Unfortunately, I’m not sure what to make of the Book of Esther, except as the origin story for the holiday of Purim. Because of this, I assume the book is much more well known among Judaism. Again, after reading this book, I am left to ponder what this story brings to the narrative of the Bible. It appears to follow typical conventions of what would be called a “legend” in folklore (as opposed to a myth), being the deeds of various important people during a specific period of time. Taking place during the reign of the Persian king Ahasuerus, it follows the story of Mordecai and his cousin/adopted daughter Esther. After Ahasuerus becomes displeased with his disobedient wife/queen Vashti, the other princes of Persia apparently fear that their wives too will become “the same way.” They suggest the king proclaim that every beautiful young virgin by sent to the capital city of Susa, and “then let the young lady who pleases the king be queen in place of Vashti.” (Esther 2:4). Among this hoard of virgins sent from across the empire to be picked through by Ahasuerus was Esther, who quickly became the favored one, though she still remained unable to so much as speak to her new husband; ” Meanwhile, another of the king’s servants, Haman, plotted the downfall of the Jews of Susa (due to being offended by Mordecai, it seems). Mordecai than uses Esther’s connection of the king to defend his people from the machinations of Haman, in the end killing five hundred people as well as Haman’s ten sons, who were hung. Despite the name of the book, Esther herself seemed to have very little role, and was more of a go between for Ahasuerus and Mordecai, and simply passed between the authority of the two men (not to mention the thousands of other “virgins” who were basically sent to the king as a material offering).
These questionable (to the say the least) gender ideas are not much different, of course, from many traditional folktales, fairy stories, literature, or texts in world history. On the other hand, this story is included among the religious text of a very prominent and influential religion that, for many, still is deeply problematic in terms of gender ideology.
I did a little research online to get a better idea of how contemporary Christians regard the book. Apparently, the most common interpretation places Esther, as one of the precious few women with roles in the Bible, as an inspiration for women “young and old.” Seems an odd choice, being that Esther herself had very little choice in any of her actions. In any case, I can’t think of any “lesson” that can be taken from this tale that would really be applicable to society today, any more than any other legend from any number of ancient sources. It may be important as one source for understanding Jewish culture during the period of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire. I also wonder why Purim, still an extremely important holiday in Judaism, is not celebrated by Christians, despite still being included in the Bible. Simply due to the fact that the majority of modern Christians come from a background of other cultures? Hmm.
Oh, yes, I nearly forgot, as my first entry for 2011, Happy New Year!
Last Sunday, like every August since about 2006, I attended the Obon (or Japanese Lantern Lighting Festival) at Como Park in St. Paul. I love the music, food, discount shopping, and other cultural events at this Japanese summer festival transplanted to Minnesota. Judging by the diverse and enthusiastic crowds who typically attend the Obon Festival, I am hardly alone. The Obon Festival concludes at dusk with the lantern lighting festival, as small paper lanterns are lit and set to float, pushed by the breeze, across the park’s frog pond, lighting up the dark surface of the water with a slowly meandering shimmering. As the moon rose behind the Conservatory, illuminated from within and the lanterns float upon the pool to the accompanying motes of koto music, it is definitely an enchanting scene.
The Obon is a Buddhist custom honoring the “departed spirits of one’s ancestors,” becoming a kind of family reunion holiday (or excuse for a fun celebration of multicultural St. Paul). Sharing similarities with the Mexican festival Dia de las Muertos and other festivals of the dead in world cultures, the Obon seems to be a very joyous occasion with many carnival-like aspects. I was also struck with the lack of such celebrations in typical Euro-American culture; death appears to be something this culture does not like to deal with. Halloween is more of appropriation of celebrations with its metaphysical origins removed, while something like Memorial Day lacks much of the celebratory aspect. Often, even Halloween seems, in spite of its great commercial popularity, to have a rather suspicious place in American culture.
This is something I want to begin noting in my studies; I’ve always been interested in death traditions. Looking back on what I’ve read so far in the Bible, still a very influential background in Western belief systems, I’ve read surprisingly little on the subject of death so far (though plenty of people have died, of course). Death was first mentioned in Genesis, as a punishment for Adam and Eve’s disobedience but nothing was mentioned about what happened after death. If I recall, there has been mention of Sheol, a “land of the dead,” several times so far. I remember most vividly was in Numbers 16 when “the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that is theirs, and they descend alive into Sheol.” Doesn’t sound that pleasant. I remember doing some research for a class a long time ago about various afterlife mythologies and Sheol seemed to be a dark, dismal place where all the dead existed, not unlike Greek or Roman concepts of afterlife. There are probably celebrations for the dead in ancient Hebrew culture as well, but I’ve seen no discussion so far. I may not have been paying as much attention, but it does seem interesting how little mention “death” has been given so far. I will look forward to seeing how this evolves throughout the text, particularly into the New Testament.
I’m looking forward to going back to the Obon Festival once I start up on Buddhist and Shinto texts. I wonder how many years that will take?
As I scramble to get ready for this week’s major celebration, I have come to realize that many of the themes and thoughts of the “holiday season” have some interesting parallels for my project. The November and December holidays exemplify the conflicted, yet complimentary themes of the sacred and the secular in the multicultural and multifaith traditions of American society. Is it a bad thing that traditional religious festivals have grown into a commercialized, secular affair in modern American culture? While the corporate excesses of the “season” are certainly reflective of modern “mall culture,” it is still a celebration of “giving” that theoretically appeals to people of all groups. However, the Christian holiday of Christmas still dominates the proceedings, with explicitly religious songs being played in public along with those celebrating snow or Santa. As a modern Christmas itself is a fusion of various European Solstice traditions, borrowing from many traditions this “holiday season” has been multicultural from its beginnings. These sacred and secular elements, Christmas and Hanukkah juxtaposed with Santa mythology and gift buying, both compliment and contradict each other in the creation of one of American cultures’ most popular “festivals.” Complaints of Christmas and Christianity dominating the season exist along with those who accuse others of attempting to remove Christian elements from “their” celebrations, while others among both question the extent to which corporations trivialize the meanings of the season. All of these color this time of year, but to most, I feel, it simply remains a stressful yet romanticized event. To me, this is a very interesting phenomenon and reflective of my reasons for beginning this project.
Growing up in a nominally practicing Lutheran family, Christmas was always one of the big events of the year for me, particularly in regards to religion. In addition to presents and food, my family also traditionally went to a midnight service to celebrate the holiday. I especially enjoyed the music around this period, which to me seemed redolent of ancient times. To this day, I still enjoy listening to religious Christmas music composed in old Europe, in spite of my later agnosticism. These songs, with their sacred intentions began to spark my curiosity about religion and what they were really about, and I began to ponder beginning to read the Bible around this time of year. And what about all those other holidays? Where did they come from? These religions were certainly responsible for some enjoyable music, and I figured it would be worth learning more. Soon, this congealed into my first ideas for this project.
I still have great memories and good feelings about my families’ Christmas traditions, and am looking forward to this week in spite of the stress that often goes along with these traditions in modern culture. My project will bring a little bit more understanding and interest to the holiday for me this year as I try to reconcile my secular views with the religious overtones of the season. This only makes it more interesting to me. I did stumble upon this interesting website that I think illustrates many of these contrasts in holiday seasons; http://krismas.org/
Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
