Exploring Arts and Christianity.

As part of our Exploring Arts Program, and as part of our religions of the world unit in World Cultures, Phaedra Siebert helped our kids compare early Roman and Christian objects, finding iconographic similarities. She facilitated a discussion about some of the reasons religions borrow from each other, and using pre-Columbian art as inspiration, Phaedra asked the kids to come up with holidays of their own as a way to demonstrate how newer belief systems often incorporate older beliefs and symbols; here are some of their inventions:

Golden Bird Day: March and September the Golden Bird emerges from the Temple of the Golden Bird to help birds migrate.

Pig Man Day: Pig Man comes once a year to see if you have a pet guinea pig. If you do, Pig Man eats all your food.

Walking Butterfly: Before Christmas Eve, the walking butterfly uses her wings to ascertain that it is Christmas Eve. Then she tells Santa. The walking butterfly loves painting and paints all the windows blue.

Golden Phoenix Castle: Pheaster is the holiday when the golden Phoenix hides eggs and brings candy and tricks, including some with magic inside a pink glowing ball. In Phenism, the Golden Phoenix is god.

Royal Green Zilla: At the time of dinosaurs, a crocodile and a dinosaur fought in a temple, then they combined into one being. Every 100 years is Zilla Day.