written and posted by members of Lancashire Dead Good Poets' Society

Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts

Monday, 9 September 2013

Bible Stories with a generous helping of Easter

09:00:00 Posted by Colin Daives , , , , , , , , , 1 comment
This week’s theme is “The Bible.” Now I am pretty certain there will be lots of argument regarding what is considered to either be the truth or fabrication. Whether stories should be seen as figurative or literal testimony.

I have my own views on the book, and before anyone wishes to cast doubt on my opinions, I have read it a number of times, as well as many supplement texts for various projects I have worked on over the years.

It is important to remember that there are two Bibles. One which deals with events that surround a life book ended by the birth and death of Jesus. The other regarding tales of the world before the son of a carpenter walk this green and pleasant land.

It is the New Testament that I find myself interested in here on this blog. In particular the death and resurrection of the Nazarene. The birth of Jesus is set in stone as the 25th of December, Christmas. His death and rise on the other hand float around.

Easter is defined as the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or after March 21. Which relates back to what is referred to as Pagan times.

There is a somewhat complex formula that can be used to calculate the Easter Sunday of any given year. So if you need to know when the first bank holiday will be after New Years Day in 2018, this piece of mathematics can tell you.

The easiest way to calculate all Easter Sundays is to use an Easter calculator like this one:

http://www.pauahtun.org/cgi-bin/easter.py

I have tested it and it seems to work very well. I conduced these experiments by using the years of Easters gone and checking the results against said calendar. This got me thinking.

Could I find out the date of the very first Easter Sunday? Could I determine the actual date Jesus arose from death and ascended to heaven?

A quick look on the internet, and a trawl through my own memory tells me that Christ was 33 when he succumbed to human mortality on the cross of the Romans. So, if you work on the basis that 0 (zero) AD is the year of birth then by this we can assume that 33AD would be the first Easter.

So by entering the year 33AD into the Easter Calculator we can find out the exact day of the first Easter Sunday according to the Gregorian calendar. This is important because the version of the Bible most recognised regions use is the King James Bible. The first popular English translation which was published in 1611. The Gregorian calendar is a reform of the Julian calendar. In 1582 it was seen as important to change the calendar to bring into line the celebration of Easter so that it was compliant with the time of year agreed upon by the Council of Nicaea in 325AD.

The outcome of typing in 33AD in to the Easter Calculator is the 3rd of April. Interesting, because if the first Easter Sunday, the day of the resurrection is the 3rd then that means the first Good Friday, the day of the actual Crucifixion would be the 1st of April, the day of fools.

Make of this what you will.

The Bible
Book the first
And God is vengeful
Feel his Wrath
Watch the shebear do his bidding
Bald old priest
Man of cloth used the Lords name so hateful

Jehovah the gambler
Bet the life of Jobe
Just to prove he won’t denounce you
To your first favourite
Who fell from grace
And no longer wished to live to your code

Father the deceiver
That denied the truth naked
Of your own creation
Until the woman, hungry for knowledge
Ate the apple
And opened their eyes so belated

Book the Second
And God in Loving
Forgiving those who hath sinned
Because of the word of his son
The carpenters apprentice speaks
And the almighty, now dad, becomes caring



Saturday, 23 June 2012

How I remember it



By Ashley Lister

The first time the Dead Good Poets got together was in a college classroom on 29th January 2009.  I was there. I’ve written down the way things happened exactly so that there’s no danger of these recollections being affected by fading memory.


INT. DAY: Corridor outside THE CLASSROOM.
ELIZA DUSHKU and HERMIONE GRANGER are talking in the corridor. Both are holding flyers for a Dead Good Poets event. Both are wearing bikinis and their skin glistens with crystal-like raindrops from a recent downpour.

Eliza Dushku
[Holding up a flyer]
Hello, Hermione Granger. I’m looking for the room where Ashley is reading one of his wonderful poems.

Hermione Granger
[Glancing at the doorway for THE CLASSROOM. We see a glint in her eye that says, ‘If I can’t have him, then no one can have him.
She pushes her own flyer behind her back so that ELIZA DUSHKU cannot see what she is holding.]
I do not know of any poetry reading or any wonderful, sexy poets called Ashley. But I’d heard they were doing a reading on the other side of Blackpool. He might be there.

Eliza Dushku
I do not believe you, Hermione Granger, and I think we should wrestle in custard until one of us proves to be the victorious winner of a girl-on-girl fight.

Hermione Granger
Very well, Eliza Dushku, although I should warn you that I intend to tear off your bikini before…


CUT TO:INT. DAY: Inside THE CLASSROOM.
The scene is busy and packed like Wembley Stadium ready for a JLS concert or a Nickleback concert or even a football match with lots and lots of fans. There are also some sandwiches.

David Cameron
[Shouting angrily at Ashley]
If you read that poem in front of these students, I shall leave here and form a government that screws over the country.

Ashley
[Heroically]
Don’t make me laugh, Cam-Moron. No one would vote for you.

David Cameron
[With obvious doubt]
Maybe not. But perhaps I’ll form a coalition government.

Ashley
[Suddenly worried – but still heroic and handsome]
You wouldn’t, would you?

CAMERON rushes from the room, chuckling maniacally and rubbing his hands together, and maybe stealing the pension book from an old person as he runs past them. And probably kicking a blind man’s guide dog.

ASHLEY looks like he is about to heroically pursue CAMERON and maybe do some bad-ass ninja moves on him.

Before ASHLEY can follow, DAVINA McCALL clutches ASHLEY’s arm and pushes a microphone in his face.

Davina McCall
Ashley – are we OK to have a quick chat with you live on camera before the inaugural event of the Dead Good Poets (who haven’t yet been named) begin their first reading?

Ashley
[Humbly]
Davina, whilst I’d love to chat with you about how brilliant I and the rest of the (as yet unnamed) poets are, don’t you want to do some interviews with Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Paris Hilton, Johnny Depp and all the other celebrity guests that we’ve got attending here for our inaugural event?

Davina McCall
[Looking disappointed]
You’re right, Ashley. And I hear the Pope and Jesus are about to enter the room with Michael Jackson (who is still alive because this is all happening in 2009) so I should go and have a chat with them.

Ashley
Very well, Davina. And I shall take a chair and sit with the other brilliant and wonderful poets who are going to change the face of North West poetry in the UK. And I shall wait for this event to begin. And then I shall contribute in a small and very humble way. And I’m not even slightly tempted to go outside and see what those two women are squealing about in the corridor.


CUT TO: INT. DAY: Corridor outside THE CLASSROOM.
ELIZA DUSHKU and HERMIONE GRANGER are wrestling in a vat of thick yellow custard.

FIN