Greek for passover, so it's the Passover moon. And
Speaker 1: that makes sense because Easter was originally tied to Passover.
Speaker 1: It was first Sunday after Passover, right, Yeah. And then
Speaker 1: in as part of the Gregorian calendar, Pope Gregory the
Speaker 1: laid down the decree Ah but still it gets more
Speaker 1: confusing because if you are Eastern Orthodox, you might follow
Speaker 1: the Julianne Julianne julian calendar. It's the calendar that's slice
Speaker 1: in a thin little ship's wrong with me calendar, and
Speaker 1: that can be like a month later you'll be celebrating
Speaker 1: Easter if you follow the Julianne calendar that was the
Speaker 1: one that predated the Gregorian calendar. That's right, and there's
Speaker 1: actually some really interesting stuff about those. We should do
Speaker 1: one on calendar sometime. Oh man, it's so vast and weird. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I like to keep my calendar simple. Well yeah,
Speaker 1: you know who doesn't. I mean, that's the point seven days, month,
Speaker 1: twelve months, what else you need? Boom? You go further
Speaker 1: out than that, it gets murky. Yeah. So again, we
Speaker 1: have no idea when Easter falls this year, but we
Speaker 1: can tell you for certain it will fall between March
Speaker 1: one in April for all the reasons we just said
Speaker 1: March twenty two, twenty first, which is the vernal equinox.
Speaker 1: So there you go. All right, Um, So all of
Speaker 1: this is to say that Easter, if you're not getting
Speaker 1: the idea yet that we're using words like ecclesiastical and
Speaker 1: a word that's derived from the Greek for Passover. Easter
Speaker 1: is a very ancient tradition and custom in Christianity, but
Speaker 1: it's not mentioned in the Bible. Um the whole crucifixion, death,
Speaker 1: and resurrection of Jesus, which is what the Easter cello
Speaker 1: Easter season is meant to commemory. It's all in there,
Speaker 1: but they don't go and then now go forth and
Speaker 1: celebrate this that's not in there, right, And that is
Speaker 1: because it was co opted and absorbed by the Christian
Speaker 1: Church from ancient even more ancient um pagan holidays and rituals. Well,
Speaker 1: I think it initially was kind of like like they
Speaker 1: celebrated it right around Passover. I think it was kind
Speaker 1: of one of those things were like, hey, we've got
Speaker 1: this thing, we're commemorating, uh at about the same time
Speaker 1: you're used to commemorating Passover. So I know you're born
Speaker 1: Jewish and your most gonna be disappointed, but come over
Speaker 1: to the Christian side. And then later on when it
Speaker 1: spread out into Europe, it kind of took on all
Speaker 1: of the other stuff as well. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: even biblical scholars and and most historians will agree that
Speaker 1: it was originally a pagan festival. Uh. And the word
Speaker 1: Easter is from Saxon. The Saxon in origin e A
Speaker 1: s t r a Estra the goddess of Spring, and
Speaker 1: sacrifices were made in her honor around the same time
Speaker 1: as Passover, like you were saying, and so by the
Speaker 1: eight tree Anglo Saxon's basically co opted this name to
Speaker 1: uh coincide with the celebration of Christ resurrection. Yeah boom,
Speaker 1: And there's there was this article in The Guardian about
Speaker 1: the pagan roots of Easter um and the author I
Speaker 1: don't remember her name, but she basically says, like, you
Speaker 1: can take it even further back than that, to like
Speaker 1: Egypt and Mesopotamia and the if you've seen um Zeitgeist,
Speaker 1: which I realized is not the most credible movie on
Speaker 1: the planet, but it's interesting and there are some interesting
Speaker 1: conclusions in comparisons drawn between resurrection myths of you know,
Speaker 1: the Egyptians and the Mespotamians and others, and you know,
Speaker 1: the ones that celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Christ.
Speaker 1: And this author makes the case that like you can
Speaker 1: take the origins of Easter that far back even but
Speaker 1: then as it kind of went along and along and
Speaker 1: a long, it just picked up. Local traditions are absorbed
Speaker 1: or folded in local traditions until we have this Easter
Speaker 1: that we understand today, which includes the Easter Bunny. And
Speaker 1: the Easter Bunny apparently is born out of that pagan
Speaker 1: ritual um, the fernal equinox ritual spring ritual for how
Speaker 1: did you pronounce her name? The goddess of fertility and
Speaker 1: and renewal. Oh yeah, est her symbol was the hair,
Speaker 1: which became the rabbit, I guess, which are two different things,
Speaker 1: by the way, Yes they are. And so nowadays we
Speaker 1: have the Easter Bunny, which is a magical bunny that
Speaker 1: can lay eggs. Yeah, and the Germanic of course, the
Speaker 1: Germans always have their finger and everything, you know, like Chris,
Speaker 1: Christmas and all these holidays. Um, they always have their
Speaker 1: finger and everything. What does that even mean? Um? It
Speaker 1: is said that Ostara healed a wounded bird she found
Speaker 1: in the woods by changing it to a hair, and
Speaker 1: it was still partially bird though, and the hair showed
Speaker 1: its gratitude in return to the goddess by laying eggs
Speaker 1: as gifts. So also, and like we said, there's while
Speaker 1: people agree that it is pagan and origins, there are
Speaker 1: many many stories and no one can settle on the
Speaker 1: one saying no, it was ishtar right, But Star is
Speaker 1: one of them that they think could have been the
Speaker 1: original had had its roots there. Yeah. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: a Christian um and you don't have like your hands
Speaker 1: clamped to your ears and you're stomping your feet and
Speaker 1: like go la la la really loud, right now, you're
Speaker 1: probably saying, hold on, fellas, Yes, the Easter bunny not
Speaker 1: Christian in origin. Um, the the Easter egg not necessarily
Speaker 1: Christian in origin. Yes, there's a lot of pagan um
Speaker 1: land rituals, natural nature rituals that are incorporated in But
Speaker 1: if you take the whole thing back to the original
Speaker 1: as far as Christianity goes, what the whole thing is
Speaker 1: celebrating or observing is the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
Speaker 1: And so specific days over the Easter holiday have been
Speaker 1: um set aside to commemorate this problem, this process that
Speaker 1: took place about thirty c. Yeah, and even you know
Speaker 1: historians that say now it's you know, pagan in origin
Speaker 1: and it was maybe ishtar Um, they're not saying that
Speaker 1: Christ wasn't a person who was crucified, and uh, they're
Speaker 1: saying that they have. There were so many parallels that
Speaker 1: all these things kind of became crunched together at one
Speaker 1: point it was co opted. I'm trying to be respectful here,
Speaker 1: you know, does that make sense? So like they're not
Speaker 1: saying that it doesn't exist, but it was. It was
Speaker 1: a pattern, widespread pattern, and Christians like just kind of
Speaker 1: absorbed it. Well, yeah, it's a celebration part in this
Speaker 1: Guardian article again, and I think it's also in Zeitgeist.
Speaker 1: You can take it back even further before Mesopotamians and
Speaker 1: Egyptians ever existed and say that there's legends of the
Speaker 1: sun so and dying and then being resurrected um, and
Speaker 1: that you could connect those things to the sun as
Speaker 1: u n dying as winner sets in and then being
Speaker 1: resurrected in the spring, and connecting that with being crucified
Speaker 1: on the cross to the Southern Cross constellation. So these
Speaker 1: are possibly very very ancient conceptions. Yeah, and many and
Speaker 1: there were many, many stories of of of important people
Speaker 1: dying and being resurrected and some were born in December. Right,
Speaker 1: So if we have offended you we apologize. We weren't
Speaker 1: trying to. As a matter of fact, we just did
Speaker 1: a lot of tap d answering if you ask me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's history. Sure. So we'll get back to
Speaker 1: Easter in the Christian observance of Easter right after this.
Speaker 1: So chuck where you're back. And like I said a
Speaker 1: little while ago, Um, Easter in the Christian tradition commemorates
Speaker 1: the life, the death, and the resurrection of Christ, right,
Speaker 1: And so days are set aside to commemorate specific dates
Speaker 1: and specific events in Christ's life, and they're actually believed,
Speaker 1: at least by Christians and I think some historians as well,
Speaker 1: to kind of closely resemble the days of the week
Speaker 1: that these things happened. Yeah, I mean there's a whole
Speaker 1: Easter season, you know. Yeah, So the Easter season is
Speaker 1: technically forty six days long. And um, most people think, well,
Speaker 1: Lent is the Easter season and it's forty days long. True,
Speaker 1: But there are six Sundays in the Easter season, Easter
Speaker 1: Sunday being the sixth one, and those are considered special
Speaker 1: days where Lent doesn't apply. They exist outside of Lent
Speaker 1: because they're meant to be celebratory masses. That's right, so
Speaker 1: you technically don't have to observe your Lenten fast these days. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and Lenten was the original Middle English um, which is
Speaker 1: where lent came from. Meats spring. I thought it meant
Speaker 1: I'm not eating chocolate right now, it might for some people.
Speaker 1: Uh So let's talk about the season um Lent we
Speaker 1: mentioned um six weeks. Well, let's back up a little bit.
Speaker 1: Should we talk about Shrove Tuesday first? Yes, okay, you
Speaker 1: might know it is fat Tuesday or Marty Gras, yeah,
Speaker 1: which and I think fat Tuesday came from France when
Speaker 1: they would eat all the fatty foods ahead of uh Lent. Right,
Speaker 1: So basically that you know when you when you go
Speaker 1: through Lent, what you what you're supposed to do is
Speaker 1: sacrifice something or maybe many things, right, because you're commemorating
Speaker 1: Jesus is fast forty days after being baptized and um,
Speaker 1: practically speaking, back in the day, I guess Thomas Aquinas
Speaker 1: and some of his buds decided that when you are
Speaker 1: fasting for Lent, you're you're abstaining from animals that your
Speaker 1: food that is killed, so you're not eating chicken or
Speaker 1: duck or pig, cow, anything that you killed to eat.
Speaker 1: They decide fish too. Don't get me started on fish. Uh,
Speaker 1: And they decided that, Oh after thinking about this and
Speaker 1: talking about and discussing it and having counsels, and finally
Speaker 1: they came to a decree that not only is the
Speaker 1: food that you have to kill forbidden food during Lent,
Speaker 1: the products from those food are as well. So basically
Speaker 1: they're saying, like, if you're a if you're an observant Christian,
Speaker 1: you are you go vegan for the forty six days
Speaker 1: or forty days of Lents. Right. Many people, though, just
Speaker 1: choose embolically too, Like you said, I'm going to give
Speaker 1: up chocolate, just something that they love. I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: a sacrifice. I'm gonna give it up for Lent. Right.
Speaker 1: But the point of Shrove Tuesday is this is the
Speaker 1: last day before Lent. You don't want all this food
Speaker 1: to go to waste, so you make a bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff and you eat all of your supply and you
Speaker 1: get fat, and then you go into the Lent season
Speaker 1: of Lent fast. Right. Yeah, the UK, like, I've never
Speaker 1: heard of Shrove Tuesday, but it's big in the UK
Speaker 1: pancakes or the traditional meal because they contained fatty milk
Speaker 1: and eggs and things like that. Yeah, and eggs are
Speaker 1: forbidden because they're product of those animals you kill well
Speaker 1: and stuff that would go bad over the next forty days.
Speaker 1: So it's also a way to not waste your food.
Speaker 1: And uh, it's the Tuesday before ash Wednesday, um, which
Speaker 1: is next. So ash Wednesday is the first day of
Speaker 1: the Lenten Fast, That's right, and um, basically it it
Speaker 1: You're you're going into this fast and you are, um,
Speaker 1: you're just kind of becoming uber Christian at that moment,
Speaker 1: like you're taking on like just just just super Christian
Speaker 1: persona and you're like it's very solemn. And to commemorate it,
Speaker 1: you get a cross of ashes placed on your forehead
Speaker 1: and the cross is made from the palm fronds from
Speaker 1: last year's Palm Sunday service should be, which we'll talk
Speaker 1: about later. But they save them, they burn them, and
Speaker 1: they used the ash of these blessed fronds to put
Speaker 1: crosses on the foreheads of the penitents the next Ash Wednesday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the palm fronds are significant as the what they
Speaker 1: used to um fan Jesus when he was resurrected. Correct, No,
Speaker 1: when he wrote into Jerusalem on a donkey. And it
Speaker 1: was when he wrote into Jerusalem triumphantly to take his
Speaker 1: title as the King of Kings that they wave palm fronts. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're like Jesus is here. That's the impression I have
Speaker 1: of the palm fronts. Um Man. I was really paying
Speaker 1: attention in confirmation class. Um, so quickly, if you see someone,
Speaker 1: if you're not very religious, if you see someone with
Speaker 1: the ashes on their head, um, anytime in the spring,
Speaker 1: don't say, hey, you've got something in your head. You
Speaker 1: got a little uh yeah, don't do that. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: it's there for a reason. Um. All right, where are
Speaker 1: we now? We are at Lent. Yeah, so we're in
Speaker 1: the middle of Lent. You're starting to think, wow, some
Speaker 1: eggs would be great. I wish I had some shrove
Speaker 1: cakes or anything made from an animal or animal itself.
Speaker 1: Or you're not saying that. Maybe you're just fine with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of people who don't necessarily follow that
Speaker 1: traditional vegan fast. Um, but we'll give up something for lent.
Speaker 1: The chocolate candy. I always tried homework. It never worked. Um,
Speaker 1: did you really. Yeah, Yeah, it's just jokingly, you know,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, I'm gonna give up homework. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: never even growing up in the church, I never observed
Speaker 1: Um maybe it was Baptist didn't observe it as much,
Speaker 1: but I never observed Lent. It was big time Catholic,
Speaker 1: especially with my family. It was like you gotta give
Speaker 1: up something. So typically you'll give up chocolate, and you
Speaker 1: give up chocolate and then when Easter Sunday comes along
Speaker 1: and Len is over, yeah, you get chocolate all over
Speaker 1: your face, which is actually following in a pretty old tradition,
Speaker 1: because that's where Easter eggs came from the giving of
Speaker 1: Easter eggs. It was a forbidden food that you couldn't
Speaker 1: have during Lent. So then when Easter Sunday came, people
Speaker 1: would give each other eggs as gifts, like, hey, enjoy
Speaker 1: the heck out of this egg because you have an
Speaker 1: ad one in forty days. Yeah, and the egg obviously
Speaker 1: also being a symbol of um birth, new life, new life, spring,
Speaker 1: pagan vernal rituals. Perhaps um so now we are at
Speaker 1: Palm Sunday, that's right. And then, like we said, this
Speaker 1: commemorates Jesus triumphantly coming into Jerusalem to claim his title,
Speaker 1: and people wave palms to welcome him in. And then
Speaker 1: so people have palm fronds at Palm Sunday services, and
Speaker 1: remember they hang on to those and burn them and
Speaker 1: use them for the next Easter is ash Wednesday. So
Speaker 1: this is the last Sunday before Easter. I have palm
Speaker 1: fronds in my yard. You should sell them to some Christians. Well,
Speaker 1: it's going to give them away. Oh I guess you
Speaker 1: could do that too. But last year's palm fronds are
Speaker 1: now hanging dead on my palm tree. Well it's they
Speaker 1: don't have to be a year old. It's just the
Speaker 1: ones that were used during the Palm Sunday service. And
Speaker 1: we're blessed last year, so they probably wouldn't want my palms.
Speaker 1: I don't want year old palms. You want like fresh
Speaker 1: ones for Palm Sunday. Yeah, but you want them to
Speaker 1: be old for the following Ash Wednesday a year later.
Speaker 1: That's right. And holy water I don't think we mentioned,
Speaker 1: is used, uh with the ashes to put on the forehead.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, makes a little very important mostly like
Speaker 1: a paste, charcoali paste. Okay, then we're at mondy Thursday. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the wildly underrated Mandy Thursday. Um, why is it wildly underrated?
Speaker 1: Because you never hear about it? It's true, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about it until we researched this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Monday spelling uh m a u n d y not
Speaker 1: Monday Thursday, it'd be weird. Um. And a mond or
Speaker 1: manned is a basket and they were used by fishermen
Speaker 1: to put their fish in. So many many years ago
Speaker 1: there was a fair held in Norwich or Norfolk today
Speaker 1: and basically a big just sale where like a flea market,
Speaker 1: and the fisherman would carry their what this flea market
Speaker 1: associated with Easter's hilarious? Yeah it is people would sell
Speaker 1: their wares, you know, or let's call it a not
Speaker 1: a flea market, but what do you call it when
Speaker 1: they have the farmer's market, like a farmer's market or
Speaker 1: like a market. Yeah, but they were selling uff from
Speaker 1: the farm. Yeah, but they also had like clothing and
Speaker 1: stuff too, so it's a good point. Supermarket Okay, it's
Speaker 1: a supermarket. Um. The fisherman obviously would put the fish
Speaker 1: in their mom's and um that's basically where the name
Speaker 1: came from. It's kind of that simple. Yeah, everybody would
Speaker 1: just come together and um buy new clothes. You would
Speaker 1: buy new clothes. And that's where the ancient tradition that
Speaker 1: your mom had you follow with your pink suspenders. Something new.
Speaker 1: The Easter bonnet, they believe, came from that too, new
Speaker 1: little Easter dress or Easter shoes or something like that.
Speaker 1: Having something new on Easter. Customarily you will buy that
Speaker 1: on Mandy Thursday, or at the very least it came
Speaker 1: out of the Mandy Thursday market from the old English,
Speaker 1: that's right. And the other tradition we had was to
Speaker 1: sneer at all the people who would show up for church,
Speaker 1: who we never saw the rest of the year. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: we'd be like, oh, I remember that Eastern Christmas saw
Speaker 1: him last Yeah, I saw him a few months ago.
Speaker 1: There's whole sub soul of the subside of Christians that
Speaker 1: are like Easter Christmas Christians. That's right. They just go
Speaker 1: for the two big ones. I remember them. So you judge, huh,
Speaker 1: I did so wrong? I cast the out. Are we
Speaker 1: a good Friday yet? Fine? Please tell me we're a
Speaker 1: good Friday? Um that day. Back in the ancient times,
Speaker 1: the first two centuries. Good and God we're sort of synonymous.
Speaker 1: And I guess is that where the word good comes from.
Speaker 1: I would guess as a descriptor of God. Yes, they
Speaker 1: couldn't be bothered to keep that second. Oh, en, that's right.
Speaker 1: But Good Friday is the commemoration of the crucifixion on
Speaker 1: the Cross, the actually day of crucifixion, and um, it
Speaker 1: is somber, but they want to observe the peace and
Speaker 1: not necessarily the sadness. All right, it's not supposed to
Speaker 1: be a dave morning. No, no, it's but it's still somber.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you put it. I remember Good
Speaker 1: Friday messes. I can't quite describe the tone of them.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's not it's not you're not celebrating, but
Speaker 1: you're also not. Um it's a little more serious though,
Speaker 1: maybe yeah, okay, um. And it's just so interesting these
Speaker 1: these days, these holy days during the Eastern season. You
Speaker 1: learned so much because the whole thing is like this
Speaker 1: happened this day, like on a Friday. They're pretty sure
Speaker 1: that Christ was crucified on a Friday, because remember, the
Speaker 1: Romans were in charge of actually executing him, and they
Speaker 1: kept excellent records, so we have a pretty good idea
Speaker 1: of all this stuff. Um. So you you just learned
Speaker 1: so much like the Stations of the Cross, did you
Speaker 1: guys do that? I don't think any Catholic church has
Speaker 1: different places. They can be really elaborate, they can be
Speaker 1: and staying glass, they can be just a little number
Speaker 1: or something like that. It's the station of the Cross,
Speaker 1: and it follows Christ's path while he's carrying the crucifix
Speaker 1: and being tortured along the way up to cavalry. And um,
Speaker 1: it's placed on the cross. And as you know, it's
Speaker 1: all just just steeping, uh, this ancient tradition into you,
Speaker 1: this young ankle kate, you know. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're just paying attention, it's really interesting
Speaker 1: historically as yeah. Um, and you learned it over and
Speaker 1: over and over and over again because you hear the
Speaker 1: same thing every Easter. Yeah. I think that's you know,
Speaker 1: it's part of the ideas. You get it ingrained in
Speaker 1: you so deeply. You know. Um, we should have just
Speaker 1: called this former Baptist and former Catholic hang on by
Speaker 1: the skin of their teeth. Well, let's keep everybody else
Speaker 1: hanging and um, let's break before Easter. Huh yeah, alright, Chuck,
Speaker 1: we're back. Let's get to the fun stuff. It's Easter,
Speaker 1: that's right, Easter. So we said good Friday, isn't It's
Speaker 1: not a day of morning, but it's a somber day.
Speaker 1: Easter is the exact opposite of that. First of all,
Speaker 1: we should say, yeah, it's Saturday. Off, Now it's Sunday,
Speaker 1: Easter Sunday, and it's a day of celebration. Yeah, a
Speaker 1: lot of fun. Um. You in your family, you might
Speaker 1: have Easter egg hunts. I looked up the origin of
Speaker 1: the hunt itself, and I couldn't find for sure, because
Speaker 1: I don't think they know for sure. But there are
Speaker 1: some historians who think they can trace it to Martin Luther,
Speaker 1: the Protestant Christian reformer. He's supposedly the guy who invented
Speaker 1: the Christmas tree. To wow, man, look at that got
Speaker 1: a long legacy. Christmas tree and the Easter egg hunt?
Speaker 1: How about that? Um? So East he supposedly definitely had
Speaker 1: Easter egg hunts. Supposedly definitely um where he hid eggs,
Speaker 1: men had eggs, and women and children would look for
Speaker 1: the eggs. And they think it may be tied with
Speaker 1: people looking and hunting for Jesus tomb um. But that
Speaker 1: isn't verified because some you know, some of these traditions,
Speaker 1: no one can trace back the exact origin. You know. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but if it was Martin Luther, I mean that wasn't
Speaker 1: too terribly long ago. Now that's a good point. You
Speaker 1: mentioned eggs, uh, And we talked about eggs being a
Speaker 1: symbol of newness and fertility and rebirth, and this goes
Speaker 1: back to dyeing eggs. Goes back to ancient Egypt and
Speaker 1: the Persians who would die eggs and exchange them with friends,
Speaker 1: like you said, as a reminder of the resurrection. And
Speaker 1: I guess, just to make a plain white or brown
Speaker 1: egg look a little more fancy, they died him colorful. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And so eggs are also customarily died red to to
Speaker 1: symbolize the blood of Christ. They're also dyed green in
Speaker 1: Germany and Austria. Yeah. I looked all over for this this.
Speaker 1: The only reason I could find is that they're they're
Speaker 1: meant to symbolize the bitter herbs that Christ was forced
Speaker 1: to eat while he was on the cross. Interesting, pretty
Speaker 1: pretty on collie, Huh. Yeah, But they I think in
Speaker 1: Germany they still do that Thursdayday, Green Egg Day. I
Speaker 1: should also give a shout out chuck to our slide
Speaker 1: show on awesome Easter eggs. We'll definitely post that on
Speaker 1: the podcast page. And scary Easter bunnies. Yeah, you had
Speaker 1: a couple, look at easter ones. Will put those both
Speaker 1: the good There are some scary easter bunnies out there. Um,
Speaker 1: hot cross buns again, not a part of my Baptist upbringing. No,
Speaker 1: did you guys have hot cross buns? No, that's pretty British.
Speaker 1: And um, they had them in New Zealand. I've never
Speaker 1: seen a reform in person until New Zealand. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I haven't either. But yeah, apparently they're sweet buns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: custom merrily baked and eaten and um, it's funny. Is
Speaker 1: apparently is again an ancient pagan Anglo tradition to bake
Speaker 1: sweet buns as an offering to the gods around the
Speaker 1: vernal equinox for this ring festival. And I guess the
Speaker 1: Christian Church said, uh, let's let's stop doing that again
Speaker 1: and again and it didn't take in. Finally, like put
Speaker 1: a cross on there, Okay, we'll kill you. Put a
Speaker 1: cross on, So they put across on and now you
Speaker 1: have hot cross buns. Well, supposedly the cross was there before,
Speaker 1: but it didn't symbolize that because they baked the cake
Speaker 1: in the form of a bowl for Zeus and there
Speaker 1: was a cross to represent the horns. Yeah, but again,
Speaker 1: let's like, let's make some changes to that. And uh
Speaker 1: so hot cross buns are still a thing. I've never
Speaker 1: eaten one though I haven't either, But apparently they're sweet.
Speaker 1: Oh are they? Well? Yeah, like they are they sticky buns?
Speaker 1: I don't think, but I think they're sweet. Okay, we'll
Speaker 1: go good, all right. Uh And I think what I
Speaker 1: thought was pretty interesting with some of the weird um
Speaker 1: traditions around the world. They're weird because they're different. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean when I say weird, I just mean unusual.
Speaker 1: To me. Here's a big dummy peculiar. Yeah, nothing apparently
Speaker 1: is weird about any of this. Uh. In Bulgaria they
Speaker 1: had a little thing called egg tapping, but they still
Speaker 1: do um. And it's basically like the old pencil game
Speaker 1: used to play in elementary school, the old stab your
Speaker 1: buddy in the arm with a pencil. Nope, When you
Speaker 1: would play the pencil popper game when you would try
Speaker 1: and break the other guy's pencil and they would try
Speaker 1: to break yours. It's basically what you do with eggs.
Speaker 1: You take hardboiled eggs and you tap the other person's egg,
Speaker 1: hoping to crack their egg but not your own. And
Speaker 1: you keep doing this until you get your egg cracked,
Speaker 1: and then you're out. And the last person in Bulgaria
Speaker 1: who has an uncracked egg is said to have, you know,
Speaker 1: good good luck throughout the year prosperity. They get a
Speaker 1: fifty gift card to long Horn Steaks. That's right. Um.
Speaker 1: There's another cute Bulgarian tradition to chuck that where the grandmother,
Speaker 1: while she's coloring eggs with the kids, will color one
Speaker 1: red and have the kids come over and she rubs
Speaker 1: it on their cheeks in order to bestow you know,
Speaker 1: health and robustness to them, like rosy cheeks. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: like the cutest thing you've ever heard. It's adorable, especially
Speaker 1: if they're wearing pink suspenders at the time. That's right,
Speaker 1: And especially if the dye is made from a non
Speaker 1: toxic let them work their teeth is immediately fall out.
Speaker 1: That would be no good, uh. In Mexico they have
Speaker 1: another egg game. And uh, the way I see it
Speaker 1: is they empty the egg of the yolk and the
Speaker 1: and the white. You know how you can poke the
Speaker 1: little holes and either end of an egg and blow
Speaker 1: it out. And then they put um, I guess confetti
Speaker 1: in there and then they smash them on each other's heads.
Speaker 1: They blow the egg out and blow the confettian. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I got one liner for everything you do. All right?
Speaker 1: How about how about the US where we just have parades? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got nothing. You put me on the spot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: parades here in the US and Atlantic City they've had
Speaker 1: one for about a close to a hundred and fifty years. Now,
Speaker 1: did you know that? No, I had no idea there's
Speaker 1: an Easter parade. I'd want to see that. I know
Speaker 1: that when I think about the New York one. There's
Speaker 1: a New York Easter parade. Yeah. Um, I think Fifth
Speaker 1: Avenue has an Easter parade. Oh yeah, yeah, I see that.
Speaker 1: And Irving Berlin has a song called Easter Parade, and
Speaker 1: of course the Big White House Easter roll. I knew
Speaker 1: about this. I always thought it was just the Easter
Speaker 1: egg hunt, though I didn't know about the Easter egg roll.
Speaker 1: I think it's part of it where you rolling Easter
Speaker 1: egg across the south flant of the White House. It's
Speaker 1: kind of like track and field Day. No, that's the
Speaker 1: egg toss. Well, the whole thing altogether. It's like a hunt.
Speaker 1: There's like an egg roll, there's an egg toss. There's
Speaker 1: celebrities around the USO tour that stopped by. It's like
Speaker 1: field Day. George Clooney is there all right, given out
Speaker 1: eggs and you get your commemorative egg do yeah. And
Speaker 1: apparently it started out Congress had it um on the
Speaker 1: Capitol and the President, well a specific President Rotherford B.
Speaker 1: Hayes said no, this is the president's thing. Now we're
Speaker 1: moving this to the White House, and then did yeah.
Speaker 1: Announced just one of those things, sort of like the
Speaker 1: sparing the turkey on Thanksgiving. This big press op is
Speaker 1: what it is. Well, it's funny that you mentioned sparing
Speaker 1: the turkey on Thanksgiving because there's this other tradition in
Speaker 1: um in where is it, Haltan, Leicestershire, right in England,
Speaker 1: and it's the opposite of sparing the turkey. So there's
Speaker 1: a tradition in this little town that a wealthy woman
Speaker 1: was spared from being gored to death by a bull
Speaker 1: when a hair ran across its path and I guess
Speaker 1: distracted the bowl or something. So for some reason, to
Speaker 1: thank the hair, she deeded some of her land to
Speaker 1: the local church and said, you can have this land,
Speaker 1: but you have to make sure that all of the
Speaker 1: parishioners and everyone in the town gets some hair pie
Speaker 1: like pie made from one of these rabbit type things
Speaker 1: that saved her life. That's the way to thank something
Speaker 1: for saving your life. You and you're ancestors are gonna
Speaker 1: end up in a meat pie that we're gonna make
Speaker 1: every year for everybody. Yeah. Four pounds of flour, two
Speaker 1: pounds of large two hairs, three pounds of onions, seven
Speaker 1: pounds of potatoes and seasoning, and you have yourself a
Speaker 1: deliciously disgusting hair pie. I think it sounds good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I don't eat rabbit and stuff, so there or
Speaker 1: meat pies. Really really, this takes a lot of boxes
Speaker 1: for me. You mean I tried um. I can't remember
Speaker 1: what it's called them. It was a type of meat
Speaker 1: pie again in New Zealand, UM at McDonald's, and it
Speaker 1: was like this, like cut up meat and gravy and
Speaker 1: cheese like pop pie. Basically, it's what you call it.
Speaker 1: It was so disgustingly good. Yeah, it tastes good though, Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I felt in that McDonald's really bad about myself
Speaker 1: with everybody. But it still tasted good. Do you know
Speaker 1: what meat it was? Uh? They claimed beef. So it's
Speaker 1: a beefy gravy, yes, with cheese in it. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's delicious actually. Um. But then here's where it gets
Speaker 1: really a little odd to me. To go along with
Speaker 1: the hair pie, they have um, uh, something called the
Speaker 1: bottle kicking, which is basically rugby with a beer kick. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Three beer kigs, two of them are full of a
Speaker 1: gallon of beer each. This is part of that wealthy
Speaker 1: lady who deeded the land's request that not only did
Speaker 1: you have to serve a meat pie to everybody, you
Speaker 1: also had to give them as much ale as they wanted.
Speaker 1: So all this is commemorated in a the making of
Speaker 1: a hair pie by the people of this little town.
Speaker 1: They carry it through the town up to St. Mark's
Speaker 1: I believe it's St. Mark St Michael's Church, and um,
Speaker 1: the I guess the priest, the local priest cuts the
Speaker 1: pie up, hands it out to the crowd that takes
Speaker 1: some of that pie over to another place that's called
Speaker 1: hair Pie Bank, which is a not a bank, but
Speaker 1: an embankment. It's like a procession. The ends there, and
Speaker 1: that's where this bottle kicking match starts. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: it's it's a couple of neighboring villages that basically battle
Speaker 1: it out. And like we said, they're basically barrels of ale.
Speaker 1: Like I think you said to have ale, one does not.
Speaker 1: And you know, there's all the ceremony that goes into
Speaker 1: the actual starting of the match, and then when the
Speaker 1: match starts, it's a game of sort of rugby your
Speaker 1: football if you're American, where you're trying, you know, you're
Speaker 1: carrying this thing around, running with it, trying to get it,
Speaker 1: kicking it, yeah, kicking it, running with it, doing whatever
Speaker 1: you can to get it, handing it off to your
Speaker 1: friends to uh to advance it forward with obstacles along
Speaker 1: the way like fists. And this is another clear example
Speaker 1: of Christianity co opting a pagan ritual because hair Pie
Speaker 1: Bank is an old pagan place of worse. And if
Speaker 1: this whole thing doesn't smack of pagan tradition, like pagan
Speaker 1: festival games. I don't know what does. Plus the chairman,
Speaker 1: the guy who's running the bottle kicking competition, is called
Speaker 1: the Master of the Stow as t O w e oh.
Speaker 1: I thought he was called the wicker man pretty much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all the started it's Stonehenge basically, but now it's an
Speaker 1: inter tradition and the Master of the stow. Stow means
Speaker 1: a place of worship among Anglo pagan's, so they still
Speaker 1: even call him the Master of the Stow. It's been
Speaker 1: dressed up that little, yeah, But they have a good
Speaker 1: time and it's bizarre, and they they advanced the barrel
Speaker 1: over to their the way the best I can see
Speaker 1: is that to their to like the line of their village.
Speaker 1: The property line of their village is like the end zone,
Speaker 1: I guess. Then they drink it right, well, the winners
Speaker 1: drink it in front of the losers, but just to
Speaker 1: kind of make them sore and rub it. If I
Speaker 1: know my friends over there, there's plenty of beer aside
Speaker 1: from those two barrels right to go around. And then
Speaker 1: the one sober person is in charge of collecting all
Speaker 1: of the palm fronds from palm Sunday and storing them
Speaker 1: until next year in that giant wicker man in my backyard. Well,
Speaker 1: that's Easter, Chuck, that's Easter. If you want to know
Speaker 1: more about Easter, you can type in those that word
Speaker 1: in the search part of how Stuff Works dot com.
Speaker 1: And since I said that, it's time for a listener, ma'am,
Speaker 1: thank you Easter bunny. Boch boch. Remember that I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call this um a little more on tea. I got
Speaker 1: a couple of these actually in the coming weeks, because boy,
Speaker 1: we've got some good feedback. People love their tea. Uh.
Speaker 1: Greetings from Kyoto fellows. I'm a longtime listener. Um. I
Speaker 1: actually started listening when I just moved to Japan and
Speaker 1: didn't know anyone yet, so you guys kept me company.
Speaker 1: It was really great to hear you talking about Macha
Speaker 1: on your latest podcast about tea, because I had no
Speaker 1: idea it was catching on state side here in Kyoto.
Speaker 1: Macha flavored. Every ng is given. There's even a drink
Speaker 1: made of Woolong tea and Macha liqueur um. Apparently, I
Speaker 1: don't think she likes the look, war though she says
Speaker 1: I live down the street from where one of the
Speaker 1: three main schools of t CEREMONI used to be. Uh.
Speaker 1: And while I'm here, I thought i'd add my two
Speaker 1: cents about pronouncing Japanese words. Um, they're basically just five
Speaker 1: foul sounds in Japanese. A is a long a like
Speaker 1: ball rather than apple. I sounds like e. E sounds
Speaker 1: like oh, sounds like oh as in rainbow. You sounds
Speaker 1: like oh is in goo. And why is an a vowel?
Speaker 1: It will always be connected to another vowel. Ah for
Speaker 1: you to how about that? Okay? Uh? And she this
Speaker 1: is Nikki. She's getting up for cherry blossom festival in Kyoto,
Speaker 1: which I bet is gorgeous. And um she said, Josh
Speaker 1: that if you ever venture out to Kyoto again, that
Speaker 1: she would love to let you know some things that
Speaker 1: you can do. And um, she says, I love the podcast.
Speaker 1: You can't wait to the next one, And that is
Speaker 1: Nicky Maller. Thanks a lot. Yeah, um, yeah, I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see the cherry blossoms there. Deec has got
Speaker 1: an amazing one too. Um. Yeah, it's beautiful, it's lovely trees.
Speaker 1: Uh if and Chuck, I gotta tell you it makes
Speaker 1: a lovely coffee. To Starbucks over in Okinawa had a
Speaker 1: cherry blossom flavored coffee, which is this It's kind of
Speaker 1: a made up sweet flavor, but it is so it's
Speaker 1: not derived from the tree. I don't see how it
Speaker 1: could be interesting, but it has like it fits perfectly.
Speaker 1: You're like, yes, this is what an ideal cartoonist Japanese
Speaker 1: version of the taste of cherry bossom would be. It's
Speaker 1: perfect um. Anyway, if you want to get in touch
Speaker 1: with us, you can tweet to us at s y
Speaker 1: s K podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com,
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Speaker 1: emails to stuff podcast at how stuff Works dot com
Speaker 1: and has always joined us at at home on the
Speaker 1: web Stuff you Should Know dot com. For more on
Speaker 1: this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com.