Apr 14, 2019
It seems that most of the world’s religions have spring holidays. In fact, celebrating the beginning of spring may be among the oldest seasonal holidays in human culture. The earliest reference we have to such a holiday comes to us from Babylon, 2400 BCE. The city of Ur apparently had a celebration dedicated to the moon and the spring equinox which was held some time during our months of March or April.
For Christianity, today is Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week, culminating in the commemoration of the Passion with the celebration of Easter. The Jewish 8 day celebration of Passover begins on this coming Friday, commemorating the Exodus of the Israeliites from Egypt. For Buddhists, spring is significant mainly for its connection with events in the life of the Buddha. Hindus celebrate the birth of the lord Rama with the festival known as Rama Navami.
Native Americans celebrate the Yaqui Deer dance this week, a ceremony intended to integrate ancient rites of the Yaqui people of Arizona with the Christian Easter Rituals. According to Muslim tradition, Nis Sha-ban is the time when Allah Approaches the earth to call humanity to repentance and grant forgiveness off sins. The Bahai faith begins a celebration called Ridvan, commemorating the twelve days that Baha u llah spent in the garden of Ridvan during his exile from Baghdad.
With all of these religious events happening in a 10-14 day period, it has been the Straight No Chaser tradition to assemble a Podcast of Spiritual Jazz to honor and embrace the spiritual aspects of life. Podcast 676 is no exception, with musical selections including:
Sun Ra – “God is More Than Love Can Ever Be”
Mark Feldman, Uri Caine, Greg Cohen & Joey Baron – “Chabad Nigun”
Raul Midon – “Peace on Earth”
Joe DeFrancesco – “The Creator Has a Master Plan”
Tony Scott – “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna”
Solomon Sori – “Songs of Praise to God”
Russell Malone and Jimmy Owens – “We Have a Friend in Jesus”
Tierney Sutton Band – “Amazing Grace”
For those interested in previous Podcasts of Spiritual Jazz, please click the links that follow to listen to Podcasts 178, 215, 341, 422, 472, 525 and 617.