What are collared greens?

-Rudey

Can someone explain a Catholic christening to me?

My nephew was christened in a Catholic church, and his mother was nonpracticing and his father thinks he's Catholic... (He goes to Mass on Easter and Christmas, but he grew up Baptist and was baptized in a Baptist church.) I've never understood what his being christened means. What would it mean for him to be confirmed?

Isn't christening the same thing as baptizing? They both involve water right?

-Rudey

I found this really cute explanation online for you:
Southerners love their greens. A time-honored tradition in southern kitchens, greens have held an important place on the table for well over a century, and there is no other vegetable that is quite so unique to the region. Greens are any sort of cabbage in which the green leaves do not form a compact head. They are mostly kale, collards, turnip, spinach, and mustard greens.

In the South, a large quantity of greens to serve a family is commonly referred to as a "mess o' greens." The exact quantity that constitutes a "mess" varies with the size of the family.

The traditional way to cook greens is to boil or simmer slowly with a piece of salt pork or ham hock for a long time (this tempers their tough texture and smoothes out their bitter flavor) until they are very soft.

Typically, greens are served with freshly baked corn bread to dip into the pot-likker. Pot likker is the highly concentrated, vitamin-filled broth that results from the long boil of the greens. It is, in other words, the "liquor" left in the pot.

The cooking of greens came with the arrival of African slaves to the southern colonies and the need to satisfy their hunger and provide food for their families. The slaves of the plantations were given the leftover food from the plantation kitchen. Some of this food consisted of the tops of turnips and other greens. Ham hocks and pig's feet were also given to the slaves. Forced to create meals from these leftovers, slaves created the famous southern greens. One-pot meals also represent a tradtional method of food preparation, which is linked directly back to West Africa.

In spite of what some consider their unpleasant smell, reaction to the smell of cooking greens separates true southern eaters from wannabes.

According to folklore, collards served with black-eyed peas and hog jowl on New Year's Day promises a year of good luck and financial reward, hanging a fresh leaf over your door will ward off evil spirits, and a fresh leaf placed on the forehead promises to cure a headache.

I have some questions:

1) Why do older Asian men walk with their arms behind their back?

2) Why is there less personal space observed in the Asian culture? I can be walking in the gym and an Asian is righttherenexttomesocloseIcan'ttakeit...

3) Sometimes I see younger men, seemingly of a Muslim culture, with a covering on their head that has almost a bulb-like part on the crown of the forehead...What is this?

I feel like the day I learned that Sea cucumber isn't a vegetable.

-Rudey

adduncan or Beryana can probably explain this much better than me, but I'll take a stab at it. Being baptized (we don't really call it christened, at least around here) is basically when the parents and godparents affirm that they will raise this child Catholic and it enters into the Catholic faith. At this point, the decision is being made for little Jose. Later in his life, he'll go through other sacraments: Reconciliation (Confession) and First Eucharist (first communion). After that, generally around age 17, Jose makes the choice to be confirmed for himself, at which point he's considered an adult in the Church. It's sort of like being bat/bar mitzvahed only much less work. Lots of people are baptized Catholic but never get confirmed.

They're most likely Sikh and not Muslim and cover their head like that. I don't know the exact reasoning behind it but i bet it's somewhat similar to other religions - not sure. Also when they get "baptized" they carry a piece of metal, often a knife, in there. I thought that was interesting when it was explained to me.

-Rudey

I always thought Catholics called it baptism and Protestants called it christening, generally speaking.

I am a Lutheran, and we call it baptism, but we are rather close to the Catholics in many ways. I know some people use the words interchangably as synonyms, but I checked my dictionary and it said the christening was the rite of the baptism. To me a christening is more of a term that older people would use.

Also, we do Confirmation as well. However for the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) it can vary from congregation to congregation. My home church has Confirmation classes during the 8th grade school year with completion at Pentecost. The kids at the church in my college town finished THREE :eek: years of classes and were confirmed on Reformation Sunday. My best friend is Episcopalian and she went through a confirmation similar to mine.

Been baptist all my life, and I've never heard it called christening except when someone was referring to the Catholic church. Baptists call it baptism. Thanks for the explanations!

I am Episcopalian. We call it Baptism, and it is done generally before the baby is 1 depending on the parents, although you can be baptised at any age. In the Episcopal church it is the same as the Catholic in which the parents and Godparents are publicly promising to bring the child up in Christ. Where we differ is that this also entitles the baptised person to partake in communion. In the Episcopal church all baptised people no matter age or denominational preference are welcome to partake. We also have confirmation, which is voluntary. It is generally done at around age 16. You take several months worth of classes where you learn religion along with the history and beliefs of the Church. At the end of the classes the presiding bishop in the diocese will come and publicly confirm those who finished the classes. At this time those people are officially members of the Church and I would suppose considered adults.

Where I think we differ from other denominations such as Baptist is that the act of baptism is a person's voluntary commitment to the faith and the church where as in the Anglican/Lutheran/Catholic (probably others) it is the parents commitment to raise their child in the faith and the church until the child is considered old enough to make their own decision. Therefor, Confirmation for us is more like the Baptist baptism as this is when the individual decides for themselves (without the water).

AOIIBrandi, I should have added that part in about infant baptism. You're more with it than I am today! I didn't even think about it as most of the practicing people I know are Catholic/Episcopalian/Lutheran, or Jewish. I know at my home church once you were confirmed you were considered an "adult member" and that you could vote on congregational issues, and you no longer would be an acolyte.

What I think is so neat now is the Full Communion within different Protestant groups. I have found that sharing with other groups has made my faith stronger, and brought the students on my campus into a closer group.

I've asked I don't know how many people about this. Anyone else find it kind of funny that the place it's been made clearest to me is GC?

Hootie!
 

I was cruising the ELCA site this morning and found an FAQ about the differences between the ELCA and Missouri folks.
http://www.elca.org/co/faq/elcalcms.html
They should really add in about the Wisconsin Synod folks. Back home the churches are very diverse, but still hold the original ethnic roots. It is kind of neat.

As an aside the LCM at my school is really ELCA based with an Presbyterian, Methodist, Quaker, and a Catholic thrown in, but at another nearby college their LCM is full of Wels and Missouri folks. We're discussing a bowling challenge and the losers have to make traditional Lutheran church food. I see Jello Salad and Hotdish in my future!