Sin Eater

It is not that I dislike children, it is the insanity that takes hold of parents that creates this feeling in me. Here it is 2 days before school starts and you parents are racing from store to store in a desperate attempt to buy “school” clothes. The choices in stores at this time of year are… fall clothing. Fall clothing created with New Hampshire, Illinois, and Colorado in mind not the blazing hellfire of Texas. It is still 104 outside and you strangely believe that your child needs long sleeves, sweaters and hoogies. 

                         

You are racing through the clothing retail world like you are a contestant on Master Chef and have 22 minutes to raid the pantry, prep, cook, plate, and serve a 3 course meal for 12. New jeans, new shirts, new shoes, new bags, you knew this day was coming! Yet there you are at the last minute buying an entire school wardrobe, school supplies and dorm room decor. You are hostile in the store, selfish, rude, and demanding and if you would have done all this earlier you would not be performing like a demented maniac in front of your children who if you paused to notice are now terrified and realizing that school is the cause for this negative behavior.  Don’t you think they deserve to start the new school year calm, confident and happy?

In a previous letter I mentioned Sin-Eater and now it is time to discover what one is.

Sin Eaters perform a ceremony right after death, especially in cases of a sudden and unexpected death when a person has not had a chance or time to confess their sins and be absolved. They take on the sin by consuming a piece of bread (usually), a glass of wine, or other food that has been placed on, held over or waved over the deceased. It is believed that the sins are absorbed into the wine or food and taken into the body of the sin eater.  This practice gained slightly in popularity in the 1700s and sin eaters were hired to attend every death to eat the sins of the dead so they would not enter hell or come back and haunt the world seeking forgiveness for unconfessed sins but would instead rest in peace.

Some customs requires the burning of the cup and plate used by the sin eater so they were usually made from wood. They were paid a small fee and were to sit outside, the “sins” would be brought out to them.  The bread that is eaten in the various cultures took on names such as funeral biscuit, corpse cake, burial cakes, in some regions the bread is shaped like a person and the whole of it eaten. Dead cakes are made with the initials of the deceased baked into them.

Sin Eaters were considered unclean, unholy, consorts of witches, and were social outcasts shunned by the villages. They lived on the outskirts of town and were barely tolerated because they were needed. During the height of the popularity of sin eaters the Roman Catholic Church excommunicated them for being unclean, un-absolved and for interfering in the sacred ritual of last rites which could only be performed by a priest.

Spider Man and Daredevil have an adventure involving a character known as Sin Eater who just so happens is also an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. or is he? Is it a coincidence that Stan Lee and Stanley the real name of the Sin Eater are so similar?

I just had a fact pop up on a site I am researching telling me that there are more chickens in the world than people. I thought you might want to know that!

 Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power.

Horace Mann

So according to Horace I have granted you who read this, power!

You are welcome.