Wednesday, February 25, 2009

"fifty-seven thousand six hundred minutes..."

the easter season gets no love. easter is a more important holiday on the christian calendar than christmas, yet it gets nowhere near the commercial attention. hard to say whether the holiday drives the lead-in season or vice versa, but either way the weeks leading up to easter have nothing on those before christmas. i can't really say that advent gets any special billing, but the generic "christmas season" certainly gets its fair share. the pre-easter season kicks off with dirty foreheads, winds down with free palm leaves that clutter your house until you get rid of them just before the next year's holiday, and ends up on a total downer of a holiday, so-called "good" friday.

lent needs to go mainstream, get the people talking about it to drive up the word on the street. mel gibson tried, but he just brought everyone down with "the passion" (besides, the merchandising options were awful). we need something with a little life in it. so, as a means of bringing some much-needed attention to the season, i'm going to propose to the u.s. conference of catholic bishops that someone there just adapt a popular broadway show and create "lent- the musical". sure, they'll have to groom over some little things (like the gay sex and the aids and the drugs and all), but the songs are way better than anything from church!

c'mon, isn't lent really a "season of love" after all?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Easter used to be a big commercial holiday back in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. In fact, the boycotts that Martin Luther King organized in Birmingham, Ala. in 1963 were timed to coincide with the Easter shopping season to amplify their effects.

fink said...

scully- you learned me something there. wasn't aware of that. but all the more reason to bring it back.

--

and here's something big al sent me- seems like he's given the bishops a head start on their work...

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred wafers.
Five hundred twenty five thousand shots of wine.
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred communions.
How do you measure- measure a church?

In members, in attendance,
In offerings, in pennance.
In service, in grace, in laughter, in strife?

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred wafers.
How do you measure a year in the life?

How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love.
Seasons of love.
Seasons of love.

Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.
Five hundred twenty five thousand journeys to plan.
five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes.
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man.

How about love?
how about love?
How about love?
Measure in love.
Seasons of love.
Seasons of love

Anonymous said...

I got it! Let's have a big party in a major US city! Maybe...hmmm...New Orleans!
Ok, and at that party, we'll devise a cheap way to get girls to show us their boobs. Whattya think? Beads! Great idea! Ok...throw in some parades, cheap booze, casual sex and BOOM! you've got the perfect kick-off to the Easter season!

I hope no one thought of this one before, because I think I'm onto something.

fink said...

see, that's exactly the problem with the easter season- the party is 7 weeks in advance. mardi gras is less of a pre-easter party and more of a pre-lent party. my point is that it seems so depressing to follow a great party like mardi gras with 7 weeks of misery and metaphorical self-flagellation.