Holiday in Rome June 29

St-Peter atop Trajan's Column


St-Paul outside the walls basilica Rome

June 29 marks a major holiday in Rome, Romans celebrate two great Jewish guys, Shimon Ben-Yonah and Saul better known by their Christian names of St-Peter and St-Paul. Everything is closed, except us we work, you would think when the entire city takes a break, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, banks,businesses, government offices and shops are all closed, the city is quiet, parking everywhere, no traffic, we too would join in this holiday, no way, we work. In fact because everything is close we have to make plans for coffee and lunch, because it will be impossible to buy anything. In fact people have been leaving the city since last Friday thus taking Saturday,Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off as a Holiday. Its the thing to do in Italy and no one thinks anything of it. Today at lunch the menu offered by the lunch place we go to was offerings only 3 choices, we were reminded, you know tomorrow is a holiday. Yeah we know, but we got to work. Can you imagine people taking 4 days off for a one day holiday in Canada or the USA, more likely the boss who is neurotic would want you to work overtime and maybe skip the holiday all together. This would not work in Italy, any boss suggesting such a thing would probably be found floating face down in the Tiber. Here management are the first out the office door on the race to the beach.

So how do two Jewish fellows who were clearly following Mosaic Law find themselves honored with monuments and festive holidays. They apparently started a new religion though today this is open to question. In rome historians will point to Emperor Constantine in 320 AD who kicked start the new Christian religion. The Vatican had to prove they really existed, archeologists found what the Pope claimed in 1949 to be the tomb of St-Peter under the basilica bearing his name. In fact it was a piece of bone, no bigger than a chicken drumstick stuck in a wall with an inscription. As for St-Paul it was in 2006 that a similar find was made. Now how did the Vatican official know for sure that them bones were from St-Peter and St-Paul well the Pope said so, it must be so. I know quite a few politicians who would love this type of authoritative power.
So then if Jews and Christians share so much in common why then all the nastiness and persecutions, a great mystery to human stupidity.

So happy holiday and enjoy the beach, tomorrow will be sunny weather with a high of 27C.