#easter sunday attack

[hussyknee]

hey so you're the only like popular ish sri lankan on tumblr that i know

and the easter attack anniversary is coming up

so i want to know whether you think there will be a controversy again since eid may fall on the day of or the next day

I am so checked out these days that I had forgotten about both and I'm certainly not following the news anymore (see: mental breakdown, hospitalization etc.). But I really hope there won't be. More people have by now glommed to the fact that the Rajapaksas were behind the attacks, or at least had a hand in them, and that the persecution of the Muslim community was fruitless and unfair. And the Muslim community will themselves be hyperaware of the confluence of circumstances sadly, and try to mitigate any resentment with subdued celebrations and interfaith events.

I also want to say that with everything else going on, and the fact that our people are fundamentally selfish assholes, the Easter attacks are now a blip in the consciousness of non-Catholics. However, the opportunity to be a racist, rabble-rousing shithead might be too good to pass up for some.

TL;DR: I have no idea. But I hope not.

[sugaroto]

The islanders next door have been awfully quiet the last 7 minutes

[spite-and-waffles]

I know we've all had a pretty rough few years by now, but thinking of Tim Drake helps keep it all in perspective. For instance, if you were 17-year-old Pre52 Tim this year, it means that Bruce died in 2022. Steph, Connor, Bart, Dad all died and Bludhaven had gotten nuked with Dana in it in 2021. No Man's Land happened in 2020, Knightfall in 2019 and your Mum died in 2018, before you'd even properly got the job. And you still can't vote.

[zatdummesmadchen]

Woah

Beware the Pride

Being a model minority will not save you. It did not save the Sinhalese from the English; it did not save the Tamils from the Sinhalese; it will not save the Muslims. And once we are done eating them it will not save the Christians. And most of all It will not save us.

Not the poor Not the former war heroes with their limbs blown off their minds cracked open like eggshells seeping yellow drowning in the blood on their hands while their families starve and fathers take their lives because the crops have died.

But there are still enough with working limbs Expendables with no crops no jobs nothing but empty stomachs (acid rising between their teeth); to give them a gun point it at a human dartboard and let them all die as fodder for another Glorious Victory. Another slew of mothers to mourn at mass graves on roadsides.

For another ten years of the rich sucking the marrow bone of a steadily growing hoarde underfoot.

Being a model minority will not save us. Us the majority middle-class, with our struggling, smiling middle-class lives. Heads down, teeth closed, pontificating on these social media posts. They will take our voices one by one. Rupees dwindling to nothing one by one. Our children going bedraggled one by one. Until for them also awaits only a uniform and gun, and the promise of a glorious tomorrow.

They will rule this pile of skeletons. They will suck and suck the rivers dry, the fields arid, the villages buried under landslides, and swept away in avenging monsoons; while we burn alive under a steadily more blazing sun.

They will thrive as the poorest die; the middle class of today take their places. There will always be enough mouths to feed into the maw of greed. lions are gorgers you see.

As long as the saffron beasts roam unchecked; scavenging hyenas following our prides, feeding on the Buddha’s carcass; we are doomed. As long as we shake our heads and watch as the Devaduttas roar at mobs; tolling their gleeful war-bells, our death-knells - we are doomed. As long as democracy is just a screaming mob with a puppet or despot at the top - we are doomed. In a land of ten thousand temples there is no salvation of the Buddha. You see the lions ate Him first.

[katakaluptastrophy]

"I’ve already pretty much revealed that Alecto begins with the descent of Christ into Hades." - Tamsyn Muir

That's right...it's time for more Bible study for fans of weird queer necromancers!

It's currently Holy Week, the week where Western liturgical Christians reenact the events of Jesus' death and resurrection in real time. And today, it's Holy Saturday. So Jesus died on the cross on Good Friday. He rises from the dead on Easter Sunday. But what happened in between? His body lay in the tomb...but his spirit was otherwise preoccupied. Because on Holy Saturday, Jesus went to Hell.

But why would Jesus go to Hell? Because the resurrection was not just about saving the people who came after it - it was a bit more...wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.

To be a bit more specific, he didn't visit Hell Hell. The place Jesus visited isn't Hell in the sense of eternal punishment of the damned, but Hades or Sheol or the Underworld or Limbo - a place for those who were mostly good but lived before Jesus' resurrection had made salvation possible. So before his resurrection, Jesus went to make that salvation retroactive. Particularly, according to tradition, to major figures from the Old Testament, including Adam and Eve.

So Nona the Ninth ended with Harrow walking off into the River in search of theological truth. And Alecto the Ninth apparently begins with Harrow in Hell:

Alecto the Ninth, ACT ONE HARROW IN HELL CHAPTER 1 At a point in the slit she was carving through life, Harrowhark Nonagesimus woke to find herself lost in a dark wound. She had been walking when it had all gone black– any path ahead or behind was blotted out; now she was here.  - Tamsyn Muir reading at TorCon

This is riffing heavily on the beginning of Dante's Inferno:

"In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost." - Dante Alighieri, Inferno

But lots of people go to Hell. What's so special about Harrow going there? Because the traditional name in English for Jesus' chthonic salvation adventures on Holy Saturday is "the Harrowing of Hell." "Harrow" comes from an Old English word meaning to attack or despoil - a very martial way of expressing the idea of Jesus as the victor over sin and death.

Harrow ended NTN realising that she cannot trust John's account of metaphysics. That she needs to discover the reality for herself. The faith of the Nine Houses and John's own styling as god rests on the foundation of the Resurrection - John is the "ransomer of death, scourge of death, vindicator of death", his power is understood to be absolute: "Let the whole of everywhere entrust themselves to him. Let those across the river pledge beyond the tomb to the adept divine."

And yet even that prayer - "let those across the river..." - introduces doubt. Magnus jumps in to silence Abigail when she expresses her heretical belief in the River beyond, and Harrow herself scoffs that "it has been thousands of years since anybody bothered to believe in the River beyond." Abigail believes that John knows nothing about what exists beyond the River. And what about Hell? In HTN, Ulysses the First is described as "languishing in Hell" after his run-in with a Resurrection Beast. John himself describes the stoma as "the mouth to Hell", "a portal to a place I cannot touch - somewhere I don't fully comprehend, where my power and my authority are utterly meaningless."

In the Book of Revelation - the Bible's account of the end of the world - Jesus holds "the keys of death and Hell". John may have resurrected the dead, but he does not comprehend what is beyond it. Both the destination of the good, the River beyond to which the souls of little Isaac and Jean should have traveled lightly after their short and brutal lives, and the Hell that lies beneath the stoma are outside of his power. He is a few keys short of the full divine bunch. He can manipulate death, but he is not really its master.

And so Harrow walks off into the River to look for something or someone she can call god. Harrow, who shares a name with the defeat of death across time and space. Harrow, who is of the unbroken line of Anastasia. Anastasia was kind to Alecto, who like Eve is the mother of all and like Adam walked on the empty earth with god.

In Orthodox icons, the Harrowing of Hell is depicted with Jesus triumphant, leading Adam and Eve by the hand from their tombs. The traditional term for this image is an anastasis, the Greek term for resurrection. Adam and Eve, whose sin broke the intended shape of reality, are restored to wholeness with god.

How will Harrow answer her questions about god? What really is beyond the stoma and what would it mean to conquer it? What does it look like, metaphysically, to restore the world of The Locked Tomb to wholeness, and what will it cost?

[rileyslibrary]

Masterlist:

Simon “Ghost” Riley x Reader

📙gn!reader📗f!reader

———————————————————————

Multi-chapter works/Mini Series

Living with Ghosts (9/9)📗

The new Lieutenant (3/3): Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3📗

Be gentle, man! (2/2): Part 1 / Part 2📗

Lazy Sunday with Simon (2/2): Part 1 / Part 2📙

The hot seat (2/2): Part 1 / Part 2📗 (fanart by @hanjyukutamago)

The Log Cabin (3/3)📙 (fanart by @23652 and 3D render by @gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot)

Oneshots/Drabbles/Requests etc. (sorted: new to old)

Mary Mart📗

First Solo Mission📙

Go away Mr. Reaper📗

Bravo Unit has barracks?!📗

New Year’s Resolutions📗

Operation “Santa”📙

Ghost’s secret collection📙

Taking the piss out of Ghost📙

Ghost is jealous📗

Non-verbal communication📙

The captain’s birthday cake📙

The after effects of alcohol📙

This or That📗 (Render by @gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot)

Sensing something is wrong with you📙

Weighted Blanket📙

Killing Bugs 📙

Assembling Furniture📙

Seeking comfort in the command tent📙

Pickle jar troubles📗

The wedding📗 (fanart by @hanjyukutamago & render by @gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot)

Career fair📙

Hangry📙

Nice haircut📗

Heat Exhaustion📙

Elevator chat 📙

Chest candy📙

Happy birthday, Lieutenant📙

Penny for your thoughts📙

Ghost forgets reader’s birthday📙

Peppa the dog📙

Ghost teaching you how to ride a bike📙

No fun allowed📙

Take a deep breath📙

Team-building exercise📗

Moving in together📙

One for one📙

Taser training📙

Snack Attack📙

Somebody’s something📙

Soldier down📙

Paper cranes📙

Get well soon, Captain!📗

Interrogation shenanigans📙

Lift and learn📗

Invincible📙

Easter Bunny📙 (fanart by @hanjyukutamago)

One bed📗

Taking initiative📗

April Fools📙

Succession prompt📙

Promise me📙

No, soldier, no📙

Your opinion isn’t part of the recipe, Sergeant📙

Here’s a rose, now piss off📗

Ghost and the kitten📙

Aggressive mimicry📗

Ghost showering (imagine)📙

You spy with your little eye…📙

Campfire kisses📗 (render by @gamergirlbonestaskforce141riot)

Meal, Under-the-Stars📗

An unlikely duo📙

Temptation📗

Eyes on the road📙

Nice shot📗

Simon’s armchair📙

What a lovely way to burn📙

The smile behind the mask📙

Pull my hair📗

Where’s my pen, Lt.?📗

Mirror📙

———————————————————————

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 A Palestinian family returns to their shattered home in the northern Gaza Strip despite the widespread destruction and continued bombardment by the Israeli occupation army on all axis of the enclave.]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

DAY 212 OF "ISRAEL'S" GENOCIDE: NETANYAHU REFUSES TO NEGOTIATE END TO WAR AS MASS SLAUGHTER OF CIVILIANS CONTINUES UNABATED

On the 212th day of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of three new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 29 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 110 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to reach countless hundreds, even thousands of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted, as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

In today's news, Israeli occupation Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, refuses to negotiate an end to the war, despite the Palestinian Resistance's flexibility in negotiations.

The occupation leader said on Sunday that he will not agree to an end to the war and the withdrawal of all occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, a top demand of the Hamas Resistance movement, with the occupation's Prime Minister describing a withdrawal as "surrender".

"Hamas is fortified in its extreme positions," Netanyahu said to the Hebrew media, thereby "obstructing the release of our hostages."

Netanyahu claimed that the release of the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza is "at the forefront of our minds," however, the Israeli occupation is unwilling to pay the price for a deal with Hamas to "leave Hamas intact, end the war and to withdraw the IDF forces from the Strip."

In response to the Israeli occupation's unwillingness to compromise, the Hamas Resistance movement's military arm, the Al-Qassam Brigades launched a rocket mortar attack on the Kherem Shalom settlement, adjacent to the southernmost tip of Gaza, launched from somewhere in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The rocket attack wounded at least 7 Israelis, with the Palestinian media describing the wounded as "occupation soldiers" while the Hebrew media described the wounded as "people," making it unclear who exactly was wounded in the strike.

According to the Hebrew media, an air raid alarm sounded after the firing of several rockets from Rafah at around 1:30pm local time, after which, paramedic crews arrived on the scene, treating 7 wounded, 3 in critical condition, who were taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

The Hebrew media added that the Israeli occupation army responded to the rocket strike with a barrage of tank fire and airstrikes on the Rafah area, and also responded by closing the border crossing to humanitarian aid trucks.

According to the Al-Qassam Brigades, they launched a mortar rocket attack on the Kerem Shalom settlement using a number of 114mm short-range "Rajoum" missiles, wounding 7 Israeli occupation soldiers.

At the same time as the strike occured in the south, around 20 rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into settlements in the north of the occupied Palestinian territories, wounding an older man in Kiryat Shmona with shrapnel.

In other news, despite the ongoing massacres in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian Orthodox Christians in Gaza celebrated Easter today despite the subdued atmosphere, as is described in the local Palestinian media.

At the Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, at least 100 Palestinian Christian families gathered for prayers and religious rituals without festivities, according to Imad al-Sayegh, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gaza Churches Union.

Al-Sayegh, alongside dozens of other families, sought shelter in the Church, telling the media that "sadness pervades the atmosphere inside the church, as it does outside, leaving no room for joy and celebration amidst the immense destruction, continuous shelling and casualties."

Traditionally, the Holy Fire is transported from the Holy Sepulchre in occupied Al-Quds (Jersusalem) to churches across the region and around the world amid festive celebrations.

However, this year the Israeli occupation did not permit the entry of the Holy Fire to Gaza's Christian Orthodox Churches, instead choosing to pretend to American media that Christian churches do not exist in Gaza because, they claim, "Hamas" doesn't permit it, which is patently and provably untrue.

Meanwhile, mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians continued unabated in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli occupation army hammered several residential areas in various sectors of the Gaza Strip, using a combination of American-made dumb bombs, artillery shelling and missile strikes to target residential homes and apartment buildings.

The slaughter started on Saturday with a number of bombings targeting the southern Gazan city of Rafah.

According to local sources, the occupation military conducted an airstrike on a residential home in the village of al-Shoka, southeast of the city of Rafah, killing three Palestinians civilians, including two children, while several others were wounded in the strike.

Another occupation airstrike targeted a gathering of civilians in the Abasan Al-Kabira neighborhood, south of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, wounding several people who were transported to the European Gaza Hospital for treatment.

The occupation's atrocities continued elsewhere, with the Israeli occupation's artillery shelling targeting the Wadi Al-Arayes quarter, east of the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City, resulting in the deaths a mother and her two children, and also wounding the family's father.

At the same time, Zionist occupation warplanes bombed a residential building in the Al-Mufti area, north of the Al-Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, obliterating the building and wounding a number of civilians.

The slaughter of innocent civilians continued into Sunday morning, as Orthodox Christians gathered for prayers and rituals at Gaza's few remaining churches, many of which were bombed early in the war.

IOF warplanes bombed two residential homes in Rafah, in southern Gaza, including a home belonging to the Bahloul family, in the Al-Salam neighborhood, east of Rafah, killing and wounding several people.

A previous airstrike in the same neighborhood targeted the Al-Sha'er family home, destroying the house and killing three Palestinian civilians.

Occupation fighter jets then targeted the town of Al-Zawaida, in the central Gaza Strip, followed by hammering agricultural lands with bombings in the neighboring Al-Maghazi Refugee Camp.

At the same time, Zionist forces conducted airstrikes targeting a site in the Al-Geneina neighborhood, east of Rafah City, in the south of Gaza, while occupation aircraft also fired missiles towards the eastern neighborhoods of the Al-Bureij and Maghazi Refugee Camps, along with the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

The bombardment went on with yet another series of airstrikes targeting the Al-Zaytoun, Tal al-Hawa, and Sheikh Ajlin neighborhoods of Gaza City, resulting in the death of a civilian and also wounding several others.

Israeli occupation warships also fired heavy machine gun fire towards the fisherman's port and the Al-Shati Refugee Camp, west of Gaza City, and also targeted beaches west of Rafah City.

Yet another attack by occupation fighter jets targeted a gathering of civilians in the Nuseirat Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least one Palestinian.

Simultaneously, Israeli occupation forces demolished Palestinian homes in the Al-Mughraqa, Al-Zahra'a, and Wadi Gaza Bridge areas of central Gaza.

The Israeli occupation also announced the assassination of Ayman Zorob, a commander with the Al-Quds Brigades, belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Occupation warplanes also bombed a residential home belonging to photographer Hassan Aslih, south of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

Yet another bombing of Khan Yunis targeted the Al-Farouq Mosque in the Khan Yunis Camp, and another targeted the Nouh Mosque east of Khan Yunis, resulting in several casualties.

As a result of "Israel's" ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the death toll among the local population has risen to exceed 34'683 Palestinians killed, including over 14'500 children and 9'500 women, while another 78'018 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

May 5th, 2024

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#source7

#source8

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[girlactionfigure]

What Happens When You Can’t Simply Arrest the Jews For Defending Themselves?

by Seth Mandel

The morning after Easter Sunday in 1903, Yehiel Pesker went to his shop at the Kishinev market to inspect for damage. The previous day, the early rumblings of a pogrom had unsettled the city. On his way back home, he saw about 200 Jews armed with clubs and even a few guns—the second wave of one of history’s most notorious pogroms would come that day and Jews wanted to be prepared. When the pogromists came there was a standoff, until the police intervened against the Jews and the deadly violence continued.

Although these Jews merely presented a desire to defend themselves should they be attacked, and although this was one brief moment on the second day of a three-day blood-riot that would shock the world, “local antisemites and their sympathizers,” according to historian Steven J. Zipperstein, tried to argue that this was an escalation by the Jews and therefore the victims were really to blame for the pogrom. Elsewhere in town, a nearly 60-year-old Jewish man fought off four attackers, who then spread the rumor that a Jew had murdered Christians. For some, then, a literal blood libel in the middle of an extended massacre was transformed into the origin story of the whole riot.

“In arguments made by defense attorneys at the trials of pogrom-related crimes, Sunday’s rioting was dismissed as a ruckus that would quickly have come to an end… had Jews not overreacted,” writes Zipperstein. “In this version it was the all-but-unprovoked aggression of Jews and subsequent rumors of attacks on a church and the killing of a priest that set in motion the unfortunate but, under the circumstances, understandable violence.”

That all may sound ridiculous, because few pogroms are better known than Kishinev and because it had such a profound effect on history: It shaped the perspectives of important Zionist figures and it alarmed the world, even becoming an element of the civil-rights fight in America as an example of why racial and ethnic minorities needed protection from the state enshrined in law.

But leave out the names of people and places, and you’d be describing the response to Hamas’s October 7 massacre. The Jews had it coming; the attacks were essentially an act of self-defense; it would’ve been a minor event had the Jews not escalated by defending themselves.

The Russian police director tried to argue at least for moral equivalence, based on these lies, between the Kishinev Jews and their murderers. You can hear a direct echo of this in Karim Khan, prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, filing applications for arrest warrants for both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas terrorist leader Yahya Sinwar: “if we do not demonstrate our willingness to apply the law equally, if it is seen as being applied selectively, we will be creating the conditions for its collapse.” That echo is arguably even louder in the New York Times, which describes the reactions to Khan’s stunt this way: “Mr. Khan’s decision to simultaneously pursue Israeli and Palestinian leaders was criticized by Israeli government ministers and Hamas alike. Both sides questioned why their allies had been targeted instead of their enemies alone.”

Ah yes, both sides. A month after the Hamas attacks, the author Sam Harris denounced this way of thinking on his podcast in a soliloquy that will stand the test of time. The key part:

Of course, the boundary between Anti-Semitism and generic moral stupidity is a little hard to discern—and I’m not sure that it is always important to find it. I’m not sure it matters why a person can’t distinguish between collateral damage in a necessary war and conscious acts of genocidal sadism that are celebrated as a religious sacrament by a death cult. Our streets have been filled with people, literally tripping over themselves in their eagerness to demonstrate that they cannot distinguish between those who intentionally kill babies, and those who inadvertently kill them, having taken great pains to avoid killing them, while defending themselves against the very people who have just intentionally tortured and killed innocent men, women, and yes… babies… If you have landed, proudly and sanctimoniously, on the wrong side of this asymmetry—this vast gulf between savagery and civilization—while marching through the quad of an Ivy League institution wearing yoga pants, I’m not sure it matters that your moral confusion is due to the fact that you just happen to hate Jews. Whether you’re an anti-Semite or just an apologist for atrocity is probably immaterial. The crucial point is that you are dangerously confused about the moral norms and political sympathies that make life in this world worth living.

And in Khan’s case, if you can’t or won’t differentiate between Hamas’s war and Israel’s, you possess a moral deficit that disqualifies you from any position of authority or responsibility over others.

More important, however, is the core idea behind this trend. For most of history you could simply punish Jews for defending themselves, for staying alive. A pathetic puffed-up prosecutor could watch in silence as Jews were murdered and then file charges against “both sides” as soon as a Jew picked up a club in self-defense. Because the law, you see, must be applied evenly. The world wasn’t going to do anything about Hamas, even after its demonic acts on October 7. A fair prosecutor must wait until there is a Jew to be put in the dock as well. That’s balance. That’s justice.

Karim Khan may be a feeble clown, but he makes an airtight case for the existence of the State of Israel.

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

I totally didn't binge all your Ao3's ( totally...)

But I have a question for the SK boys.

Moon, are your co-workers aware of your Phyrophobia? If so, did they ever need to comfort you in a panic attack?

Sun, do you close the library on holidays? (Easter, Christmas, 4th of July?)

(Sorry if already asked) 😅

:D

The other guards at the amusement park are aware of his pyrophobia, yes. So if anything involving a fire occurs, they handle it so he won't have to. If he starts to panic and becomes inconsolable, that's when they contact Sun to take care of him.

And the library is usually closed on Sundays, but Sun does close it for certain holidays and town events.

[mask131]

If you want to have a folk-authentic vampire... (2)

Here's more elements taken from various folklores, legends and historical "cases"! Another melting-pot...

Other conditions and events that predisposed one into becoming a vampire: being a "criminal" (by this understand - prostitutes, thief or pyromaniacs) ; a child dead before being baptized (overlaps with stillborn infant) ; to be born on a holiday day ; those born with a placenta colored red ; the "unbelievers" (by the Christian sense - in typical Christian xenophobia of old, Jews, Muslims and atheists were all considered "doomed" by default) ; those born with a tail (you know, when there's a sort of tail-leftover out of genetic defect) ; children who stopped being breast-fed THEN were breast-fed again ; people born on a Saturday or Sunday, and "bastards of the third generation", understan the illegitimate son of an illegitimate son of an illegitimate son.

Those who, after dying, had a cat, a bird, an "ugly/dirty" creature or even the shadow of one of those beasts passing over their corpse, are likely to turn into a vampire. There's also a strange legend about how homosexuals could turn into vampires - mixed with somehow how they also changed their gender every month due to their unnatural desires?

In Bulgarian folklore, a vampire starts out as a shadow. It is commonly thought that when someone who dies cannot access to the afterlife for one reason or another, their soul lingers on earth, wandering under the shape of a shadow. If they are not set free after forty days, they become a vampire as the shadow gains a skin and a sanguine system with blood (but the vampire lacks both flesh and bones). The vampire will then start drinking the blood of cattle, more rarely attack humans, and mainly visit their next of kin to frighten them regularly.

Remember when I said in Romanian folklore vampires had a short, furry tail? Well, while sometimes it is found by their back, like a regular tail, other times it is under thir left armpit.

While usually in vampire legends the undead leaves its grave every night and returns before the rooster's song, in some local variations the vampire only gets out of its tomb every Saturday, or during specific times of the year (for example they are sometimes said to get out of their grave on the eve of Saint Andrew' Day).

Vampires sometimes were said to wait for their victims by crossroads, attacking passerbies, wanderers and night-travellers ; usually they were dressed or wrapped in their own shroud.

Vampires were, as I said early on, confused with werewolves, and with the "nightmare beings" (night hags). But the vampire myth also overlaped with the witch myth. Witches and warlocks were said to become vampires after dying ; in some countries the local word for vampire has etymological roots with the denomination of witches ; and generally all the disasters caused by vampires were also commonly attributed to witches. Like them, they caused plagues and storms. Like them they caused sterility and famine by stealing the life-force of cattle and of plants growing in fields. Vampires were also said to steal milk, just like witches did: it was said they took the shape of cats to drink milk out of cow's udders, and once the milk ran out they tarted drinking the beat's blood. In Bulgaria, when priests distributed garlic on Easter mass, those that refused were considered to be either vampires or witches.

Some vampire variations in the Balkans/Silesia were said to each night go at the top of the bell-tower of the village and ring the bell: all those that heard the sound were doomed to die.

Other "local recipes" to prevent someone from becoming a vampire, or blocking an active vampire: piling up rocks on the grave, tie with ropes the hands or feet, to cut off the Achilles' tendon, or to place thorns under the corpse's tongue (it apparently prevents the vampire from sucking blood). Near the Aegean Sea is was a custom to place corpses suspected to be a vampire on a lonely rock by the sea - for vampires were said there to be unable to cross salted water (a belief which ties in with more common beliefs of inland Europe about vampires being repelled by salt, or unable to cross running water).

In Greek folktales, it was said one could only trust a vampire's word if they swore by their shroud.

In Bulgaria, men born on Sunday were said to have the power to identify and kill vampires - usually by stabbing them or shooting them until the undead lost all of its blood.

[hussyknee]

This was written less than seven months before the deposed Rajapaksa family orchestrated the Easter Sunday Attacks. The virulent Islamophobia that followed in their wake saw two Muslim towns burned down, hundreds of innocent Muslims incarcerated, and won the Rajapaksas two landslide elections that secured them dominance of all three branches of government, paving the way for the historic 2022 Sri Lankan economic collapse.

I heard the voice of the devil today.

I was not prepared for it. The priest’s voice was light and smiling and friendly. There was no stuffiness I remembered from the droning of my stifling school days. He invited us to relax, made gentle jokes and emphasized the value of focusing on the intent of the doctrine rather than its letter and traditions.

I learned to trust that voice within minutes and had relaxed into it’s hold when it continued on in the same calm, considered way.

“We heard reports of a Muslim hotel that was sprinkling some suspicious powder on the food sent to our people. So we investigated, and we found that this was a medicine designed to induce barrenness. Or perhaps simply delay conception. Our people protested and had it shut down in due time. But now apparently a powerful politician is trying to have it re-opened.

So the people of the community came to me. They said, “Reverend, this minister is a friend of yours. His son goes to your Sunday school. He respects you. Please tell him how these Muslims persecute us. Change his mind.” Now, I do not know if I have any sway over the rich and powerful. This is not what I usually do, you understand. But I said I would try and speak to him. And I did, as a friend. I explained to him the persecution our community has been facing from these Muslims, and the terrible thing we caught them doing. He said something that I found very funny and true. “Reverend, these people are the ones who give me votes, give me funds for my campaign. What have our people done for me?” *laughter* And I have to agree with him. The blame lies with us. If we don’t stand by our own communities, why should anyone else?“

The words themselves seem so bland and diminished on the page. They weren’t loud or affecting or heart-stirring. It was all in the confident inflection. When he said "investigated” it immediately conveyed the image of a team of government officials and medical experts that had gone in and assessed the situation. “Sterilization medicine” said as though he had been looking over a doctor’s shoulder as they examined it. “Or perhaps simply delay conception” cast just enough reasonable doubt to sound like science, as though it had been explained to him by an expert although he himself was limited in understanding, humble priest that he was. But with the casual certainty sterilization powder is a commonly known thing that exists, instead of a fairy dust that would save the lives of women all over the world when birth control and hysterectomies are denied.

Lie upon lie upon lie delivered in the calm, reasoning cadence of a guest lecturer, with that horrible ring of impartial truth.

I thought I had seen the source of this hate and these awful lies. They were the red-faced priests at the front of mobs, spittle flying into TV microphones as they shook their fists and shouted into thunderous applause. You could almost see the marionette strings and hear the rustle of money under their robes.

“How can they possibly believe this baboon? Just look at him!” I wondered. “Stupid people love a circus,” they said, shaking their heads sagely. “Educated people don’t stand for that sort of thing. Just ignore them.”

So I was not ready to hear it in that lovely, learned voice in the home of my friend. I was not ready to look around and see the roomful of somberly-dressed venerable retirees, successful executives, brisk community organizers who lived in the uptown of a multi-ethnic city, all listening intently with bowed heads as the blood drained from my own face and I waited desperately from some sort of punchline. I was not ready to realize that my friend’s kindly aunt who had pressed my hijabi Muslim friend’s hand last week and thanked us for coming to dinner was probably the one who had invited this priest.

On the way home I remembered the patterns of genocide, emerging like a waiting sandbar through time. How the cycle had started in my own country years before, when the powerful crushed the spine of the poor under their boot and glutted themselves on the marrow of our economy. How they deflected the anger of a starving mob onto an innocent minority they had spent years stoking the embers against. How it crested with people burned alive in tyre fires, homes burnt with families inside, a screaming people driven into the arms of a militia that demanded the lives of their children in exchange for self-determination. How it had driven the boys and men of both sides on parades of patriotism and heroism right into the waiting arms of death, a generation of trusting lambs herded to a slaughterhouse. How it had ended again less than a decade before in a hundred thousand corpses running red in the sea salt and silt of No Man’s Land. How the trauma of three generations now run in the blood of newborns.

How dare indeed our wombs go barren when we have a million children to bleed for them.

I heard the voice of the devil today and I told them what I heard.

“How awful! I suppose they felt they had to be polite,” they said. “Educated people don’t harbour hatred; it’s the uneducated slobs who get emotional and create all this havoc. There will always be petty-minded racists. Just ignore them.”

[usafphantom2]

1/: Drawing l did in 2019.

On April 9, 1942, the Japanese Kido-Butai carrier fleet launched their second air attack on the British-controlled island of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), following their first strike on Easter Sunday-April 5. At around 0800, a formation of 132 Japanese planes-

@PeteHill854 via X

[adarkrainbow]

A Little Red Riding Hood variation: Little Golden Hood

I am currently reading "The Land of Lost Things", and something struck me - the name used for Little Red Riding Hood. Blanchette. A French name for sure, but a name composed of "white" (blanc) with the female diminutive "-ette". So, "small white one". Quite a strange name for a Little Red Riding Hood, but I just passed over it.

And even more recently, I saw people talk on Tumblr of an alternate Little Red Riding Hood story titled "Little Golden Hood". And what a surprise when I hear that... It is supposedly a French folktale!

Here is a rough English translation of the original French text, shared around the Internet:

There was a little girl that was called Little Golden-hood. She was pretty and nice as a star in its season. Her real name was Blanchette, but since she used to have on a wonderful little cloak with a hood that was gold-and-fire-coloured, she was called Little Golden-hood. Her Grandmother had given it to her. She was so old that she did not know her age.

One day the mother said to the child: "Let us see, my little Golden-hood, if you know now how to find your way to Grandmother's house by yourself. You shall take this good piece of cake to her for a Sunday treat tomorrow. Remember to ask her how she is, and come back at once, without stopping to chatter on the way with people you don't know. Do you quite understand?"

"I quite understand," replied Blanchette merrily. And off she went with the cake, pleased with her errand.

But Grandmother lived in another village, and there was a wood to cross before getting there. At a turn of the road under the trees, suddenly she heard an animal among the bushes.

"Who goes there?"

"Friend Wolf."

He had been prying on her since she left home that day, seeking a safe place to attack and eat her. But then some wood-cutters appeared near-by. So instead of falling on Blanchette he came frisking up to her like a good dog.

"It is you, nice Little Golden-hood," said he. So the little girl stopped to talk with the wolf, even though she did not know him in the least.

"You know me, then!" said she; "what is your name?"

"My name is friend Wolf. And where are you going, pretty one, with your little basket on your arm?"

"I am going to my Grandmother, to take her a good piece of cake for her Sunday treat tomorrow."

"And where does she live, your Grandmother?"

"She lives at the other side of the wood, in the first house in the village, near the windmill, you know."

"Ah! yes! I know now," said the Wolf. "Well, that's just where I'm going; I shall get there before you, no doubt, with your little bits of legs, and I'll tell her you're coming to see her; then she'll wait for you."

The Wolf cut across the wood, and in five minutes arrived at the Grandmother's house.

He knocked at the door: toc, toc.

No answer.

He knocked louder.

Nobody.

Then he stood up on end, put his two forepaws on the latch and the door opened. There was not a soul in the house, for the old woman had risen early to sell herbs in the town, and she had gone off in such haste that she had left her bed unmade, with her great nightcap on the pillow.

"Good!" said the wolf to himself, "I know what I'll do."

He shut the door, pulled on the Grandmother's nightcap down to his eyes, then he laid down in his full length in the bed after drawing the curtains.

In the meantime, Blanchette went quietly on her way, as little girls do, amusing herself here and there by picking Easter daisies, watching the little birds making their nests, and running after the butterflies which fluttered in the sunshine.

At last she arrived at the door. Knock, knock.

"Who is there?" said the wolf, softening his rough voice as best he could.

"It's me, Granny, your little Golden-hood. I'm bringing you a big piece of cake for your Sunday treat tomorrow."

"Press your finger on the latch, then push and the door opens."

"Why, you've got a cold, Granny," said she, coming in.

"Ahem! A little, a little . . ." replied the wolf, pretending to cough. "Shut the door well, my little lamb. Put your basket on the table, and then take off your frock and come and lie down by me and rest a little."

The good child undressed, but kept her little hood on her head. When she saw what a figure her Granny cut in bed, she was much surprised.

"Oh!" cried she, "how like you are to friend Wolf, Grandmother!"

"That's because of my night-cap, child," replies the wolf.

"Oh! What hairy arms you have got, Grandmother!"

"All the better to hug you, my child."

"Oh! What a big tongue you have got, Grandmother!"

"All the better for answering, child."

"Oh! What a mouthful of great white teeth you have, Grandmother!"

"That's for crunching little children with! "And the wolf opened his jaws wide to swallow Blanchette.

But she put down her head crying, "Mamma! Mamma!" and the wolf only caught her little hood.

The wolf drew back, crying and shaking his jaw as if he had swallowed red-hot coals. The little fire-coloured hood that had burnt his tongue right down his throat. The little hood, you see, was one of those magic caps that they used to have in former times, in stories.

So there was the wolf with his throat burnt, jumping off the bed and trying to find the door, howling and howling as if all the dogs in the country were at his heels.

Just at this moment the Grandmother arrived. She was returning from town with her long sack empty on her shoulder.

"Ah, brigand!" she cried, "wait a bit!" Quickly she opened her sack wide across the door, and the maddened wolf sprang in head downwards. For once it was he that had been caught.

The brave old dame shut her sack, and next she ran and emptied it in the well. The vagabond wolf, still howling, tumbled in and was drowned.

"Ah, scoundrel! You thought you would crunch my little grandchild! Well, tomorrow we will make her a muff of your skin, and you yourself shall be crunched, for we will give your carcass to the dogs."

Then Grandmother hastened to dress Blanchette, who was still trembling with fear in the bed.

"Well," she said to her, "without my little hood where would you be now, darling?" To restore heart to the child, she made her eat a good piece of her cake and drink a good draught of wine. After that she took her by the hand and led her back to her home.

And then, who scolded her when she knew all that had happened? It was the mother. But Blanchette said she would never more stop to listen to a wolf, so her mother forgave her.

Blanchette, the Little Golden-hood, kept her word. And in fine weather she may still be seen in the fields with her pretty little hood, the colour of the sun.

But to see her you must rise early.

I found back the original French text, "Le Petit Chaperon d'Or" or rather "La Véritable Histoire du Petit Chaperon d'Or" - there are segments which were cut from the story, such as an entire paragraph opening the tale by saying "You all heard of the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but today we know the REAL story and this is the one you will hear today". And the source for this story is a 1888 book by Charles Marelle, called "Affenschwanz et cetera: variantes orales de contes populaires français et étrangers" (Oral variations of French and foreign folktales).

Now who was Charles Marelle? He was a folklorist and poet of the 19th century who spoke and wrote in both French and German - he notably taught French literature in Berlin. He was born in 1827 and died after 1903 (we do not have his exact date of death). He published two works in German: Italienische Volkslieder (1887) ; and Die französischen Mährchen von Perrault : von G. Doré illustrirt, mit der deutschen Bearbeitung Moritz Hartmann's und einigen Stücken aus der Grimm'schen Sammlung verglichen. He also published two French works: On the pronunciation of the silent "e" ; and Folk-tales and Folk-songs of France. He also published a collection of "small fables, songs and poetry for children".

The work above, "Affenschwanz et cetera" was first published in German in 1888, then translated in French in 1894 : Variétés littéraires et caetera. He even received a prize from the Académie française for this book. As the name says, the purpose of the book was apparently to collect oral variations of famous fairytales - after all, the 19th century was the start of the great collect of oral and folkloric fairytales opposing the literary ones.

In the introduction of the book, Marelle explains this tale was told to him in 1880, by a lawyer named Lucas living in Crésantignes (Aube), who himself had heard the tale by a school teacher of Romilly.

The English text above is a very ROUGH translation, and I insist on that because I discovered that the English text cut off some parts of the French tale. For example, when the Grandmother is introduced there is a whole segment missing that goes as such: "Se had given her this hood ; it was supposed to bring her good fortune, because she claimed it was made out of a ray of sunlight. And, since the good old woman was rumored to be a bit of a witch, everybody also believed that the little cap was a bit bewitched. And it was indeed, as you will see." Another deleted segment is when the story explains that the hood was one of those "magical caps" of the "olden times" - the English text cuts off the mention that the caps the narrator refers to made their owners "invisible or invulnerable". Finally, there's some translation mistakes - the exchange "Who goes there? Friend Wolf" is not a dialogue in the original text, rather it is the narrator who goes "Oh, but who goes there? Why it's Mister Wolf!".

But outside of the bad translation, I want to talk about the story itself and of how... How weird it is. As in, when you know your Little Red Riding Hood, this variation is very, very weird.

For example, if you have been here for some times you might remember I posted about the "original" version of the Little Red Riding Hood tale, the reconstruction that has been made of the primitive, oral version of the tale before Perrault rewrote it entirely - I already evoked it here while talking about the Sandman comic, and then I went into more details about this reconstructed ancestor here. And this oral variation bears absolutely no mark of the original oral version of the story. No meat or wine awaiting the girl, no dark abrupt ending, no disturbing strip-tease by the chimney, no excuse to go to the natural toilets... This story clearly belongs to the post-Perrault world - for example you have this strong focus on the hood, which was an element brought forward by Perrault, and you have a variation of the "Tire la bobinette et la chevilette cherra" formula from Perrault's fairytale.

But even more than a post-Perrault fairytale, you also see contaminations by the German version of the story as the Grimms would illustrate it, because you have the protagonists surviving in the end, and topics such as the capture and drowning of the wolf. Remember, Charles Marelle was all about linking together French and German culture... The deleted paragraph about "Perrault's story is false, THIS is the real story" also shows a very clear intention of opposing and rejecting the literary creation of Perrault, reflecting this very typical approach of the 19th century folklorists - which lasted up until the second half of the 20th century - of considering any type of oral story collected, any type of "countryside variation" of a given fairytale, superior, above and "truer" than their literary counterparts. This mistake was notably what led generations of fairytale folklorists (at least in France) to consider that the literary versions of fairytales should not be taken into account in the evolution and formation of these stories, despite them being usually A) older than the oral versions collected and B) massively popular to the point of being part of everybody's popular culture.

But here is the big clue that shows this version is less "folkloric" and more "folklorist-invented". I won't call it artificial, but there is this BIG element that clearly makes this story stand out as a perfect example of 19th century-folklorists belief. The sun motif. The fact that Little Red Riding Hood now becomes a "Golden Hood", that the Hood made of sun-rays is of a fire color and burns the wolf, and the entire ending where the little girl can be spotted shining in the fields early in the morning... This story makes it so that Little Red Riding Hood becomes a solar story. And here's the problem... The idea that fairytales are all solar myths - Little Red Riding Hood especially - was mostly an invention of 19th century folklorists, perpetuated by 20th century folklorist and authors, and only recently debunked. It is true that some famous stories have a solar motif to them - Sleeping Beauty for example has a strong solar motif, that cannot be denied. But to consider, for example, Cinderella or Bluebeard as solar myths is definitively going too far... And while Little Red Riding Hood could be understood as a solar myth, it truly isn't. Because those that defend this idea A) use the brothers Grimm version of the tale where the little girl escapes the wolf's belly to illustrate "day returns after night", ignoring that this was a recent addition to the story after Perrault's time B) focus strongly on the red of the hood... When we know today that making the little riding hood "red" was an innovation of Perrault, and not originally present in the story.

Here you have all the markings, clues and imprints of someone who was trying to enforce the "solar myth theory" into the Little Red Riding Hood story, and clearly re-created a so-called "folkloric" version just to spurn Perrault's story. The simple obsession with the hood, explaining why it is here, giving it special powers, and focusing so intensely on its color, proves that this was a story created with the intention of opposing and rivaling Perrault's own story, since all the versions actually "folkloric" show a neglect of the hood or the color in favor of focusing on elements such as the cannibal meal, the paths of pin and needles, or the escape naked through the woods.

That being said, I personally do enjoy a lot this story. I find it fun and clever. I greatly enjoy the role reversal where it is the grandmother, not a woodsman, that saves the girl ; I enjoy the grandmother becoming a witch and the element of the magical golden hood. It is a very pleasant and fascinating variation of the story, very feminist before its time.

BUT context and analysis is greatly needed to understand that this is not some sort of "proof that Little Red Riding Hood was originally the golden grandaughter of a witch, and the embodiment of the sun". This story was clearly artificial or crafted after and in reaction to Perrault's story, with influence from German fairytales. It is no surprise that the sources for this variation were not people of the "low folk" but educated people of a higher class: the story wasn't told by a seamstress, a beggar, a farmer... But by a school teacher first, and it was then retold by a lawyer. So it is not so much a true "folktale" of France, as rather a scientific creation meant to become an oral folktale and be treated as such.

[maxime-mlr]

The representation of the Northern Ireland Conflict

Hello everyone, in this week post I would like to study how both U2 and The Cranberries refer to the conflicts in Northern Ireland and more generally to the tensions between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Firstly U2 refers to this conflict in Sunday Bloody Sunday by describing the horror and violence felt in Northern Ireland and especially during the events of the Bloody Sunday in 1972. Moreover they question these conflicts and their lenght with the repetition of "How long, How long must we sing this song?".

The Cranberries talk about this conflit from the start by referring to the Easter Rising of 1916 which was an armed insurrection against British authority in Ireland, but also refers to the victims of several conflicts and attacks since the beginning of the conflict. I believe that the video clip itself is also very powerful and as we saw last week is clearly an amplification of their message.

I think it is interesting to observe that both of these groups come from Ireland but are quite different in style but denounce the same things because they feel concerned about this issue regarding their country. I also find fascinating that those two songs are still very popular today and are still very important for the Irish population.

I hope that you enjoyed my post and I wish you all a nice weekend!

[monasteryicons]

Father Emil Kapaun: The Saint in the Foxhole

Born of Czech immigrants in the small farming town of Pilsen, Kansas, in 1916, Emil Joseph Kapaun was ordained a priest in 1940 and served as an Army chaplain in Burma in World War II. During the Korean War, Captain Emil Kapaun was the Catholic chaplain assigned to the 3rd Battalion of the 8th Cavalry. On All Souls Day, November 2, 1950, this battalion of 3,000 soldiers was unexpectedly attacked by a force of more than 20,000 Chinese troops. The Americans, taken by surprise and fighting valiantly, never had a chance.

Father Kapaun ran from foxhole to foxhole, dragging out the wounded and giving last rites to the dying. Over the sound of gunfire and explosions he heard confessions. Feverishly working beyond the American lines in no-man’s-land, he actually stopped an execution and negotiated with the enemy for the safety of wounded Americans. No one knows how many young soldiers he carried to safety on his back. Going back again and again, he was finally taken prisoner as he tried to rescue another wounded soldier.

By daybreak the battle was over and hundreds of newly captured American POWs, including Father Kapaun, began a brutal forced 87-mile death march to a POW camp. Those wounded and unable to continue were shot dead. Father Kapaun picked up a wounded POW and began carrying him on his back, imploring others who were still in fair condition to do the same. Some followed his example and many managed to make it alive to the prison camp. Against the orders of his Chinese guards, Father Kapaun cared for the sick and wounded, built fires for warmth and cooking, searched for scraps of food, and even set up a makeshift system to purify drinking water.

To the great anger of his guards, Father Kapaun managed to gather the men together, officers and enlisted men, black men and white men, even atheists, agnostics and others, to join together in saying the Rosary.

Father Kapaun became an inspiration to the other POWs. The priest would preach openly to the men even though his captors ordered him not to do so. He would pray one-on-one with POWs, and some even embraced the faith and were baptized. Praying was banned, and when Father Kapaun ignored it and prayed with his men, his captors would strip him naked and make him stand on a block of ice for hours on end.

On Easter Sunday 1951, the bedraggled starving prisoners saw a silhouetted figure standing alone, illuminated by the morning sun. As the men approached, they realized it was Father Kapaun, wearing his priest’s stole and holding a missal. Somehow he had received permission to hold an Easter service. He could not celebrate Mass, but he read some Psalms and everyone recited out loud the prayers from Good Friday, including the Stations of the Cross. Survivors say that some men openly wept.

Worn down from the horrendous conditions and suffering from his own wounds and poor treatment, Father Kapaun died on May 23, 1951. He was credited with saving hundreds of lives through the loving care, compassion and spirituality he demonstrated to all his men.

In 1993, Captain Chaplain Emil Joseph Kapaun was declared a Servant of God by Pope John Paul II. The canonization process of this selfless priest is underway and there are two miracles under investigation at the present time. In 2013, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama, becoming one of only five chaplains to receive our nation’s highest award.

[charlotte-of-wales]

What makes Balmoral church pics not pap picks? This isn't attack at you or anyone but people say they won't post pap pics but they'll always post Balmoral church pics even though those aren't official event (for William and Catherine). I don't see it the same as Christmas/Easter which the BRF make an event of but do other see that way? If William and Catherine were attend a random church on Sunday would that be considered pap pics like the ones of Catherine there used to be? I know people want photos of Catherine because we have not seen for some time this year. I'm confused why private church time is fine to post and share if other private things are bad to share.

the difference is if they are getting papped in Balmoral is because they want to be papped and they want to be seen.