About those Ostrich Eggs
I’m back in England. Safe and sound. I arrived back at my flat around 1pm today, quite a few hours after i should have. Since my last entry, I managed to bore myself stupid at Larnaca airport Luckily, I was among good company. The small toddler who was stealing things from duty free (just sweets, not cigarettes or anything – small time stuff) was cute to start with, but as the minutes ticked by like hours, and as he got more restless, so did I. Imagine my joy at finding him just a few seats away on the plane. With the crying and the screaming.
So, a flight delayed for three and a half hours with no explanation; an aborted boarding at the gate (due to technical difficulties); the plane unable to taxi to the runway, because of a broken luggage lift attached to the plane; a rather rough flight and landing; and having only slept about 2 hours in the last 40. I don’t feel my best 
But, I am proud that I managed to stay awake all day long (take that, jetlag). I’m also pleased at having bought another two bottles of Bailey’s, at the request of Nick – bringing the grand total to four, at least until I give some away. And I’ve put a ton of pictures online at www.blakepics.com/cyprus.
If you don’t feel like clicking through all of them and I don’t blame you. Then the Cyprus Video Story is probably more for you. Because that has most of the best pictures in it anyway. The music, is Howie Day – Collide, which is also the tune that the name of this blog comes from. Which is kinda appropriate, since this holiday has kind of launched my blog
I’ll finish up tonight, as I’m sure I’ll be continuing to do for quite a while yet, with correcting the outrageous lies I wrote while on holiday – pieced together from scraps of memory from very informative tour guides, but sadly mashed together by my brain. Ostrich eggs, in the Cyprus Orthodox Churches. Well, after a quick google search, I found a load of very unhelpful answers and pages, this very same blog being one of them. So I feel a certain responsibility to make sure the question is of the eggs is answered properly. I’m sure you’re all dying to know anyway
Well eventually, I found this:
OSTRICH EGGS
* It is hanged before the iconostasis.
* It reminds us of the resurrection where small ostrich break out of the egg. Besides the point that the ostrich eyes are always fixed on its eggs during the incubation period.Source: http://www.copticchurch.net/topics/thecopticchurch/dictionr.pdf
Ignoring the poor use of “hanged”, this is exactly what I’m after. The iconostasis, is what all of the icons are displayed upon. It’s the same screen that seperates the alter from the main chapel. So, the use of the ostrich egg, is identifiable with the use of the egg at Easter time, resurrection, rebirth and all of that stuff. It also symbolises the soul. The worshippers are the watchful ostriches, watching over their souls on display at the front of the church, and keeping in mind the importance of the gift of life that God has bestowed.
If you google it yourself, you’ll find tons of references to ostrich eggs throughout religion, and various different ceremonies. But I don’t care about them – for me the question of the ostrich eggs is now answered, and I for one, can sleep easier …
Personally I think it was more likely that a young monk, just out of monk training, was tasked with decorating a remote church somewhere. The archbishop would have walked through to bless all of the work he’d done. “I like what you’ve done with the fingerpaints, Timothy. What’s the deal with the eggs?”. “Well, your excellency, I found some eggs out the back, and I thought….you know what would look cool?”.
At this point, the young monk’s mentor would jump in and seize an opportunity for an appraisal by the archbishop. “What Timothy is trying to say is, the eggs are our very souls, our essence. If we do no remind followers of the faith about what God has provided for us, then we are nothing”. And he’d get the gold star from the archbishop. While Timothy would have to go and wash his hands.
Something like that, anyway.
