Of Cathedrals, Yobs and Baseball Caps
Here in Barcelona seems a very long way from either Barack Obama (go Barack!) or Guy Fawkes (who failed to go bang, or to make the Houses of Parliament go bang, some years ago and whose failure is celebrated in Blighty with bonfires and fireworks today).
But, as I said, today I'm a long way away and had other concerns.
Such as, what did this mean?
To give you a clue, I saw it in the (wonderful) cathedral. Not the famous Gaudi church, the Sagrada Familia - they've been trying to finish that for about 125 years, so I thought I'd give them another day to get it all done and I'm planning to go tomorrow.
At the entrance to the cathedral, there was this sign.
Aftera bit of puzzling, I worked it out, and then I found a little video that confirmed that I was correct.
Men in baseball caps ("baseball cap" is clearly a synonym for "yob" in cathedral-speak) and women in short skirts (the hussies) could not enter the cathedral as this was disrespectful.
Men without baseball caps and women in below-the-knee skirts, however, are welcome. Quite how I, wearing my usual jeans, fitted into this I am not sure but, as I have mentioned previously, I radiate a strange respectability anyway so I was fine.
After I had seen the geese in the cloisters, and looked round the magnificent cathedral, and gone up in the lift to the roof and taken lots of photographs, and seen the wonderful mediaeval paintings, I came out into the square outside. There are lots of lovely, peaceful squares in Barcelona but this one was anything but peaceful, because of this lot.
This was the very first time I have encountered the drunk-Brits-in-Spain syndrome and I hated it. Their loud, raucous, voices resounded round the whole square, continuously, as quiet Spaniards walked past and stared and I hid my copy of Time Out Barcelona and hoped I didn't look too British.
To me, it made it worse that they were directly outside the entrance to the cathedral. I'm not religious, as you know, but nevertheless to me any kind of church should be a place of beauty and quiet and the best of humanity.
However, I do feel that I should point out that none of them was wearing a baseball cap. Or a short skirt either, come to that, though the chap in blue seems keen to show us more of his bottom than I, for one, was interested in seeing.
I think the cathedral needs to have a bit of a rethink of its policy.
But, as I said, today I'm a long way away and had other concerns.
Such as, what did this mean?
To give you a clue, I saw it in the (wonderful) cathedral. Not the famous Gaudi church, the Sagrada Familia - they've been trying to finish that for about 125 years, so I thought I'd give them another day to get it all done and I'm planning to go tomorrow.
At the entrance to the cathedral, there was this sign.
Aftera bit of puzzling, I worked it out, and then I found a little video that confirmed that I was correct.Men in baseball caps ("baseball cap" is clearly a synonym for "yob" in cathedral-speak) and women in short skirts (the hussies) could not enter the cathedral as this was disrespectful.
Men without baseball caps and women in below-the-knee skirts, however, are welcome. Quite how I, wearing my usual jeans, fitted into this I am not sure but, as I have mentioned previously, I radiate a strange respectability anyway so I was fine.
After I had seen the geese in the cloisters, and looked round the magnificent cathedral, and gone up in the lift to the roof and taken lots of photographs, and seen the wonderful mediaeval paintings, I came out into the square outside. There are lots of lovely, peaceful squares in Barcelona but this one was anything but peaceful, because of this lot.
This was the very first time I have encountered the drunk-Brits-in-Spain syndrome and I hated it. Their loud, raucous, voices resounded round the whole square, continuously, as quiet Spaniards walked past and stared and I hid my copy of Time Out Barcelona and hoped I didn't look too British.To me, it made it worse that they were directly outside the entrance to the cathedral. I'm not religious, as you know, but nevertheless to me any kind of church should be a place of beauty and quiet and the best of humanity.
However, I do feel that I should point out that none of them was wearing a baseball cap. Or a short skirt either, come to that, though the chap in blue seems keen to show us more of his bottom than I, for one, was interested in seeing.
I think the cathedral needs to have a bit of a rethink of its policy.
posted by Daphne at 7:25 pm
6 Comments:
Well to be fair, no one should have their heads covered in a religious building......not a Christian one anyway. I remember being told off once as I had totally forgotten I was wearing a baseball cap.
I was mortified.
As for the Brit yobs, it gets even worse if you examine the photo closely. A few are in their boxers with their trousers around their ankles !! Man on the left probably started it as he's very comfy in his seat. Man to the left of 'butt crack man' is in the process of removing his and I think that 'butt crack man' is about to join him.
And if we STILL wonder if they are Brits, then the rubbish around the chairs should dispel all doubts.
This is why, in general, I avoid Brits like the plague when I'm abroad.
They look like a group of bankers drowning their sorrows to me though I may have chosen the wrong consonant to start my seventh word.
Silverback - I didn´t know that about not covering your head - though why a baseball cap is supposed to be more offensive than a top hat I don´t know. Certainly I found the morons in my photo genuinely offensive - and I´m not easily offended, I think!
Yes, YP, they could well be bankers - did you know that the collective noun for bankers is "a wunch"?
St. Paul said it in his first letter to the Corinthians. Here it is in all its King James Version language:
Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoureth his head.
But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God.
Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. (I Corinthians 11:1-16)
But this is contrary to the tradition of Jewish men wearing yarmulkes, no? Maybe Paul received a revelation, and maybe he just wanted to differentiate between "the old way" and "the new way"....
It also *used* to be common manners, having nothing to do with religion, that a man took off his hat whenever he went indoors, anywhere. We have lost a lot of courtesies in the past few years.
Sorry for this long comment.
P.S. -- I think women still cover their heads in Episcopal, Anglican, and Mennonite churches....in this country, at least.
Honey, please not "tranny". Yes, trans people use it, but many black people use the N-word, and a white person doing that might be construed as offensive...
When I'm abroad, I feel embarrassed because I can't speak the language with any degree of competency. Then I see Brits like those ones, and I feel infinitely better, while not having actually achieved anything.
Also, it's now a life ambition to walk into the church wearing nothing but a baseball cap and a smile. Self-righteous sign-putter-upper bastards.
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