Friday 22 March – Mousehold Heath
Easter’s early this year, and today doesn’t seem like Good Friday. It feels more like winter than spring, and the naked trees are still scratching their stark leafless outlines against the sullen sky. Today is also the feast day of Saint William of Norwich, who was supposedly murdered by Jews, and his body buried right here, on the edge of the Heath. It was the first case of Blood Libel ever recorded, where a race or bloodline is deemed responsible for a particular crime, as well as the victim's blood being used for ritualistic purposes, and it was the spark that lit the flame that burned across Europe for hundreds of years, and is still smouldering away now.
And it all started here, in Norwich.
This being Saint William’s feast day, it seems a good time and a good place to utter a few words for the dead – all the millions of dead as a result of the wicked crimes of anti-semitism and xenophobia. I’ve printed the Kaddish – the Jewish prayer for the dead – on some sugar paper, and tied them with twine to the branches of the trees that grow on the site of Saint William’s Chapel. Now the whole place is covered with these prayer-leaves, and some of the people who are walking their dogs are looking at them and reading them, and in doing so, unwittingly saying a prayer for the dead.
Once something is spoken, it can’t be un-said.
And in a few days time, after the rain, these sugar-paper prayers will have broken down and crumbled away, and nothing will remain, except a memory.
Easter’s early this year, and today doesn’t seem like Good Friday. It feels more like winter than spring, and the naked trees are still scratching their stark leafless outlines against the sullen sky. Today is also the feast day of Saint William of Norwich, who was supposedly murdered by Jews, and his body buried right here, on the edge of the Heath. It was the first case of Blood Libel ever recorded, where a race or bloodline is deemed responsible for a particular crime, as well as the victim's blood being used for ritualistic purposes, and it was the spark that lit the flame that burned across Europe for hundreds of years, and is still smouldering away now.
And it all started here, in Norwich.
This being Saint William’s feast day, it seems a good time and a good place to utter a few words for the dead – all the millions of dead as a result of the wicked crimes of anti-semitism and xenophobia. I’ve printed the Kaddish – the Jewish prayer for the dead – on some sugar paper, and tied them with twine to the branches of the trees that grow on the site of Saint William’s Chapel. Now the whole place is covered with these prayer-leaves, and some of the people who are walking their dogs are looking at them and reading them, and in doing so, unwittingly saying a prayer for the dead.
Once something is spoken, it can’t be un-said.
And in a few days time, after the rain, these sugar-paper prayers will have broken down and crumbled away, and nothing will remain, except a memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment