assorted thoughts of no particular significance

[edenfalling]

Re "Paint the Town": The assorted club-goers have rather drunkenly Apparated to Ginny and Hermione's flat. The threesome have gone off to have sex -- we will return to them later -- while Ginny is contemplating how to get a drunk and sleeping Hermione into bed -- no, not that way! Not yet, at least.

In non-fic news, Sunday school went well. This week we did Sukkot. Next week (which I should not really be teaching, but Magdalen and I traded days) we're doing Simhat Torah.

Which means that by the time we reach a non-Jewish holiday -- two weeks from now -- I won't get to do it! Wah! Much unfairness!

Oh well. I have nothing against Jewish holidays, but it's beginning to feel a little weird for me as a non-Jew.

Also, we got a new TV in the house, as a replacement for the old broken one. Rajesh and I celebrated by watching football. The Giants and the Packers sucked ass today. And there were some really bizarre goof-ups in the Bills vs. Patriots game too, though that one had a somewhat higher quality of play.

Occasionally I wonder why more women don't like football -- it's such a fun game to watch! Then I look at all the totally guy-oriented ads, and the completely male-dominated sports-casting teams, and it makes a little more sense to me.

I still love watching the game, though.

Comments

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Oh well. I have nothing against Jewish holidays, but it's beginning to feel a little weird for me as a non-Jew.

My congregation shares its building with a small Reconstructionist Jewish congregation. They erected their Sukkot pavilion (whatever it's called) in our backyard a few days ago. So Maya wanted to know what "that thing in the back yard" was when we went to church yesterday. Yeah, there are tons of Jewish holidays and festivals at this time of year. Interesting too that the Jewish New Year is in the late summer/early fall rather than in the spring or winter. [/religious musings]

[edenfalling]

They're called sukkot. Singular is a sukkah. Means something like booth or temporary hut, I think.

I get the impression that the Jewish new year is focused on endings, judgments, and spiritual/legal ideas rather than the literal "rebirth" of the natural cycle of the year. The midwinter new year is based on the solar calender (the days start growing longer again), while the spring new year is based on the start of the growing season.

Neither concept has much of anything to do with God opening a book of life and letting you apologize for your mistakes over the past year. So I think the placement of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is kind of arbitrary in that respect.

Of course, I'm very likely wrong -- not Jewish, remember!