Thursday, June 25, 2015

Happy Belated John the Baptist Birthday #Fortnight4Freedom

June 24 is both pagan Midsummer's Day and the Catholic traditional celebration of St John the Baptist's birthday. Catholics will contend they are counterprogramming against the heathen pagans. Protestants will counter this is an example of evil papist syncretism.

This interesting note would only convince 7th Day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses that Catholics are totally pagan:



"Yesterday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist! An interesting note: When St. John sent his disciples to follow Jesus, he said: He must increase, I must decrease. Well, When John the Baptist was born, the days are decreasing in length and when Jesus was born the days are increasing in length! Nature in line with Faith! I found this fascinating!
I must decrease and He must increase. "
And a hippy song that puts John 3:30 to music:





Neopagans and atheists also view these correlations as evidence that all of Christianity is bogus:





A brief description of some of the old pagan rituals associated with this day.

From Lee, Kay, Marshall Lee, Kate Greenaway, and Eugène Grasset. The Illuminated Book of Days. New York: Putnam, 1979. Print.

























































John the Baptist is usually depicted in Catholic iconography carrying a lamb which represents Jesus.


From Plummer, John. The Hours of Catherine of Cleves. New York: George Braziller, 1966. Print.



















































































Protestant William Blake continues to employ the imagery as Jesus as Lamb of God.


From Harvey, Gail. Prayers and Graces: A Lovely Collection for Boys and Girls. New York: JellyBean, 1993. Print.


















































































































If you've forgotten, John the Baptist is Jesus's cousin. Mary visited John's Mother, Elizabeth.

From Meiss, Millard, and Edith W. Kirsch. The Visconti Hours: National Library, Florence. New York: George Braziller, 1972. Print.




































































If you've also forgotten, John's Dad, Zachary, was skeptical that his elderly wife, Elizabeth, could bear children, so God struck him mute as a punishment for doubting God's power. Zachary's muteness is depicted in the illuminated manuscript as poor Zach having to carry around a scroll w/which he had to communicate with written versus spoken word:


























The EWTN Christopher's "Joyful Hour" made for TV film has poor Zach carrying a slate around on which to write and communicate.


Zachary's prayer from Lord, Daniel A. The Sodality Manual. Rev. ed. St. Louis, MO.: Queen's Work, 1945. Print.

















































































EWTN "Feasts and Seasons" points out most people probably don't want to be Biblically authentic and partake of John the Baptist's standard menu of locusts:


"St. John the Baptist is said to have lived on locusts and wild honey. The carob bean is associated with the locusts in its shape.  Carob powder makes an excellent substitute for cocoa in cakes, and is some allege it’s an excellent alternative to chocolate for those who suffer migraines.” - Joanna


However, Secular Humanist poet Merwin points out modern man, in studiously eschewing John's simplicity, eats far more peculiar ingredients unthinkingly.


From Stubbs, Marcia, and Sylvan Barnet. The Little, Brown Reader. 3rd ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1983. Print.






































































FYI, genius.com has a link to "Make this Simple Test" where contributors can guess the brand names of the products Merwin described in this essay with his blindfolded ingredients lists.

The genius guess for the first ingredient list was a Hershey candy bar. Since the list includes flour, eggs, and a leavening agent (yeast), I'm guessing Merwin was describing some type of cake or cookie. I'm going with Ding Dongs:









Genius guess for second list was potato chips. Since Merwin specifically said "anhydrated" aka dried potatoes, I'm guessing specifically Pringles:
















It looks like Pringles took this Merwin blind folded taste test seriously, according to their recent commercial, which, presumably misses the entire pedagogical pedantic point Merwin was making:




Pringles silliness inspired others to follow their lead:




Lastly, geniuses guessed Slim Jims for the third ingredient list. However, Slim Jims have both paprika and pork, not listed in above prose poem:













I'm guessing Merwin referred to a pure beef stick, since it also includes BHA and BHT for freshness:














It seems some people took Merwin's seemingly rhetorical question literally and still munch down on low carbohydrate, low carbon footprint locusts:








And, lastly, the character of John is the voice crying out in the wilderness:


















singing the hippy song from the hippy musical "Godspell": "Prepare ye the Way of the Lord", a perennial mainstay in post Vatican II US masses:

Posted by adagioforstrings at 8:40:00 PM
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