Mar 29 2025 - Spring Cleaning? Yuk!

 

there are a lot of articles on spring cleaning.  How to get started is the most common.  Who wants to "get started" on cleaning?  It would have to be tied to a religious festival, don't you think?  Making things ready for the big event.  With Christians it would be Easter. Some articles say the original festival was the Iranian Nowruz, the Persian new year, which falls on the first day of spring.   And how does it relate to Christianity? There's lots of occurrences of the word "unclean" in the Bible, but I don't see any of them relating to "house unclean."    I hadn't realized how much emphasis there was on using unclean as a euphemism for sin or similar things - eg. a state of impurity or moral corruption.  These things need cleansing or purification.  So is unclean a euphemism? Typically it is meant to be an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that is deemed offensive or unpleasant. What is the oldest euphemism?  Bruin: A euphemism for "bear" used in Northern Europe, where people feared naming bears directly.  Cemetery: Originally a euphemism for "graveyard," meaning "dormitory" or "sleeping place".  Dis-ease: A polite way to say someone was sick, now a mainstream word for "sick".  I expect there is a national euphemism day in which we speak in silly expressions.

This is one of my favourite pictures - it is the weeping cherry tree on Niagara St. at the heritage Vineland Research building.  Some years it is brighter pink than others and with the clear blue skies that day, the colours were the best I've ever taken pictures of.  I drove past last week - it won't be blooming for a few weeks. Read more daily posts here: marilyncornwellblogspot.com Purchase works here: Fine Art America- marilyncornwell.com Redbubble - marilyncornwellart.ca