Tea at Trianon: Feast of the Seven Fishes

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Feast of the Seven Fishes

A custom for Christmas Eve. To quote:

Many are the legends surrounding this curious but ancient ritual. The habit of eating seafood on Christmas Eve comes from the Roman Catholic tradition of abstinence from the consumption of meat or milk products on Wednesdays, Fridays and (in the Latin Church) Saturdays, as well as on the eve on any important religious feast. And there are more than just one hypothesis for what the number “7” means.

Did you know seven was the most repeated number in the Bible? Actually, it appears over 700 times. And one of the most accredited theories is the number represents completion: in the Genesis 2:2, you can read “By the seventh day God completed the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.” and, in a way, during the feast of the seven fishes, Christians celebrate the completion of God’s promise of the Messiah through Jesus. But seven also represents the seven Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church such as the Seven Hills of Rome that surround the city. (Read more.)