[lit-ideas] Geary on Purification and Decontamination
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2004 16:28:23 EDT
"The Purification... As first instituted, this was not a
Festival of St. Mary, but of our Lord; and so it has
always remained in the Eastern church."
Meyrick.
---
J. M. Geary writes (in his commentary on E. Holder's unbirthday):
>a Jewish custom of
>decontaminating a
>woman after having given birth.
and expresses:
>But right now I want to
>know why are women always having
>to be decontaminated in male religions?
Mmm. Interesting. 'Purification', as Geary notes, is the word.
Interestingly, the first quote in the OED for 'decontaminate' is 1936 -- and
applied
mainly to gases. (Below). According to Meyrick, even, purification applies to
_Jesus_ (the lord) in the East, etc. Anyway...
Cheers,
JL
decontaminate:
[f. _DE-_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=decontamination&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1
&sort_type=alpha&xrefed=OED&xrefword=de-) II. 1 + _CONTAMINATE_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=dec
ontamination&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1&sort_type=alpha&xrefed
=OED&xrefword=contaminate&ps=v.) v.]
To remove contamination or the risk of contamination from (a person, area,
etc.) affected by poison gas, radioactivity, etc.
1936 Daily Tel. 17 Oct. 13/5
Cars sped through the streets carrying men wearing gas-masks, whose task it
was to decontaminate â??mustard gasâ?? areas.
1938 Protection of Your Home against Air Raids 25
Mustard gas..â??contaminatesâ?? clothing, or other objects exposed to it,
making them dangerous to have near you or to touch until they have been â??
decontaminatedâ??.
1948 Times 5 Mar. 3/2
The vessels..were still so radio-active that the cost of decontaminating
them..would have been greater than their value as scrap.
1958 Observer 12 Oct. 1/3 The package was elaborately decontaminated both by
chemicals and radiation to prevent the placing of any live organisms on the
moon's surface.
1971 Nature 5 Feb. 363/2
Breeders pay too little attention to the arduous task of decontaminating
buildings where infected birds have been housed, before moving in fresh,
healthy
stock.
1935 Discovery July 186/2
The scheme of gas defence requires..that there should be an organisation for
the decontamination of the areas affected.
1937 Evening News 15 Mar. 7/1
Decontamination squads, who would clear areas sprayed by mustard gas.
1955 Times 30 May 7/7
The techniques of decontamination..: a householder, on emerging from his
cellar, should immediately take a broom and sweep down his roof.
1957 Ibid. 12 Oct. 6/1 Traces of radioactivity lingered on his hands and he
was given a pair of surgical gloves to wear until to-morrow when the
decontamination process can be completed.
1966 D. F. GALOUYE Lost Perception ii. 18
The original airport had been swallowed by a gaping crater where, even after
two years, decontamination crews were still scouring the inner slope.
---
purification
the observances enjoined upon a woman after child-birth by the Jewish law;
hence formerly applied to the churching of women.
1380 WYCLIF Sel. Wks. II. 147
A question was maad of Joones disciplis of purificacioun, at men hadden of
baptim.
1440 Gesta Rom. lxiv. 276 (Harl. MS.)
e lawe was at tyme, that eche woman shuld go to chirche, in tyme of hire
purificacion.
1485 Digby Myst. (1882) I. 31
Our ladies purificacion that she made in the temple as the vsage was than.
1548-9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, The Order of the Purificacion of weomen.
1579-80 NORTH Plutarch, Romulus (1595) 34
The feast of Lupercalia..is ordeined for a purification.
1789 BUCHAN Dom. Med. (1790) 103
The Mahometan, as well as the Jewish religion, enjoins various bathings,
washings, and purifications.
1841 ELPHINSTONE Hist. Ind. I. I. iv. 83
More than half of one book of the [Brahminical] Code is filled with rules
about purification.
the Purification of St. Mary
(of our Lady, etc.), also simply the Purification: a name in the Western
Church for the festival (Feb. 2) of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple
(see _PRESENTATION_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=purification&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_show=10&sin
gle=1&sort_type=alpha&xrefed=OED&xrefword=presentation) 1) by the Virgin
Mary on the completion of â??the days of her purificationâ?? (Luke ii. 22);
also
called _CANDLEMAS_
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/crossref?query_type=word&queryword=purification&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_show=10&sing
le=1&sort_type=alpha&xrefed=OED&xrefword=Candlemas) .
1389 in Eng. Gilds (1870) 49
e secunde morspeche shal bene aftir e Purificacioun of our leuedy. e thred,
aftir e feste of Phelip and iacob.
1444 Paston Lett. I. 50
Wretyn..the Wednesday next to fore ye Fest of the Purificacion of Our Lady
at London.
1548 HALL Chron., Hen. VIII 22b,
After the Purificacion of our Lady, the Kyng created Sir Charles Brandon
Viscount Lisle.
1670 PETTUS Fodinæ Reg. 18
To hold from the Feast of the Purification next, for 40 years.
1880 F. MEYRICK in Dict. Chr. Antiq. II. 1140/2
The Purification... As first instituted, this was not a Festival of St.
Mary, but of our Lord; and so it has always remained in the Eastern church.
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