Journal

My grandmother used to talk about the May Day celebrations that they would have at school when she was a young girl. Stories of May Day queens and crowns, poesies, dancing around the maypole and with flower boughs were some of her favorite to share with me while we worked in the garden together in the early days of spring. It seemed almost mythical to me, as May Day was not something we celebrated or talked about much at all during my years. Sometime in the last century, May Day stopped being a widely celebrated holiday in America. There are pockets around the country that still celebrate in small towns, but it is quickly becoming a forgotten holiday.

This year for Holy Week, we came across an old master whose art is new to us: James Tissot. Tissot had spent much of his career depicting fashionable scenes of London and Paris, but in his later years, his focus returned to the deep Catholic roots of his upbringing, creating 365 gouache paintings of the life of Jesus Christ.

As we pored over the collection, we were deeply touched by the intricacy and empathy in his scenes. It feels as if Tissot had pondered a lot on what those in the Savior's inner social circles would have seen, heard, and felt as they walked with him through the many experiences described in the New Testament. Considering the words of Emerson above, Tissot must have lifted his heart to the highest imaginations of the story of Jesus Christ to have so artfully conceived his story as paintings.

Pysanky eggs are decorated using a wax resist method to layer colors onto an egg. Melted wax is applied to the egg in patterns using this tool called a kistka. It's like painting with wax. This year we tried our hand at dying our eggs using this method. It was a slow and meditative process and I just absolutely loved it. It is an art form of its own and there was something beautiful about the creation of something so beautiful.

When you visit foreign lands, you start to see why their ancient peoples believed in the myths they did. Driving the carved canyons of Norway, through incomprehensibly large mountains and over fields of snow that stretch farther than a mind can contain, I myself nearly began to believe in ogres, giants, and dragons. The lakes of Scotland, their rippling surfaces peppered by sudden rainstorms, give any wanderer cause to look twice for the Loch Ness monster.

And in Ireland, the mythical creatures just on the edge of belief are fairies.

As best as I can tell, this recipe has its origins in the Amish community. In the 1960's this bread, or at least a very similar recipe, was the winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off competition. Its a no-knead bread with cottage cheese, rich dried onion and dill flavors. I love it on St. Patrick's Day, but it's also just a generally good recipe for an out of the ordinary bread recipe. 

One of the most endearing German traditions though has had a slower entrance into American homes. It is the tradition of the advent wreath.

The story goes that young orphans at a seminary in Germany would ask the pastor each day if it was yet Christmas. Perhaps wearied of their questioning or desiring to help them count the days down, he built a wreath from an old wagonwheel, with 20 small red candles and 4 large white ones to countdown the coming of Christmas.....