Ascension Day is coming up this Thursday, 13 May 2021. The feast of the Ascension is one of the Ecumenical feasts of Christianity (according to Wikipedia), one of the oldest (celebrated for eighteen centuries give or take), and also one of the hardest to wrap one’s head around.

The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ celebrates the end of Christ’s ministry on earth after his resurrection. It’s always a Thursday, but since it’s 40 days after Easter Sunday, the calendar date changes from year to year (i.e. 13 May 2021, 26 May 2022, etc). If you can accept that Christ conquered death, or if that’s hard for you to swallow, that Christ gave us faith that death is an illusion, then the end of his earthly life couldn’t have ended in death… again. The Ascension story is the end of that beginning.

And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. Acts 1:9-11

The mechanics of the Ascension are certainly hard to believe but if someone could overcome death, not just once but permanently, wouldn’t they exist both here and in the “thereafter”, mystically transiting in “like manner” between “the cave” of earth and the full experience of reality? The two men in white in Acts Chapter 1 reaffirm to the Apostles that this isn’t the end, but that the blinders keeping them on the linear trail of cause and effect have been permanently removed.

Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. — Romans 6:9-10

So the feast of the Ascension is probably less well-known amongst Christians, perhaps because it’s a little less accessible than the Nativity or the Easter stories. And given that it’s on a Thursday it’s a little harder to celebrate than say Easter or Pentecost (both Sundays). But as a celebration of the “end of the beginning” or as the affirmation of the mystical transition between the celestial and the terrestrial, it has a place in this family’s liturgical year. Here are two ways we make the day special and teach the next generation in a symbolic way:

Tandori Chicken Feast

Outside of Easter, we have fish on Fridays. During Easter, there’s no fish (which my daughter thinks is excellent). Instead, we have a homemade curry every Friday (almost certainly lifted from this site). Why curry? If you’re not of British ancestry or have never visited Britain, you might not realise that Indian cuisine holds a special place in the British palate, especially in Scotland. For Ascension Day we make a Tandori Chicken feast since it’ll be only 10 more days until the end of Eastertide, and we want to get our curry fix before we swap the Magical Curry Machine (a.k.a. the Instant Pot) for the Crucible of Meat, Smoke and Fire (a.k.a. the charcoal grill). Last year we also had almond fudge and a saag paneer modified from myheartbeets.com, which were both excellent.

Kite flying

I can’t remember where I read it (Wikipedia probably) but apparently kite flying on Ascension Day is a tradition in one of (all of?) the Caribbean islands. We actually haven’t even made this a tradition yet, because the kids were too little last year. Now that our daughter is old enough now to fly a kite so we have one coming this week. A weeknight might not be the best day, considering we probably have to go pretty far afield to find a suitable place, but rest assured the kite will “ascend” some time next weekend.

So kite flying and a Tandori chicken feast might not be directly symbolic of the Ascension (chicken is a bird? birds fly? I dunno), if nothing else it “sanctifies the time”, and serves as an occasion to ask questions: questions from the kids and questions from ourselves.