Unleavened bread

At the time of the Exodus, God told Moses to have the people make bread without yeast. This way they could leave at a moment's notice without waiting for the bread to rise. In memory of this, Jews eat matzah, a flatbread made without yeast, during the Passover festival. I don't know who first made this image - I've found it on multiple sites without any attribution, but it's too funny to not post. If anyone knows the origin of this, please let me know in the comments

Satanic LEGO?

Lego is a tool of Satan, warns Polish priest This is one of those crazy stories that hits the intertubes and then runs around different media. The fact that it first came out on April 1 should be suggestive, but some news stories are reporting additional remarks to an AP reporter on April 4, so maybe this guy is serious. As the story goes, the priest is supposedly complaining about the Monster Fighters sets that include vampires, werewolves, etc., and also cites a story from last year about the increasing number of "angry" faces for LEGO figures. I'm 99% sure that this is all an April Fools joke that got picked up by a news organization, and then other news organizations picked it up from there, etc, but I've seen people complain about Harry Potter, etc, so who knows?



BTW, I'm personally most offended that the picture above, which I grabbed from the Telegraph article on this, actually has Megablox, not LEGO, as the backdrop for the vampire figure. There has to be some midrash expansion on Deuteronomy 22:11 saying that it is wrong to mix LEGO and Megablox.

Scrolls

Scrolls are necessarily religious, but that's how we generally see them. Scrolls were long strips of papyrus or parchment (or shorter pieces glued together) rolled around two dowels. They were first invented in the Mediterranean region, maybe Egypt, some time between 2000 and 1000 BC. They stayed in general use until some time into the Roman era, eventually supplanted by the codex, or bound book, invented in the first century AD. In ancient times scrolls were used for really any longer work, certainly including religious works. Today scrolls are still used in ceremonial reading from the Sefer Torah, a hand written scroll of the Torah used for ritual reading during services in a synagogue. BTW, here's a fun scroll fact - the work for scroll in Latin is VOLVME, which is the source in English both for the word 'volume' and the word 'revolve'. Here are a couple of wonderful renditions of scrolls in LEGO form by Bruce Lowell and Filip Soukup.

Not -that- white smoke

Pedro Nogueira Photography commemorates the 'white smoke' that marks the election of Pope Francis with a Special effects technician.

Yin and Yang

The concept of yin and yang is important in various Asian religions and philosophies. The concept is that the world is full of various dualities, such as dark and light, or male and female. These dualities are interdependent, and in their interaction they create new things. These are all manifestations of the yin and the yang. This symbol has been recreated in many ways in LEGO form:

My all time favorite has to be this by Noddy.

To fully appreciate this MOC, you have to also look at it from above.


Lego27bricks recently did something similar.


Here's my own effort.


The yin/yang symbol provides a backdrop to martial artists by pguenthe ...


... and Collin Ballantyne.


Heath Flor celebrated Talk Like a Pirate Day a couple of years back with ninjas vs pirates.


The opposition is shown here by Madformax1.


Here's Remyth's Temple of Yin and Yang.


Jim Walshe ...


... and ANVRecife have had some fun with photography.

Rapture?

As most of you have probably noticed, the Rapture did not take place today. Some time ago, RebelRock reminded everyone that when the rapture comes, don't forget your monkey.



BTW, you notice that I waited until well after the appointed time to post this. ;) Actually, I've just been busy.

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, when many Christians begin their observation of the Lenten season, a period of 40 days of contemplation and prayer in anticipation of Easter. I wasn't really sure how this could be depicted in LEGO form - maybe a minifig with a smudge of ash on his forehead. Ichabod Ishwick came up with a humorous photo, where his minifigs misheard 'Ash Wednesday' as Mashed Potato Day.

Día de los Muertos

Yesterday was Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. This holiday, celebrated in Mexico and by some Mexican Americans, is derived from the Catholic feasts of All Saints (November 1) and All Souls (November 2), remembering those who died. Celebrants often visit the graves of their family members and bring along food and other remembrances. Pasukaru76 has a humorous take on this, taking out great-great-great-great-grandpa for a coffee.

Water into wine

According to John 2:1-11, Jesus first miracle took place at a wedding in Cana. After the wine ran out during the festivities, Jesus asked the servants to fill up jars with water, and when they tasted from the jars they were the finest wine. Minkowsky reproduced this miracle with a touch of humor in a recent MOC. You have to watch the movie to get the full effect. Be sure to look through the whole gallery for some great details.

What would Jesus wear to a fan convention?

Long time readers of this blog might remember that I wrote an essay on WWJB?, or 'What Would Jesus Build?'. Someone at the recent BrickFair fan convention produced this t-shirt. Personally, I think I should get some royalties if they were selling these. Or maybe someone should send me a shirt. :) Photo credit to OmahaMH.