Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare

"Shakespeare’s 450^th birthday happened this week.

Shakespeare was born on the same day that he died; April 23^rd. This happens to be St George’s Day, which is quite appropriate, considering that St George is England’s patron saint, and Shakespeare arguably England’s greatest writer.

He had three brothers and four sisters. When he married, he was 18 and his wife Anne was 26. They had 3 children, two daughters and a son called Hamnet, who died young. Their one granddaughter died childless, thus Shakespeare had no descendants. He left most of his property to his daughter, Susanna, and famously, his ‘second best bed’ to his wife. When he was buried, in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford, it was discovered that he had put a curse on anyone who moved his body. It read as follows:-

Good friend for Jesus’ sake forbear,
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

No-one ever did!

Appropriately, there are thirteen incidents of suicide in his plays.

Shakespeare acted in many of his plays, and also collaborated with other writers from time to time.

His works are the second most widely quoted, second only to the Bible.

Though he is thought of as an Elizabethan playwright, most of his work was produced in the later, Jacobean era."

Penny across the pond

Eggs

     "In 2010, my husband and I had our last holiday in Montenegro. We had always enjoyed visiting other churches, in order to attend Sunday services there, during our stay, wherever we happened to be in the world, and always tried to find one closest to our own, in terms of denomination. This often wasn’t possible though, when traveling throughout Europe, but undaunted, we decided to try the local Greek Orthodox church in Budva.

It was a glorious sunny day, just perfect for Easter day, and the walk into the town was a pleasant one. However, we soon discovered that it wasn’t in fact Easter Sunday over there. Every few years, the date of Easter falls on the same day in the Western church as well as in the Greek Orthodox Church, but it can be up to four weeks different. This year, apparently, it was a week later.

The church was cool inside, but we immediately noticed several differences with our own place of worship back home. The men and women were standing, not sitting, and where on opposite sides of the church. It was quite uncomfortable having to stand throughout, although there was a low shelf which ran down the full length of the building, down the sides, on which we could ‘perch’, to relieve the strain abit. One thing was for sure; nobody would fall asleep in one of their services!    

Another difference was that many intricate icons adorned the walls, whereas apart from the simple, empty cross above our altar, and flower arrangement, ours is devoid of decoration. Of course, the service was not in our native tongue, but it’s easy to follow the proceedings, despite this, as they invariably follow a set pattern. The priest led the worship, but there was much singing, and others, including females, read lessons, etc. But the really lovely thing, and what sticks in my mind the clearest, was that before the service began, ladies had brought baskets, full of beautifully decorated hens eggs up to the altar, and laid them on the steps. The priest then blessed them, and they remained there throughout the service.

At the end, the ladies retrieved the baskets, and standing in the doorway, handed everyone, including us interlopers, with a hand-painted egg and a beautiful smile. We went out into the sunshine feeling truly blessed, and carefully packed the eggs in our luggage, for the return journey. We kept them in pride of place on the mantel shelf, for several years, as a reminder of our lovely, and final holiday together."

Penny from across the pond