A Happy Announcement!

The beloved and I got married on Friday! We went to the County Clerk's office with friends of ours as witnesses, and did it all in a small and pleasant way, and had a very good time of it. Our witnesses are married to eachother and know everything about wine, and they took us out for a really splendid lunch afterward. So in the happy glow of food and wine and friendship and legal marriage, the beloved husband and I arrived home to take a long comfortable nap together, then scamper off to Erev Rosh Hashanah services. The Jewish New Year starting the evening of 9-18-09, fortunate numbers referring to "Life" made the day irresistible to us as a time to get married. (The Hebrew letter "chai" is the 18th letter in the alphabet, and used in the word for life. A good letter, a good number. I'm not explaining this as well as it could be explained....)

So we are starting a new year well! I am an Orthodox Christian, but I do enjoy the Jewish High Holy Days. They make a great deal of sense I think, as a friendly gentile observer. A big happy party to usher in the new year, then the first ten days of the year are spent pondering the previous year and what you want to do differently this year, then Yom Kippur, a twenty-four hour repentancefest. Now I like Great Lent in my own tradition, but it is forty days in early spring which is just a rough time of year already, and the Menaion (sorta a day-by-day liturgical guide) can get just nutsy about what is to be done when and how to observe what minor feast day. And this is all before you get to Holy Week..... The excitement drama and irritation can be good fun and spiritually beneficial, but some years it just spins up into a vast unclear penitential circus. I really like one solid twenty four hours where the focus is very clear, and the liturgy clearly leads you through it all. Over forty-plus days of Great Lent, my attention can and does wander. Accompanying my beloved through the twenty four hours of Yom Kippur, even as I discreetly don't fast, is strengthening. And then a few days after Yom Kippur Sukkot starts, and goes for some days. How cool is that? A holiday where you build a pleasant little outdoor pavilion in which you hang out with friends and family and be happy about life and eat good food.

That is the way to start a new year! And, I think, a new marriage.