Public displays of religion? What is and isn't in the bible. Serendipity at a No Kings protest.

It’s a quiet and sunny Easter Sunday morning here. I am assuming that the Easter Sunday procession will take place later in the day.

In London on Good Friday people went in their thousands to watch The Passion Of Jesus, a free play put on by a Surrey based theatre company Wintershall. They’ve been doing so since 2010. The late queen gave them an award: the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. The production involves 100 actors and numerous real live animals - camels and donkeys and such. Quite a spectacle!

Recently there was a ceremony of public prayer by Muslims in London to celebrate the end of Ramadan. Some people complained that it was an un British thing to do, public worship, flaunting religion in the streets. I wonder if the same people complain about his representation of the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Hmmm!

I saw a social media post this morning that went more or less like this: “Notice to racist white nationalists: there are no white people in the bible.”

Om Good Friday, as the seemingly endless procession made its way down San Bernardo street, a dishevelled, shambolic man started shouting at the top,of his voice. I thought at first he had a megaphone but in the end decided he just had a very good set of lungs. Waving his arms around and pointing at the “pasos” - the floats carrying the various statues, he shouted that all if this was NOT in the Bible and should not be allowed to happen. 

I suppose he may have a point. Somewhere in the Old Testament doesn’t God instruct the Israelites not to worship graven images? Having been brought up in the more austere Methodist tradition with very plain churches I have always regarded the adorning of churches and cathedrals with numerous statues and gilded decoration as a little over the top. But then someone on e explained to me that the fact that in many cases all the decoration was high up on the walls of churches was an encouragement to the congregation to raise their heads and look towards Heaven! Sounds plausible!

Meanwhile, according to this article settlers in the West Banks are trying hard to drive out what is believed to be the oldest Christian community in the world. The “hilltop youth”, the young people of the Jewish communities are encouraged to go to harass and intimidate local Palestinians in the surrounding countryside.. tolerance is not on their agenda!

I was reading about the planned very expensive new ballroom at the White House. A judge has ordered construction work to stop. An annoyed Trump is planning to appeal to overturn the ruling, apparently this new building will also include bomb shelters, military installations and a medical facility. So how can it really be called a ballroom? But this is just part of Trump’s plans to quickly remake Washington! It seems odd to spend sommich money to destroy a perfectly good building and construct another, which may or may not also be beautiful building.

This is something from John Crace’s Digested Week:-

Friday

The White House continues to pump out nonsense. This week it declared that there was universal support in the US for the war. This will come as news to my daughter, Anna, and her husband, Robert, in Minneapolis – and millions of others who took part in the No Kings protests around the US last Saturday.

For Robert, last weekend was at least partial redemption. Earlier in the year, he had a ticket to see Rage Against the Machine and Anna told him he had to leave early to meet her at an anti-ICE demonstration. So he did, only to find he had missed a guest appearance from Bruce Springsteen. He was gutted. But on Saturday, Bruce was back in the city – along with Bernie Sanders and Jane Fonda – to play Streets of Minneapolis to a crowd of 200,000-plus. Good things come to those who wait. Including me. Anna is now back in the UK for a week for my wife’s birthday. It’s as if she’s never been away.

A bit of serendipity. Despite Mr Trump apparently describing Mr Springsteen as a wrinkled old prune, the wrinkled old prune keeps on encouraging people to resist the nastiness of the world.

Happy Easter!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Good Friday processions. Ancient culture influencing cathedrals completed in the 20th century?

About twenty years ago we were in Salamanca, Spain, during the Easter holidays. Our hotel overlooked the impressive main square. Consequently we had a gallery view of all the Holy Week processions making their way through the square. On Good Friday morning we were woken at about 6.00am by a funeral march played by the band accompanying the sombre Good Friday procession. 

I was half expecting something similar here in Las Palmas, not necessarily right under our window but close by. Nothing happened. Life went on as usual. While Phil played chess in the late afternoon I went walkabout, as I usually do, looking for interesting sights, doing a little people-watching. 

In the Alameda de Colón it was obvious that something was expected to happen. There were stalls selling popcorn, lollipops, sweets of all knds, as well a bubble-makers and plastic noise-makers in the shape of trumpets and the like. One family group settled their grandmother in her wheelchair at a vantage point overlooking the street alongside the alameda. Some people perched on the fence, which looked uncomfortable. Sensible people turned up with folding chairs or plastic garden chairs and found a vantage point to set themselves up. For all the world it reminded me of our Saddleworth village, Delph, on Whit Friday when the same thing happens so that early arrivers get the best view of the brass bands marching through to take part in the Whit Friday Band Contest.

I wandered around for a while, went and bought myself an ice-cream and found a wall to sit on. And I waited and I waited. I got into conversation with a lady who came and sat next to me. She protested that this stone wall sitting was making her bum go numb. She turned out to be a long-standing Canaries resident but came originally from Granada. We discussed Holy Week processions we have seen over the years. I told her about the Whit Walk Pentecost processions we have.

Ladies dressed in black, adorned with black mantillas, went past us. Gentlemen in uniforms of various kind passed us also. Eventually, after a long, long wait, we saw movement in the parallel street. Statues were being brought out nearby churches. They would go round the bottom of the alameda, my companion told me, and make their way up the street we were overlooking.

And finally they appeared, with penitentes in their pointed hoods, 

and amazingly small altar boys waving monstrances to spray incense around.

Banners were carried, more solemn than the Sunday School banners of the Northwest of England Whit Walks for Pentecost,

and there were an inordinate number of statues, too many to photograph them all, possibly representing all the stations of the cross.

In the meantime Phil had won his chess game, gone back to the accommodation for refreshment and was seeking to meet up. This was difficult as General Bravo Street, which becomes Pérez Galdos street where we lodge, was full of procession. Having worked out where he was, I crossed the procession at a quiet moment, took a parallel street and managed to locate him.and still the procession went on and on!

Finally we made it back to our lodgings and had a beer and a snack.

Yesterday I mentioned the soaring vaulted ceiling of the Catedral de Santa Ana.

This morning someone posted on Facebook a rebuke to the Untied States Secretary of War, Hegseth, who has seemingly ben threatening to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age.

One of the photos in this post bears a great similarity to the ceiling of the cathedral here. Religious crossover influence?

Life goes ln. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Cathedrals. Heraldic dogs. Space missions. Bookshops.

I finally went into the cathedral here yesterday afternoon. Construction of the Catedral de Santa Ana began in 1497 but wasn’t completed until the 20th century. So it took longer to complete than the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona! 

I am always amazed that such huge buildings were constructed at a time when today’s lifting machinery was not available. Some years ago I read the novel “La Catedral del Mar” by Ildefonso Fonseca, a novel involving the building of La Basílica de Santa María del Mar in Barcelona, with descriptions of workers carrying huge slabs of stone on their backs. Quite a feat in itself! When they made a TV series of the novel it didn’t seem to me to do justice to that effort by the workers! So it goes! 

Be that as it may, yesterday I went inside the cathedral here. The rather austere exterior of the cathedral doesn’t impress me greatly, as I may have said already.

The interior, however, with tall columns and great arches, I found quite pleasing, not too ornate.  

Some modern stained glass, very plain in itself, sends rainbow patterns around the interior. 

Worth a visit. 

And the doors, like the doors of so many buildings here, are very beautiful.

The bronze dogs in the square opposite the entrance to the cathedral, guarding the cathedral perhaps, are statues Gran Canaria’s heraldic animal apparently! 

There you go!

Some people are getting excited about NASA sending a spaceship around the moon. One report tells me:

“The Artemis II commander, Reid Wiseman, describing the moment the crew saw Earth as a whole, said: “You can see the entire globe from pole to pole, you can see Africa, Europe, and if you look closely, the northern lights. It was the most spectacular moment and it paused all four of us in our tracks.”

It must indeed be a most impressive sight, as we know from the first photos taken of the earth from space but it almost sounds as though Commander Wiseman was surprised at how much could be seen. Has he not watched any old footage, or seen any science fiction films?

Here’s a cartoon about space missions:

Las Palmas, like so many places I have visited in mainland Spain, has a good supply of bookshops. Someone once told me that this is because Spanish parents are required to purchase school books for their children’s education. This may be true but the fact remains that small, independent bookshops continue to thrive to a greater extent than in the UK. Round the corner from our accommodation is a bookshop that specialises on horror - ghouls and ghosts and spirits and witches and such. Granddaughter Number Two is a great reader and in fact really appreciates the sort of books sold in that shop. Her rudimentary Spanish is not up to reading them in Castilian and so I just sent her some photos. 

Today being Good Friday, we may have some difficulty finding a restaurant for lunch. It remains to be seen. Our current favourite, Bodegón Lagunetas, is closed all weekend. I shall report back tomorrow.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Out and about. Maundy Thursday thoughts. Processions. And chocolate.

 In the late afternoon / early evening yesterday we went to take a look at San Telmo park, not far from our accommodation here in Las Palmas. Somehow I expected more grass. There are plenty of trees but a surprising amount of paved area. In the centre is a dog exercise zone, which strikes me as a good idea on a city - an area where dog owners can let their hounds off the leash for a bit of freedom that city living denies them. 

We took a look the little chapel in one corner of the park, very simple and plain outside but very ornate inside.

My photo of the interior is not so good as I would like because I couldn’t get right inside as a service was in progress.

Today is Jueves Santos, Holy Thursday, Maundy Thursday in the UK, so the king should be distributing Maundy money to one man and one woman for each year of the king’s age, according to one source. Since 1822, rather than ordinary money, the Sovereign gives out Maundy coins which are specially minted 1, 2, 3 and 4 penny pieces, and are legal tender - probably collectors’ pieces. At one time the sovereign would also wash the feet of the deserving poor, remembering Jesus washing the feet of his disciples as a symbol of humility and service. Elizabeth the First did it but I think it’s a long time since our kings and queens followed suit. 

This year Charles and Camilla will be at St Asaph cathedral in North Wales giving coins away. It is the first time the occasion has been held in North Wales, and only the second time ever in Wales, in the 800-year history of Maundy. Attendance at the service is by invitation only, and only those with invitations/passes will be admitted to the Cathedral grounds on the day of the service. Rather a shame for anyone who just wants to look at the cathedral, or even pray!

There will probably be a procession here later today. I was reminded of the Whit Walks in the North of England. Salford is asking for people to get involved in theirs on the 25 of May, Bank Holiday Monday, and to contribute money, of course.

As we approach Easter Sunday and the distribution of chocolate eggs, here is a link to an article about a KitKat lorry being stolen in Italy.

And here’s a link to an article about banning advertisements for chocolate on Uk television until after the 9.00pm watershed. Chocolate is only for adults, apart from those spoilt children who sit up.beyond the watershed!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!

Processions. Closed restaurants and cafes. Wider world chaos continues. And Joni Mitchell.

In the middle evening yesterday as I waited for Phil to finish his chess game I felt rather than heard rhythmic drumming. So I went out to take a look. Another Holy Week procession was underway. i should have realised this was about to happen as I had seen some barriers on side streets. I have not been able to ascertain which bit of the Holy Week story was connected to Tuesday but a procession was taking place.

Sombre looking dignitaries walked along, some in traditional anonymity.

The statue of Jesus almost as a king on his throne was carried along.

And Mary was there as well, of course.

As well as the drumming, there was the inevitable rather mournful marching band.

My Spanish sister assures me that where she loves there is a procession every day but when we spent Easter in Salamanca we did not see daily processions.

After the chess games were over we went out looking for beer and a snack. When we arrived here, almost a week ago now, it seemed that we found restaurants and bars to our liking all over the place. Starting from Monday of this week we have found more and more of these places closed. Maybe it’s a consequence of it being Holy Week. So last night we ended up at what seemed to be a vegan place where one harassed young lady appeared to be the only waitress. Eventually we got beer but the service was so slow that we gave up on  selecting a snack from the limited range available. So it goes.

Out in the wider world I read that there are plans to move Picasso’s Guernica from Madrid to Bilbao.

“The Basque regional government has formally asked Spain’s Ministry of Culture to authorize a temporary loan of Pablo Picasso‘s "Guernica" to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, according to Ara, a Catalan-language newspaper. If the move is approved, it would mark the first time the painting has traveled since it was installed at Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía in 1992.⁠

⁠

The proposed transfer would take place between October 2026 and June 2027, coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica, the Basque city whose destruction by Nazi and Italian Fascist air forces on April 26, 1937, inspired Picasso to paint the antiwar canvas.⁠”

⁠

So it’s 90 years since the town of Guernica was destroyed in what some have described as an experiment in carpet bombing civilian areas. Guernica, Dresden, Coventry - and still places are being flattened.

Here’s a cartoon illustration of the history of Gaza.

And here is something from Tuesday’s social media:

Zarah Sultana MP

“Queeser Zuhrah was held in detention for 15 months without trial, during which she wwent on hunger strike. I was proud, alongside others, to get the ambulance she urgently needed deep into that strike when her life was on the line.

Last week she broke her silence and spoke publicly about the violence she endured at HMP Bronzefield.

Today, just one month after being released on bail, she has been rearrested under the terrorism act - reportedly in connection with a social media post.

She was arrested in an early hours raid by police officers wearing face coverings. The same tactic used by ICE officers in the US.

This is state intimidation, designed to silence dissent. As a movement we must fight back.”

On the good news front, Joni Mitchell was presented with the the #JUNOs Lifetime Achievement Award!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!