From 05/25: What’s the spiritual season? The Truth about our Memorial Day, National Sorry Day, Pentecost & more …

FOR MONDAY, we’ve got a rich array of stories to share with you! Our ReadTheSpirit top story is a reflection by pacifist writer Johann Christoph Arnold that’s likely to surprise you. Plus, over at OurValues.org, we’ve had a provocative conversation about veterans unfolding for more than a week.

ALSO ON MONDAY, think about opening up “The Lord of the Rings” again—or, perhaps, firing up your DVD player and watching the films. It’s Gandalf’s 70th birthday! Well, truth be told, it’s actually the 70th birthday of Sir Ian Murray McKellen, the actor most closely associated with the role. Here’s a link to Sir Ian’s homepage online.
    Sir Ian has played an enormous range of roles, including Shakespearean characters and popular Hollywood heroes and villains. As a boy, he survived the bombing of the UK by Nazi forces and faith played a significant role in his home. Both his father and his grandfathers were lay preachers. Later, a stepmother who was an important influence in his life was Quaker and showed him compassion that he recalls to this day.
    Sir Ian once summed up his own religious background this way: “My upbringing was of low nonconformist Christians who felt that you led the Christian life in part by behaving in a Christian manner to everybody you met.”

TUESDAY MAY 26 is “National Sorry Day” in Australia, which might sound like an obscure idea to mention in our Spiritual Seasons column—but this particular observance is based on many years of hard work on racial reconciliation in Australia.
    The whole process—and the observance—is shaping up as an international model to promote healing after years-long injustice on a broad scale within a country. For example, many Americans are talking about Australia’s process in trying to envision a new effort at national reconciliation in the U.S. with American Indians.
    We’ve linked to the Wikipedia summary above, but a more impressive and helpful web site is the home of the National Sorry Day Committee itself.

ON THURSDAY, millions of Orthodox Christians around the world mark the Ascension of Jesus,
an observance that dates back to the early centuries of the church and
is celebrated by both Western and Eastern branches of Christendom. (Western Christians celebrated last week, because the feast
falls on the 40th day after Easter—and their Easter was a week earlier this year.) The word “ascension” refers to
the Christian belief that Jesus rose into the heavens.

THURSDAY EVENING begins the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Here’s a traditional Jewish group’s brief overview of Shavuot. And, here’s Wikipedia’s detailed article. This is an ancient festival celebrating the gift of the 10 Commandments by God to to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai. It’s called the “Feast of Weeks” in passages such as Exodus 34:22. Traditional foods for this holiday are blintzes and cheesecake—and, as always with these cultural associations, there are many explanations. One says that the richness and sweetness of these foods remind Jews of their love of the Torah itself. Some Jews commit themselves to studying all night long. Homes often are decorated with greenery. Shavuot lasts one day in Israel—but may extend over two days in other parts of the world, depending on a family’s level of observance.

ON FRIDAY, Baha’is suspend work and school for The Ascension of Baha’u’llah. He was the founder of the worldwide faith and died on May 29, 1892. His remains are buried in a shrine of global importance to Baha’is near Acre, Israel. Pilgrims are expected to visit the shrine particularly on this day. Baha’is comprise a fairly small community—about 6 million in 200 countries around the world—but they are an important group in their effort to peacefully form connections between other world religions. Here’s a very creatively designed Web site that weaves images and maps into the life story of Baha’u’llah. The site contains several photographs of the shrine and relics of his life.

ON SUNDAY, more than a billion Christians around the world celebrate Pentecost, a Greek word meaning “50th day.” Christians regard Pentecost as the birthday of their worldwide church. In the book of Acts in the Christian Bible, the dramatic scene is described: After Jesus’ death, his followers were trying to preach his message in Jerusalem. On Pentecost, they felt a movement of spirit that allowed them to speak in such a way that people of every cultural background could understand them—language was no barrier. In the rapidly growing Pentecostal branch of Christianity, followers believe that God miraculously gave Jesus’ followers the ability to speak in “tongues” unknown to them before the miracle. Pentecostal Christians believe that their members should continue to exercise this ancient gift. Other branches of Christianity interpret the famous story of Pentecost differently. In virtually every Western Christian church, though, the day will be marked in some form. (Eastern Orthodox Christians will celebrate a week later, due to their slightly later Easter this year.)

This is a good time to sign up for our Monday-morning ReadTheSpirit Planner by Email—it’s
free and you can cancel it any time you’d like to do so. The Planner
goes out each week to readers who want more of an “inside track” on
what we’re seeing on the horizon, plus it’s got a popular “holidays”
section.