Marathon Day

[kiya]

The plan: I would grab a lift in with teinedreugan after a few hours' sleep, stop off at the Coop and pick up a book to kill time with, dither over breakfast, and walk down to Kenmore from Kendall to meet yehoshua at Gate B at Fenway. Afterwards, to get up to Boston Garden and join the ritual, possibly with keshwyn if she was interested. Then hook up with teinedreugan and go home, unless I was too fried for that and caught the train instead.

This would have worked better if I'd managed the sleeping beforehand part. The plan was foiled more dramatically within ten minutes of hitting Cambridge; the Coop was closed. Mutter, grumble. Hokay; I snagged the T to Downtown Crossing and prowled in Borders for a bit. Picked up a couple of books, then went and got a bagel and some peculiar tea. Ate bagel, drank tea, read Not Exactly the Three Musketeers. I haven't read any fiction in ages. Deeply weird.

Caught the T to Kenmore, proceeded to try to get to Gate B by going the wrong way around the park. The stupidity of this (because essentially the entire way along the road past Gate A is security blocked) was compounded by the fact that I had to fight traffic flow massively upstream and go all the way 'round the other way. I ogled the Ted Williams statue and eventually yehoshua found me, and we went in.

The game . . . hmm. Arroyo was a little shaky in a couple of places but he settled down. The defense behind him also shaky but settled down. The overshift actually produced an out for once. Good to have a come-from-behind win. And as always tremendous fun to be in the classy bleacher section, where crowd-rousers get shouted down with, "Nope! No waves here! This section doesn't do the wave!"

keshwyn called; we made vague arrangements to meet at Arlington. I left Fenway with a warm fuzzy feeling and a sunburn. (Nose and tops of forearms.) Eventually managed to get to the T, though not without seeing a couple of the marathon leaders lope through Kenmore and past the "one mile left" signs.

Got to Boston Garden, figured out where the Hellenic ritual was likely to be. Eventually hooked up with keshwyn, who promptly slapped an ivy garland on top of my head. We wandered off towards the relevant statue and sighted other people with garlands, who seemed plausible for the Hellenics. Joined in the festivities, pouring libations for my own participation and for erispope, who'd asked me to. Then we broke and milled around for a while in search of ice cream and wound up in Harvard Square, where I got a milkshake.

People wandered their separate ways; keshwyn and I went up to Pandemonium. I picked up the main Exalted book so I could give jikharra his copy back without any regrets or second thoughts. ;) teinedreugan called, and I made plans to meet him back at the office. Wander wander wander, yell at traffic, meet up, go home -- take nap.

Such was my day. My wrists hurt. I go bed.

Addendum: keshwyn: It's spelt χαιρε with plural χαιρετε.

Comments

[ardaniel]

And the verb form is χαιρω, "to be joyful; to rejoice; to be glad," if Google is to be believed.

How is the salutation itself (not the verb) pronounced? "Kai-rey?"

In a non-recon note, the Bible enjoins people not to bid χαιρω to false teachers, to wish them no joy and offer them no welcome within one's home. I've got a headache and can't quite wrap my head around why that 's very neat and comforting.

[rainfallsautumn.livejournal.com]

Is that word sort of like the Kemetic "em hotep?"

I see how it's comforting too. Too much of those practices lost, the ones about offering shelter and the shaming that results when said offer is withdrawn.

[ardaniel]

jenett's got the right of it below, as far as I can tell-- not peace, but joyfulness.

How multilayered is the concept conveyed by "hotep?" I'm not a Kemetic recon, although I've lurked on the HoN boards for a few months now and thus get the Kemetic Orthodox general idea. (And thusly also say "hi, Abiwi!" ;) Does "ii-wy em hotep" just mean "be welcome if you are of peaceful intent," or is there any allusion to it being the sort of inner peace that comes of acting in ma'at, or?

Asatru have the concept of frith, which is both "peace" and "security" (source: Eric Wodening, The Meaning of Frith)-- both the sort of peace that's gained through keeping a secure community, and the sort of security that's gained by keeping a peaceful community. Some heathen lists make a point of reminding subscribers to maintain the frith onlist so that things don't degenerate into a hairy screaming match, which isn't something I've seen on the HoN boards with regard to coming in peace. (I suspect the HoN boards keep the most heated stuff in member-only areas anyhow.)

The Asatru list custom seems to be to sign *off* with "in frith," to remind people that you're not trying to rip people's heads off with your commentary, as opposed to the Kemetic *arrival* with "em hotep," to remind people that you're showing UP with the proper party attitude. ;)

But, now that I've digressed into a mess of tangents, "em hotep" is probably not quite the same thing as "chaire." ;)

[kiya]

Is that word sort of like the Kemetic "em hotep?"

Somewhat, yes; it's the Greek greeting. (The ritual group cheerfully said, "It's the Greek 'aloha'!" which is actually ... pretty close.) The verb χαιρειν is 'to rejoice'; the greeting 'khaire' is the imperative form.

It was used in the ritual to hail the ones being honored -- 'khaire o Hestia' was the first line.

(Chi is usually transliterated 'ch'; I tend to transliterate it 'kh'.)

[jenett]

More or less, yeah, but with a slightly more aspirated k - k-hai rey, if you see the difference.

I've always loved it, that the main greeting in Greek is the imperative "Rejoice!" or "Be joyful"

[ardaniel]

Bonus link, in case either you or Keshwyn missed the actual apparent homepage of the group in question, or if any of your other readers have curiosity:

http://cose.numachi.com/daitales/

[rainfallsautumn.livejournal.com]

The ritual sounded neat. What were they commemmorating?

In all a good day, yes? Looks like you had a good time. :) How come you don't do the wave, though? *curious*

[kiya]

Patriot's Day is the Maine/Massachusetts commemoration of the beginning of the Revolutionary War. (My previous entry is titled with a bit of the poem "Paul Revere's Ride", which is part of what's being marked.) We get early morning gunfire in Lexington (commemorating the Shot Heard Round the World), most everyone has the day off, and it's the day the Boston Marathon is run.

The Hellenic group that does this particular ritual is of the opinion that it's important to recognise the rituals of the city in which one lives -- recreating the ritual calendar of Athens isn't right, because they're not living in Athens. Clearly, Patriot's Day is an important day for the hero cults in Boston, so if you're a Hellenic recon in Boston, you festival for Patriot's Day. Honor the heroes of the day, and of the battles at Lexington, Concord, and Menotomy; honor the heroes of the Battle of Marathon, who are commemorated in the Boston Marathon; honor Nike of victory and Demokrateia, who represents the ideals of the Revolution; honor Pan, who aided the Battle of Marathon. Honor the winners of today's Marathon (one of whom set a world record). And also the Red Sox, who won. ;)

I tend not to do the wave because I'm scoring the game and thus am paying far more attention to the field than who's waving their arms around where. ;)

[jenett]

It all sounds very cool. I miss Patriot's day, y'know?

[undauntra.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, Exalted. I'm currently halfway-sorta figuring out how to crossover In Nomine, Exalted, Amber, and Sailormoon. I think I've got the cosmologies/timeline sorted out, but balancing the game mechanics looks to be much tougher.

[kiya]

(I think I'm frightened.)

[undauntra.livejournal.com]

Surely you've noticed that the Sailor senshi display Sidereal Caste Marks when they Exalt are discovered?

[kiya]

Indeed.

I'm still frightened. ;)