ChasUFarley

Here's the "fun" answer: Nothing celebrates Easter in a Greek home like the traditional cracking of eggs! In fact, I bet as much excitement is stirred up in Greek households over red hard-boiled Easter eggs as in Western homes over the Easter Bunny. Cries of "Christos Anesti" (Christ is Risen) fill the room, as children and adults alike hit another's egg with their own. (...) So if your family wants to have a crack at the Kokkina Avga, or red eggs, here's how it goes: You need enough red eggs for each person to have one (recipe below). Seated around the dinner table, egg in hand, each person turns to the one next to him or her, and saying "Christos Anesti," hits that person's egg. The one whose eggs survives the crack turns to the next person and repeats the ritual (that's right, if your egg cracks you're out!). This repeats around the table until only one person's egg remains uncracked. The hope is to be the possessor of the strongest egg/shell, which, if unbroken wins. There are a few rules: eggs must be struck directly on top, not on the sides; and the pointed end must attack the other's pointed end, or the round end, the round end. The reward for having the unbroken egg at the end? Good luck for the year… that, and the pride of boasting about your secret way of holding the egg so that it didn't break, pretty much makes you the star of Easter for the rest of the day. ============================================== Here's the theological answer: The distribution of colored eggs at the conclusion of Paschal services is a custom that is observed in some places. If I am correct, I think the custom is more common among the faithful of Greece than among the Slavic lands. And I have heard of this custom among some non-Orthodox as well. There is nothing in the service books of the Orthodox Church calling for the distribution of dyed eggs at the end of services. There is, however, a prayer for the blessing of eggs and cheese, as well as a prayer for the blessing of meat, on Holy Pascha. Many Orthodox, especially the Slavs, bring food to church on Holy Saturday or on Pascha, and this food is then blessed with these prayers. While there are a number of explanations for the blessing of eggs -- there is even a legend that St. Mary Magdalene, shortly after the resurrection, traveled to Rome and presented the Emperor with a red egg while exclaiming "Christ is risen" -- no doubt the association of eggs with Pascha is derived from the fact that during the Great Fast the faithful refrain from eating meat, eggs, dairy products, fish, wine, and oil. Hence, these foods are eaten on Pascha to "break the Fast." As far as theological significance, there is, quite frankly, little. Explanations that eggs symbolize new life, or that the cracking of eggs symbolizes the shattering of Hades by the victorious Christ, are pious explanations, but are not theological statements or actions. Within the Orthodox Church one will find a number of pious customs which are not universal among all Orthodox Christians. [For example, among the Greek speaking churches there is a custom of baking a special bread known as the "Vasilopita" on the Feast of St. Basil the Great, 1 January. This custom is not found among Slavic Orthodox.] Few references to such things are found in service books because they are not a part of the liturgical service proper but, rather, customs which express a particular aspect of the faith among a certain group of Orthodox Christians. Often, these customs are also found among non-Orthodox of the same region. [Example: Orthodox of the Carpathian region bring food baskets to church to be blessed. The Roman Catholics of the same region, as well as in Poland, Ukraine, and elsewhere, have the same custom. It is interesting to note that this rite is not found in the Roman service books.] (Either way, I always make sure that I loose to my mother-in-law!) :-)

The ones I hate hearing the accent on are those that are from as far away from the UK as possible - like Madonna. What a poser!

Today, Sunday, May 1, is the celebration of the Easter holiday in the Greek church! In a couple of hours I will have a house full of loud, hungry, relatives (yes, much like those from My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding) who will want to break red eggs, feast on the leg of lamb I'm preparing, and spoil my kids absolutely rotten! But there's no commercialism - no bunny or any of that in their celebration. They're more into Pashcha (Easter) than Christmas - it's a bigger deal to them that Christ is risen than that he was born... Isn't that the truth! Christos Anesti = Christ is risen Kalo Pashcha = Beautiful Easter

Yuppers - we did that... I didn't know how 'puter savvy your son might be - I hope I didn't offend you wiht the 'heads up' about the program.... but I figured it might be something you'd want to know, if you didn't already... Nuttin' is really free, you know. Hubby and I have had a blast with it tonight - we've found some very rare cuts of music that we probably wouldn't have found anywhere else - Aerosmith, Elvin Bishop, Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, etc. We've finally had to shut ourselves off so we didn't stay up all night... :-)

CM -- Thanks for the info -- Couple of things you should know about this tho, since you said your son uses it... You also agree to share your music, pics, software, etc., by giving a filepath name to the directory when you register the program you download and install to get and share the files... The other things you should know is that the speed of the download also depends on how the person you're getting the file from connects to the internet - if they have dial-up it will be very slow! The speed of downloads isn't bad... you can download several songs at once, much like Kazaa - but not as fast as Napster or iTunes. Thanks for the tip - I was able to get enough music in less than 30 min for a new Wiggles CD for Kristopher.... (my sanity is slipping....)

What's snapping?

Last I heard she was at HQ.... Anyone know?

The troops have to pay for the cookies that are ordered - if they're left with boxes of cookies after the drive is over, then they've also had to foot the bill. They can't always sell them at the local Wal-Mart entrances... so.... I can't say as though I blame them! The thing is, I wanna know what someone was going to do with over $1,400 of cookies!

You obviously have never tried breast feeding... No, my son is big because his parents aren't "petite". He also EATS a LOT - his intake is over a litre a day.... THANK GOD I DON'T HAVE TO PRODUCE IT! get it? :-)

I was in Wal-Mart a couple of days ago, talking with another new mom. Her baby was the same age as mine but mine is about twice the size of her daughter. I made the comment, "Thank God for formula!" She got a strange look on her face, reached in her cart and pulled out a bag. "Do you want these?" she said. She had two large cans of formula in the bag. She explained she had received them as shower gifts but did not need them. Since she did not have a receipt, she couldn't even exchange them. It was over $40 worth of formula - she was just giving it to me! Somedays it feels like the world is going to hell in a handbasket - but then there's cool stuff like this - what's that saying, 'Random acts of kindness' ??

Belle That DEPENDS on what part of the nursing home you're referring to.... :-)

As someone who just loves a little civil disobedience, I did try the conversion trick with the Virtuosa program to unlock the Napster files... didn't work... DARN IT! Hey Socks - careful using anything that is close to Meta11ica's name - they've even sued Victoria's Secret because of they had a silver eyeliner with the same name. Since they cut their hair they've turned into the biggest bunch of cry babies, anyhow. "WAH-ha-ha-ha-ha! Mommmeeee! She 'tole my NAME! Wah!"

I love www.cars.com for when I go car shopping - it's how I've gotten my past three vehicles. I've been able to check the resale market as well for when selling, just to see what people were asking in my area for certain cars (they also have the Kelly Blue Book on line, but that doesn't always determine a final price - location is a factor, too.)

I worked for a company that had a HUGE office building and a cafeteria - they employed over 2000 people (first shift alone) but the whole place was run very efficiently... AND it smelled just like Founder's Hall! Creeped me out every morning going in to work!

ROTFLMAO! At least you could remember SOMETHING when you smoked it!

Shell -- Fundamental = Fun... ...for... ......mentals!

Ex10 -- It seems we're on page three now of this thread and there's a plythora of answers, opinions and debates... From your initial post it seems like your daughter's school is a christian school, correct? (i.e. the comment about how all the Christian kids shun the gays.) I don't mean to offend here, but I remember knowing who was "out" in my school because they talked about it. They were more than open - they got into 'details'. Sorry, but hetro or homo - that's just TMI (too much information)! My husband, who is a public high school teacher, has told me about students he has had who have done similar things. Are the homosexual teens shunned, perhaps, for reasons other than just being homosexual? Also, in answer to your question about explaining this all to your daughter, I think you would need to base it on the point of view and/or beliefs that the "Christian" kids are coming from. I'm sure there's some teaching on the subject in her school/church that you could base this on.... However, the reason WHY there are homosexuals is a theological, biological or other-ogical thing for you to explain, as you see fit, to your daughter. This is a diverse forum and I can only hope that the posters here will "play nice with others" on this subject... but you're going to get every answer under the sun here... Best of luck! (I mean that sincerely... )

Okay... where's the interpretation?

THANK YOU, PAW! I appreciate the extra lengths you go to making sure that we are safe here at the cafe!

BTW - it's thought that Napster has already been hacked and the lock that Napster has placed on songs can be taken off with a program called Virtuosa 5.1 - that version has a 'glitch' in it, supposedly, that will remove the lock...

I recently re-discovered Napster and am very disappointed. To make a long story short, I hate the thought of "renting" my music. I'll probably download a couple of gigs of music, burn a few CDs from it, but then if I miss a payment to Napster, I'll loose it all (except for the songs I paid for - wait - no, I can only use those about a half-a-dozen times and they'll expire!) What a pain! I did use Kazaa for a while but hate the spyware that comes with it - and there's some legal grumblings going on with that, too. Now we're checking out iTunes - looks safe but could get pricy... at least we'll own the tunes... What do you use?

Speed is a little better -- still slow with loading the windows for posting replies to threads. I find the "Quick Reply" window more reliable and faster - the regular reply window sometimes won't even show itself....

What you need is a good music editing software program that doesn't cost big bucks - AudioSurgeon is also a good program for this and isn't terribly expensive - I think I paid something like $29 for it... Or you can try a google with the words "free music editing software" and see what you come up with... I found this as one of the better free choices, but I'm not sure what your comfort-level or skill-level is with downloading and installing freeware: http://mp3-player.audio4fun.com/mp3-music-editor.htm Good luck!

Groucho -- That's what my husband calls it when we send Kristopher, who is 3 years old, to my mother's house for the day to be babysat - it's Nana's Boot Camp because he comes back home almost goose-stepping (she's a strict cookie!)!

dmiller --- ABSOLUTELY! Restraining anyone - children and adults - can be quickly labeled "ABUSE" if it is not done with the orders of a doctor or other professional and in cases where the person is absolutely out of control, posing a safety threat to themselves or others. Any instutution that would have to possibly restrain people, for whatever reason, will have STRICT policies on restraint, what can be used and for how long. This is something taken very seriously by human rights activists - and rightly so! C'mon - How hard can a 5 year old girl punch? Or even kick? What was she going to do to two fully grown men (the police) who probably take down 250lb crack dealers in far worse circumstances?? If this turns into a lawsuit, and I'm sure it will.... I wouldn't bet on the judge being on the side of the school or the police, even though the child was out-of-line. What were they thinking when they did this?