The Red Brick Times

ANCIENT GREECE: The winter solstice ritual was called Lenaea, the Festival of the Wild Women. In very ancient times, a man representing the harvest god Dionysos was torn to pieces and eaten by a gang of women on this day. Later in the ritual, Dionysos would be reborn as a baby. By classical times, the human sacrifice had been replaced by the killing of a goat. The women's role had changed to that of funeral mourners and observers of the birth.

And that's what it is all about - sharing food that we brought into the world or made by our own selves. I am sorry, but the thought of grazing at a commercial groaning board to revere the solstice and each other leaves me with an unfullfilled hollow in the center.

And so, I'm offering this simple phrase, for kids from...wait...wrong holiday.

And so, I am offering this Anti-Solstice-Social (or Anti-Social-Solstice, if you prefer). Totally anarchtic. Totally unorganized. Totally free form. On occasional Fridays for the past lifetime or two, a bunch of my OTHER friends (yes, there are some) have fallen together to argue and eat and be hysterical . Since Solstice and Friday coincide this year, we have all been invited to Byron and Alice's house to share the darkness and banish misfortune. Byron just left his job, too, and would be happy to be histronic and random among the odd and polyglot.

Bring a something. Beer. Pepper poppers. Chateaubriand. Ice cream. Toys and gadgets. Exploding cigars. Utopian schemes. Perpetual energy. Instruments of musical destruction. Or the odd road kill ("From your grill, to ours!").

Call me to talk you in. I think this will be the non-commercial, non-organized, non-compos-mentis event that certifies our right to exist. Tell 'em Andy sent you, then duck.
Posted 8:53 AM by Andy (2) comments

       Comments:

Polydor Virgil, an early British Christian, said "Dancing, masques, mummeries, stageplays, and other such Christmas disorders now in use with Christians, were derived from these Roman Saturnalian and Bacchanalian festivals; which should cause all pious Christians eternally to abominate them."

So this is more than enough reason for us to revel in them after all. Sally, Ray - Haven't heard from you in a while. Come on down!

# posted by  Andy : December 22, 2006 9:48 AM
 
Well, we can start the new year now. We were successful in getting the earth to tilt back on its axis once again. Life consists of a tug of war between the Northern attractors and the Southern attractors. We haul on the rope in December to yank the sun back up here, and our opposites strain in June to move it back South of the equator. And the US Gummint is planning a permanent base on the moon by 2030, at the lunar North Pole. Santa is emigrating. Elves in space. Can flying reindeer reach escape velocity?

Nobody else showed up at Byron and Alice's. They were disappointed, having wanted some new blood, I mean to meet new friends.

Betsy and I stopped in N. Ridgebill at 5:30 to say hi to Tim. We came back at 9:30 to see Carol, Katko, Clayton, Jim F., Linda W, Marge, Ray and Alice, John's sister Eleanor, and a cast of thousands (well, dozens. OK, tens). Russ and Ralph had been and gone before we returned. Sally was occupied with a houseful of guests and sent solstice greetings in absentia.

Poor Richard's Pub is the first floor of a house opened up to accommodate pews and chairs set around tables for dining. The Smokin' Fez Monkeys include a stand-up bassist, a guitarist/vocalist, bantar/kazoo/jug/noises (Tim), a fiddler and a percussionist. They play a mix of humorous. traditional and original stuff.

# posted by  Andy : December 23, 2006 7:20 AM
 
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