Monday was Columbus Day, now America’s most ignored holiday, outside of New York City and Columbus, Ohio. I forgot about it until I encountered a locked door at the post office. Monday was Thanksgiving in Canada. I’m not sure why Canada’s Thanksgiving precedes the United States’ by five and a half weeks; I suppose they take in their harvest in earlier than we do.
Catching up on autumn chores last weekend, I helped a neighbor bring a load brush down to the power plant. There was no special reason for me to do that, it’s just what neighbors do. Here in Burlington, our power plant burns wood (it’s cleaner and more efficient that fossil fuel) and accepts untreated wood and yard scraps.
The yard attendant eyed my load and directed me off to the side. “You’ve got a lot of cedar,” he said. “Put it on that pile over there.” He said cedar is segregated this time of year because duck hunters and observant Jews come down to the wood yard looking for it. The attendants keep it off to the side to make the search easier. It’s a bit more effort, but Burlington is a small city. Keeping a separate pile of cedar is just an extension of opening the wood yard to homeowners and landscapers looking to dump a load of brush.
Duck hunters use cedar to build their blinds because blinds stand in water and cedar resists rotting better than most woods. Observant Jews use cedar to build sukkot, or booths, for the Feast of Succoth, which runs from 18-25 October this year. Succoth is the Jewish harvest feast. The booths are at once a reminder of the shanties the nation of Israel lived in during its 40 years of wandering in the Sinai desert and of the shanties Israelite farmers used to live in during the harvest.
Driving away from the wood yard, I wondered if the autumnal cedar supply kept up with demand, if there was competition or cooperation between duck hunters and observant Jews for the wood. I wondered how different the two structures were in construction, if tips are passed back and forth. (I don’t know much about either, but duck blinds are open to the sky and Succoth booths always have a roof). I wondered if there is much crossover between the two groups. Weird imaginings set in.
“Honey, I thought you said you built the booth for Succoth, but I don’t see it in the yard.”
“Oh. Yeah, uh, this year, I thought we’d build the booth down near the lake – OK, in the lake, but don’t worry, it’s in shallow water.”
“Baruch Atoh Adonai… Hey, there’s one!” KA-blam!
No, probably not.
Our cedar probably isn’t kosher, either. I don’t know if the use of cedar is religiously prescribed, but the cedar that grew in ancient Israel was Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani), whereas the cedar that grows in Vermont is Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), which is, as the Latin name implies, juniper rather than the cedar. Vermont is too cold for true cedar.
Red cedar does better in warm climates, too. My tree guide says red cedar thrives most heartily in Texas and, sure enough, newspaper accounts of George W. Bush clearing brush on his ranch in Crawford make specific mention of cedar clearing. I wonder if Mr. Bush puts his cedar aside for Dick Cheney and Antonin Scalia to use for their duck blind or for Paul Wolfowitz and Elliott Abrams to use for their sukkot.
No, probably not. I live in a small community. We’re in each other’s lives; we look out for each other. That means we haul brush for a neighbor, or put some aside because we know some folks will want it for a special purpose.
George Bush spent the month of August on vacation, clearing brush on his ranch. Grieving families of dead American soldiers gathered outside his gate. He did not put aside any time to speak with them. Mr. Bush looks out for his friends in some ways, steering no-bid contracts or seats on the Supreme Court their way, but those favors always seem to be part of a quid pro quo.
Canadian Thanksgiving was Monday, Jewish Thanksgiving starts Tuesday, American Thanksgiving is in five weeks. Before our Thanksgiving arrives, Veterans’ Day will have come and gone, the number of American dead in the current war will top 2,000 and line of grieving families outside George Bush’s gate will stretch that much further toward a distant horizon.
Harvest Festivals
Monday was Columbus Day, now America’s most ignored holiday, outside of New York City and Columbus, Ohio. I forgot about it until I encountered a locked door at the post office. Monday was Thanksgiving in Canada. I’m not sure why Canada’s Thanksgiving precedes the United States’ by five and a half weeks; I suppose they take in their harvest in earlier than we do.
Catching up on autumn chores last weekend, I helped a neighbor bring a load brush down to the power plant. There was no special reason for me to do that, it’s just what neighbors do. Here in Burlington, our power plant burns wood (it’s cleaner and more efficient that fossil fuel) and accepts untreated wood and yard scraps.
The yard attendant eyed my load and directed me off to the side. “You’ve got a lot of cedar,” he said. “Put it on that pile over there.” He said cedar is segregated this time of year because duck hunters and observant Jews come down to the wood yard looking for it. The attendants keep it off to the side to make the search easier. It’s a bit more effort, but Burlington is a small city. Keeping a separate pile of cedar is just an extension of opening the wood yard to homeowners and landscapers looking to dump a load of brush.
Duck hunters use cedar to build their blinds because blinds stand in water and cedar resists rotting better than most woods. Observant Jews use cedar to build sukkot, or booths, for the Feast of Succoth, which runs from 18-25 October this year. Succoth is the Jewish harvest feast. The booths are at once a reminder of the shanties the nation of Israel lived in during its 40 years of wandering in the Sinai desert and of the shanties Israelite farmers used to live in during the harvest.
Driving away from the wood yard, I wondered if the autumnal cedar supply kept up with demand, if there was competition or cooperation between duck hunters and observant Jews for the wood. I wondered how different the two structures were in construction, if tips are passed back and forth. (I don’t know much about either, but duck blinds are open to the sky and Succoth booths always have a roof). I wondered if there is much crossover between the two groups. Weird imaginings set in.
“Honey, I thought you said you built the booth for Succoth, but I don’t see it in the yard.”
“Oh. Yeah, uh, this year, I thought we’d build the booth down near the lake – OK, in the lake, but don’t worry, it’s in shallow water.”
“Baruch Atoh Adonai… Hey, there’s one!” KA-blam!
No, probably not.
Our cedar probably isn’t kosher, either. I don’t know if the use of cedar is religiously prescribed, but the cedar that grew in ancient Israel was Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani), whereas the cedar that grows in Vermont is Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana), which is, as the Latin name implies, juniper rather than the cedar. Vermont is too cold for true cedar.
Red cedar does better in warm climates, too. My tree guide says red cedar thrives most heartily in Texas and, sure enough, newspaper accounts of George W. Bush clearing brush on his ranch in Crawford make specific mention of cedar clearing. I wonder if Mr. Bush puts his cedar aside for Dick Cheney and Antonin Scalia to use for their duck blind or for Paul Wolfowitz and Elliott Abrams to use for their sukkot.
No, probably not. I live in a small community. We’re in each other’s lives; we look out for each other. That means we haul brush for a neighbor, or put some aside because we know some folks will want it for a special purpose.
George Bush spent the month of August on vacation, clearing brush on his ranch. Grieving families of dead American soldiers gathered outside his gate. He did not put aside any time to speak with them. Mr. Bush looks out for his friends in some ways, steering no-bid contracts or seats on the Supreme Court their way, but those favors always seem to be part of a quid pro quo.
Canadian Thanksgiving was Monday, Jewish Thanksgiving starts Tuesday, American Thanksgiving is in five weeks. Before our Thanksgiving arrives, Veterans’ Day will have come and gone, the number of American dead in the current war will top 2,000 and line of grieving families outside George Bush’s gate will stretch that much further toward a distant horizon.
© Mark Floegel, 2005