Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Aaargh!
I just wrote a long post about the Easter weekend then promptly lost it to the mysterious netherworld of Delete.
I refuse to repeat myself, so I will write about something else: Jarping.
Jarping is an Easter tradition in my family, one that my mom claims is ancient and specific to the North of England whence my parents came to this new world. I have learned that a form of it is also practised by the Greeks and apparently it is also a tradition to jarp on the White House lawn each Easter Sunday, tho' I have no independent verification of that.
What's jarping, you ask, feigning interest? Well, it is a contest wherein two combatants take their hard-boiled eggs (recently found in the traditional hunt), lie on their tummies facing one another and roll their eggs towards one another until they hit. The one that breaks is out, and the unbroken egg and its owner move on to another round. The victor at the end wins something. Last year it was a figurine, the year before it was an actual medal, engraved with "jarping champion 2003". This year the winner was the egg belonging to our sister in Botswana!! In her place, one of the grandchildren wore a crown and had a crazy wedding march song sung very loudly in her honour.
This year the jarping had an alarming and very funny difference: The eggs weren't entirely hard-boiled! Every time one broke, a frothy white goo would spurt out onto the carpet. It was very funny, eliciting a roar from the spectators each time. My sister J. would scurry out onto the field of battle with a damp cloth and wipe up, while I yelled "Swweeeep! Swweeeep!".
All very amusing and raucous good fun, as usual.
Want to share your Easter traditions? That's what commenting is for!
I just wrote a long post about the Easter weekend then promptly lost it to the mysterious netherworld of Delete.
I refuse to repeat myself, so I will write about something else: Jarping.
Jarping is an Easter tradition in my family, one that my mom claims is ancient and specific to the North of England whence my parents came to this new world. I have learned that a form of it is also practised by the Greeks and apparently it is also a tradition to jarp on the White House lawn each Easter Sunday, tho' I have no independent verification of that.
What's jarping, you ask, feigning interest? Well, it is a contest wherein two combatants take their hard-boiled eggs (recently found in the traditional hunt), lie on their tummies facing one another and roll their eggs towards one another until they hit. The one that breaks is out, and the unbroken egg and its owner move on to another round. The victor at the end wins something. Last year it was a figurine, the year before it was an actual medal, engraved with "jarping champion 2003". This year the winner was the egg belonging to our sister in Botswana!! In her place, one of the grandchildren wore a crown and had a crazy wedding march song sung very loudly in her honour.
This year the jarping had an alarming and very funny difference: The eggs weren't entirely hard-boiled! Every time one broke, a frothy white goo would spurt out onto the carpet. It was very funny, eliciting a roar from the spectators each time. My sister J. would scurry out onto the field of battle with a damp cloth and wipe up, while I yelled "Swweeeep! Swweeeep!".
All very amusing and raucous good fun, as usual.
Want to share your Easter traditions? That's what commenting is for!
# posted by becca : 10:51 AM
