menu for April 13th, 2024

Sayuri’s note for 4/13/24

    The greens are back and a lot of them have yellow flowers already. Dogwood, and mountain azalea are blooming, new leaves are growing on the trees, and the birds are singing a lot. A beautiful Appalchian spring has come again. 

     The solar eclipse happened on Monday, April 8th in the U.S.A. In Lumpkin County, the sky was at its darkest, or about 84 percent maximum coverage, from 2pm to 4pm according to the University of North Georgia Planetarium. We had a total solar eclipse on August 21, 2017 and saw it from Lake Winfield Scott in Suches, GA. We had a good time seeing it together with other folks.

     I imagine that ancient people were very scared when they had a solar eclipse without the scientific information that we have now. The Cherokees around here said that it looked like a giant frog was trying to swallow the sun (or moon) during an eclipse so they made loud noises like banging pots and pans, yelling, and shooting guns to scare the frog. 

     In the Japanese mythology of Amaterasu Omikami, the sun goddess is so distressed and saddened by the evil deeds of her younger brother, Susanoo no Mikoto, the storm god, that she shuts herself up in an Amano-iwaya (a sacred cave) and pulls a giant boulder over the entrance. Without her sunlight, it becomes dark and all the other gods (Yaoyorozu no kami) are troubled. One of the gods did a raucous dance to get Ametarasu to come out and end the darkness. Amaterasu couldn't believe all the other gods were having fun without her and she peeked out. One of the other gods pulled her out completely and another god pushed back the boulder to close the entrance for good. The main dish represents this story and the boiled egg is like the Sun goddess, chickpeas and other vegetables are like all the other gods, and the scoop of rice is like the boulder. Please enjoy the story of the solar eclipse and the season while you eat!

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