Sunday, March 23, 2008

Sacrifice

I actually baked you guys. Serious accomplishment, since I never do these sorts of things. And from scratch. As if I'd make redvelvetcake from a box. Though Amber totally helped on this point and then mom made the topping more whipped or whatever the way it was suppose to be because it was all glazy and random. If you remember I occasionally talk about how I celebrate the church calendar- those lofty high holy days so that traditional celebrations like Christmas and Easter can actually have more meaning. And that the symbols present are more poignant and visceral because of it. LauraLee asked me to help think of things to incorporate into our new traditions. For instance she decided to live by candlelight from Thurs-Sat night to symbolize our movement as people from darkness to life- spiritually, emotionally. And most of us got the, it's a day of mourning, so we'll wear black, sort of thing. On the fly I suggested RedVelvetCake because of its shocking and slightly morbid red color- figuring that it symbolizes Christ's sacrifice for us and in turn by eating the cake how we as Christians willingly accept this sacrifice and partake of it. Then I brought bloodorange juice... well you get the point. And when I went to explain it, just as simple as that it seemed much more important to me than it did at first. Anyway, it was an awesome time and we conversed a lot about the intimacy of grief, the role of women, how we mourn, our voices as we sang, prayed, and our general fabulousness on this Great Saturday, before the promise fulfilled. And everyone or most anyway, loved the cake and they ate it up and that was just nice, though next time I'll use less oil and more food dye. And I think because I made something, had to think about it, figure it out, it made me more mindful of why we were gathering, celebrating easter in the first place, since it goes way beyond bunnies and families, though i did make an easter egg mobile, and eat some bunny shaped chocolate. Mainly because I'm still part pagan. Totally.



4 comments:

penelope said...

Cake, mmmm.

I should be more mindful, sigh.

Anonymous said...

That cake looks very yummy! (Hopefully you got better strawberries than I did last week. My early season ones were pretty blah. Though on cake I suppose it doesn't matter so much.)

Anonymous said...

The strawberries were fab. Dark red and very fragrant and yes, very tasty.

Anonymous said...

All the pretty cakes are gone.

The joy remains.