Easter Ritual Traditions

Easter has some of the best games. There's egg-dancing, egg-tapping, egg-tossing, egg-racing, or my favorite, egg-hunting. There's innumerable traditions wrung out of our interest in colourful little eggs and the harrowing nail-biting games of will-I-wont-I break them. These games can walk the razor's edge of sanity -- nobody wants to break their egg.

The scary truth behind Scott Snyder's Easter. (Circa 1980 DC Comics)

One of the more interesting Easter traditions takes place south of the border. This coming Easter Monday my Yankee-neighbors will be celebrating their 134th "White House Easter Egg Roll". Estimates are that up to 35,000 people will arrive on the South Lawn to play games, listen to stories and take part in the longstanding tradition of rolling eggs along the green fields.

Did I mention the AVENGERS and SPIDER-MAN are going? Hulk loves puny eggs.

The tradition was started in 1878 by US President Rutherford B. Hayes and only suspended once to deal with a shortage of eggs (World War II, you gotta cut back).

Fighting the war but still time for playing.

The history of Easter games goes back to early Western cultures. The egg was then-viewed as a symbol of rebirth by the Pagans and was picked up and carried to modernity by Christians who had so far lucked out by having really shitty games of their own. Stealing from the Pagans seemed much easier.

The egg-dance (alternatively called "hop-egg", the Saxon word hoppe meaning "to dance") had two specific traditions associated with it. The first was to dance around in a circle without crushing eggs on the floor while the second was the devil's version of hackey-sack. The player had to dance in a circle, roll an egg out of a bowl, and flip the bowl to cover the egg -- all with their feet (and preferably landing within a chalk circle on the ground)

Her posture speaks volumes to the fun she's having.

It wasn't long before more Easter games developed with an interest in a more competitive edge. For example, in the game of egg-tapping kids would bet their egg's structural integrity and smack them against an opponents' in hopes of shattering the weak, supple, shell of their enemy. Egg-tossing, a more-team oriented game, grew out of the desire to have kids work together and invent ways of tossing an egg from one spoon to the next without dropping it. This game blossomed and variations on it would soon pop up that crossed "hot-potato" with "catapult". It was equally as fun to look for a way to save the egg as destroy it.

My own childhood tradition, the egg-hunt, came from the same lineage of Pagan fun-time. Again lifted by the Christians to symbolize the rebirth of Christ, the egg-hunt is a scavengers hunt for little coloured eggs where the prize is the sweet chocolate therein and the sweet knowledge that you outwitted a mythical anthropomorphic hare that laid them willy-nilly all over the place. The game is exceptionally great fun for parents who like to leave clues to the next egg's location but some cultures have taken the game too far and added painful obstacles to overcome.

"I think he left some on THAT SIDE. Go on"

Regardless of the way you celebrate Easter this year, remember to keep it entertaining. Come up with a new tradition or dig one up you might not have done in forever. Either way, remember where it all started: With people tempting fate and smashing eggs.

Happy Easter.

Franklin's Lost: John Shaw Torrington

Today's musical credit goes to John Shaw Torrington, the lead stoker during the Franklin expedition. Torrington was one of the first men to die during the search for the Northwest Passage, cut down by pneumonia only seven months into the three-year journey.

In 1850 Torrington's body was found in a grave on Beechey Island, Nunavut. While performing an autopsy on his body he was found to be in a state of near-perfect preservation, the ice having slowed his decomposition. Petrified in a comparable state to an Egyptian mummy, Torrington's story inspired songwriter James Taylor to write the song "Frozen Man".

Stan Rogers and the Northwest Passage

Relevant to today's writing. Enjoy.

DrawSomething: Draw EVERYThing

From an article over at ComicAlliance, Chris Sims treats your eyes to some fantastic doodles by Matt Digges.

He even included the KirbyDots.

For those that don't know, DrawSomething is the latest app-craze sweeting the Apple community. The game is painfully addictive, right up there with Angry Birds or Cut the Rope. The only drawback I can mention is that while playing I'm trapped by the smaller screen of my phone while my girlfriend cackles away in the corner playing on her stylish and much more drawing-friendly iPad.

Anywhoo, go enjoy some more doodles over at ComicAlliance and pick up the app.

Pick of the Week 21/3/2012

If I could do this week all over again, I would.

I should have bought Hoax Hunters and Smoke & Mirrors.

While two of my favorite books had new issues this week (BPRD and Rocketeer Adventures) I stuck to my guns in waiting for their inevitable pay-off in hardcover form. As I was walked out of the shop thinking about how good they would be, little did I know what I was holding in my hand would be a tremendous let-down for one of the books I was most eager to read in issues: Dominique Laveau. More on that after the Pick of the Week.

Batman #7: Pick of the Week: It's hard to write about a book that's consistently good. Everything said about this title should be worth repeating: it's worth your time and money. Snyder and Capullo are doing some of the best work I have ever seen both in the story department and art. Several key points in the book include the introduction of a new character (new to us, old to Bruce), a stunning panel of a worried Alfred, and the revelation of who the primary Talon villain is (and what he is). Perhaps the greatest highlight of this issue is the historical connection between Dick Grayson and the Talon, making sense of months of speculation. It's hard to introduce ideas of long-forgotten family connections (something common in comics to up the stakes) but Snyder remains so damn convincing at providing a plausible reason for it (the circus and its history meeting Gotham's darker history) that it doesn't come off as what could have been a last-page cliffhanger. This connect is instead merely another gear in the finely-tuned machine that Capullo and Snyder have going. The issue continues building on the tone and the colours evoke a strong remembrance of Year One, something that Snyder has played with before in The Black Mirror.
Team: Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo, Jonathon Glapion.

Prophet #23: This book astounds me. I originally picked it up on a whim expecting... come to think of it, I'm not sure what I expected. What I got was one of the most imaginative science fiction stories I've ever read. PROPHET is in many ways the spiritual successor to old B-list science fiction done with A-game talent where the reader is rewarded by both letting the story wash over them and engage with it actively. The finest moments are the beats of humour, delivered without dialogue and done with a look or gesture. The best of these are when watching John Prophet's living Dolmantle react to the world around him. The book is creative, engaging, and surprising -- something that is hard to find in other series where the issues and solicits are talked about months in advance. The story's backup has art done by Frank Teran who foreshadows Farel Dalyrmple who will be taking over for the next 3 issue arc. The difference between Teran's style and current artist's Simon Roy is like comparing Dune to 2001. I still remain optimistic for the title's art shift next issue -- the story has me hooked.
Team: Brandon Graham and Simon Roy, backup by Frank Teran.

Near Death #6: After what seemed like a long jump between 5 and 6, it's here. Near Death remains a fun little ride every issue as a self-contained story. The art is starting to pick up after a few cracks in the previous issues and as for the story, you better like stand-alones. Unlike a typical series standalone by a fill-in-artist (for example) Near Death's issues feel cripplingly short. The issue can sometimes be done before you have the chance to get into it which makes it hard to come back to the book every month when the previous instalment felt so fleeting. Still a good action series, but for those looking for a longer-form crime/action story I would recommend leaping over to Image's other darling Thief of Thieves. If you want a guilty pleasure of the one-and-done Near Death is pretty standard fare.
Team: Jay Faerber, Simone Guglielmini, Ron Riley, Charles Pritchett with cover by Francesco Francavilla.

Diablo 3 #3: Gave the first two issues a chance and now, I'm out. Every few pages has the bad habit that plagues many other tie-in-properties where there's the shoehorning of exposition to referring to the subject-matter's story bible. Clunky, I still enjoyed some of the art but this ends my run with the mini.
Team: Aaron Williams, Jospeh Lacroix, Lee Loughridge.

Dominique Laveau: Voodoo Child: Disappointment of the Week: Not my thing, no matter how much I wanted it to be. The series begins with a one-beat protagonist who stays frantic through the entire issue, doing little to win our admiration as readers on anything but her being a lost young girl. There's also an overabundance of things going on, staggered by frustratingly flowery narration boxes that reveal themselves as the author and not the characters of the world being told. Disjointed and bogged down by its own writing, at least Denys Cowan's art is terrific. Sigh.
Team: Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, Denys Cowan, John Floyd.


I really should have bought Hoax Hunters and Smoke & Mirrors