Easter 2026
Jesus Christ, we survived to see another one.
Easter2026 – by Corliss Buenavida
Hey folks, it’s been a while. I hope I missed you as much as you missed me.
You have probably noticed I have a couple of topics other than floating which I refer to regularly in these blogs – poop and religion. Coincidence, I wonder?
Well, I’m not going to talk shit at the moment but I know I have another loaded in the chamber that is waiting to come out soon.
Instead I’m going to tell you about my just coming back from taking a crash course on various belief systems including Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity after visiting multiple temples and other places of worship during an extended bit of travelling which took me literally around the world in less than eighty days. Six less in fact!
First, why do religions exist? I’m sure there are multiple reasons but I think in the early days it was a source of explanation to help humans make sense of the world. For many following the idea of an afterlife eases mourning so burial rituals were created. As populations grew religions helped foster social cooperation providing a set of common moral values, although in more recent years, governments in many countries have taken over this role. In some places on this Earth especially where hard line religion is not separated from state faith based doctrines still set those nation’s laws.
As to the belief in the unexplainable, there are very few things modern science cannot explain and as generational education improves religions tend to lose followers.
Of course, over the years religion became monetized and with all those coffers pouring in, well, we are only human after all, so someone or a select group wanted to be in control. Just like today it was all about keeping your number of followers up.
Now, I have to ask, is it considered blasphemy to talk about religion this way if you are not a follower of the religion? Just curious.
That curiosity became part of my travels. So, it wasn’t actually a ‘religions course’ but when you visit so many historic places the history inevitably includes religion and I do like to learn, so I paid some attention to the various guides who were available to provide their expertise.
It all started in Egypt where I was able to visit so many historic sites that I was ‘templed out’ before it was all over.
Wikipedia sums up the basics of this culture very succinctly, “Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on interactions with many deities believed to be present and in control of the world. About 1,500 deities are known. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, believed to possess divine powers by virtue of their positions. They acted as intermediaries between their people and the gods, and were obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings. The state dedicated enormous resources to religious rituals and to the construction of temples.”
If you ever have the means to do an Egyptian tour, I highly recommend it. You can use the word awesome in its true sense. Take the Great Pyramid of Giza for example. It’s the burial tomb for one guy, Pharaoh Khufu and was the tallest man made structure for almost 4000 years. Awesome!
Egypt has gone through many rulers over the years including Greeks and the Romans who were in power when Christianity arrived. Arabs took over in the 7th Century and although the Ottomans replaced them followed much later by Frenchman Napoleon Bonaparte and then various others, Islam is by far the dominant religion. Therefore, just like in the rest of the Arab world you never seem to out of ear shot of a call to prayer.
Following Egypt my religious lessons continued in Kathmandu, located in a bowl shaped valley at the base of the Himalayan Mountains in Nepal. In this part of the world religion is also deeply integrated into daily life with the vast majority following Hinduism.
Going in I’ll admit to my ignorance as to what is involved in Hinduism so when I heard it was the oldest surviving religion on our planet I did some digging to get a grip on how the various belief systems stack up to each other by age.
Next I tried to get my head around how in Hinduism one supreme reality, Brahman, can be worshipped in multiple forms, such as Vishnu, Shiva and Devi. I guess for the over one billion that follow the “way of life” as written in the Vedas it’s all about trying to achieve good karma for a better result during reincarnation.
I must say some of the temples and statues in Asia dedicated to these beliefs are quite impressive. In Kathmandu they may not have the biggest structures but there are so many little domed stupas and red & gold shrines it baffles the mind.
There are also a fair number of people who abide by Buddhism in Nepal although those numbers really jumped once I was in Thailand and Cambodia. This made me wonder about participation levels around the world.
Buddhism seems the most ‘out there’ of the large religions and due to the nature of the Four Noble Truths. I think I’ll need another life time to understand it. Luckily Buddhists know we follow a path of multiple rebirths so I will get my chance in the future.
Upon reaching Vietnam, I found a significantly different culture where official numbers indicate only about 20% of the population follow any of the big religions. This may be in large part to Communist control in the late 1970’s when religious freedom was severely restricted or is simply based on believers following an array of smaller practices like Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Vietnamese folk religion.
Needless to say I found a few temples of my own, commonly referred to as beaches with beers.
Another great thing about being in Vietnam during February was witnessing their most important celebration, Tết Nguyên Đán, the Feast of the First Day, which falls on the first day of the first Vietnamese lunisolar month. Their calendar makes a lot of sense compared to what we generally follow, the Gregorian calendar, but neither is perfect.
This brings us to Pope Gregory XIII who put our current dating system in place in 1582 under Catholic rule and thereby set this as Easter weekend.
You have probably heard about it but just in case you haven’t, the scriptures in the Christian bible claim that three days after Jesus was hung out to dry and then entombed in a cave, he rose from being dead to hang out with his buds for forty days before ascending to heaven. It’s all written down so it must be true! And billions celebrate.
This ‘bible’ I mentioned is made up of The Old Testament, a gathering of previous stories primarily from the Hebrew Bible, prior to God’s son’s birthday. The gossip of the New Testament, in a way, the first sequel, by general consensus was written 50 – 150 years after Jesus’ uprising.
Muslims did the ultimate re-write in the Quran by saying they follow the messaging in previous books such as the stories of Adam, Noah, Moses and Jesus but go on to proclaim Muhammad to be the final of God’s prophets. Done. It’s over. Get in line.
It’s working too, as the fastest growing large religion in the world. But they still have a way to go to top the charts.
After Vietnam it was on to the Philippines, a hotbed of Catholicism but I stayed away from the churches and after a half day tour of Manila it was off to small island beaches.
As for where Judaism fits into all this, it is not likely I am going to visit Israel any time soon, especially with what is going on in that region right now, so I will just have to look at my graphs to understand it.
Hmm, second oldest religion still in existence but least amount of followers? They must be doing something wrong even with their fantastic propaganda machine.
Anyway, back to Easter. I wrote last year about the connections between Jesus and chocolate eggs so this year I’m going in another direction.
I’m considering starting my own new church for tax purposes. I’ll have to create my own text for the followers but that should be simple. There are so many ludicrous statements in the existing religious guide books that whatever I make up can’t be any less plausible than what those other churches are telling their parishioners.
I’m thinking The Church of the Eighth Day Inventists has a nice ring to it, especially if I’m inventing all the folklore behind it.
Or, perhaps Beerfloatism which would of course include 40 days and 40 nights of floating.
Okay, I realize a guru is not a religious figure, just a learned human, a mentor, guide, expert, or master but not a god or child of god. At the same time I find it hard to realize how these various cultures of the past (and some of the present) can put in so much money and effort into creating massive shrines for people to have as places of worship. So puzzling how any of these elaborately outlandish honorific sites came to be, just so future tourists would have attractions to visit.
Once again, I know a Guru isn’t a pharaoh, let alone a god but can you imagine how big a following I would need to have in order to have my floating image carved out of a small island? Awesome!
Better start telling your friends about beerfloat.calm!
Corliss
beerfloat.calm =beerfloat.netnot beerfloat.com
