I decided to make a second posting today, as I had to go out (in the rain) once more during the afternoon. [To collect willow twigs.]
Why images of willow twigs and catkins? Well, this is self-evident if you know of the Finnish Easter traditions: "At Easter you may well see quaint little characters walking around Finnish villages and suburbs. Children with sooty faces and scarves tied round their heads go begging, carrying broomsticks, coffee pots and bunches of decorated virpovitsa willow twigs. Little girls and sometimes even boys dressed as witches go from door to door, reciting good luck poems in return for money and sweets."
Is this a spring-time version of Halloween? Well, not quite, but a bit similar. Quoting the previous source: "... the custom is a novel example of the Finns' ability to assimilate and revitalize both Eastern and Western traditions."
With three little daughters in the family, you can guess what will happen tomorrow. If you want to know even more, there is always Youtube.
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At Hidden Valley, Christmas Eve
9 hours ago
4 comments:
It's very interesting how traditions vary. Here, we have the Easter Bunny! There are signs posted throughout various neighborhoods, and even in front of churches, talking of Easter egg hunts for the young ones. Years ago, and even today, many of the very fundamentalist churches were against the idea of the Easter Bunny saying that it took away from the true meaning of Easter. Interesting.
Here also there is discussion on the "pagan" content of the easter witch tradition. But for the children, it is an exciting time.
Some years ago, it was only the little girls doing it, nowadays even boys and older children are going from door to door. The promise of sweets and a little bit of money is hard to resist.
It's incredible what you get out of this camera. I love all three.
In retrospect I'm bit of ambivalent towards the post-processing I made in LightZone for these images. On the other hand, the stronger local contrast shows the catkins better, on the other hand I lost some of the smoothness of the originals. But they were just too "tame".
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