Yesterday was Earth Day, but it was also, for a period of time at least, Jesus Day. While working in my office in the early afternoon, I overheard a student presentation in the yard outside the window which began as follows: "Hello, Brooklyn College! And welcome to Jesus Day!" I did the equivalent of a double-take, not sure if I heard the speaker correctly, until he promised a string of entertainments that included performances of "hip hop gospel." (If there were any lingering doubts, I later saw people wearing white tee-shirts proclaiming "Jesus Day," written in large, blood red letters.)
I wonder if the choice of Earth Day to commemorate Jesus was totally accidental. As far as I can tell, April 22 is not a significant date on the Christian calendar, with the following exception: on years when Easter falls on April 15, the first Sunday after - April 22 - becomes the Sunday of St. Thomas, but this year, April 22 fell on a Thursday, and Easter was April 11. However, to the extent that Earth Day recalls a pagan form of earth worship (and is probably still commemorated as such in certain parts of the Bay Area), what better time to schedule a celebration of Jesus? Is not earth worship a form of idolatry, another sign of our contemporary apostasy? The Latin requiem describes Judgment Day in the following manner: "Dies irae, dies illa // Solvet saeclum in favilla" - "The day of wrath, that day // Which will reduce the world to ashes." Indeed.
Last night, I left Jesus Day behind and spent the night enjoying Das Rheingold at the Met. Near the end of the opera, the earth goddess Erda makes a brief appearance, warning the assembled gods that their time is coming to an end: ""Höre! Höre! Höre! Alles, was ist, endet. Ein düstrer Tag dämmert den Göttern." - "Hear me! Hear me! Hear me! All that is shall come to an end. A dark day dawns for the gods." They are startled by her pronouncement, but the gloomy mists of the moment are soon dissipated, and the opera concludes with the gods walking triumphantly into the newly completed Valhalla. They do not realize that this epitome of divine civilization will, in short time, be reduced to ashes, leaving a godless world in the wake of its destruction.
Posted by gminter at April 23, 2004 09:02 AMLast night me and the beau saw La Cenerentola here in D.C. Not quite an apocalypse, but there were cinders involved. ;) And afterwards, I did feel like the next opera I want to see should be something a little more stirring, perhaps some Wagner. Speaking of which, my only experience with Das Rheingold was seeing it while on vacation in Budapest: sung in German with Hungarian surtitles... breathtakingly beautiful and amusingly incomprehensible at the same time. Heh.
Posted by: Jeff at April 23, 2004 11:09 AM