Witchy Woman

This morning I stopped at a local convenience store on my way to work because there was too much blood in my caffeine system, and the women behind the counter were chatting about their respective churches and Easter. Now, the culture of this particular chain is highly conservative and, well, redneck. I mean when they play up on stereotypes of nagging wives, beleaguered idiot husbands, and all things hick in their advertisements as a source of pride...

During this conversation, one woman asked, "What sort of church has services on Saturday?"

I chimed in with, "Seventh Day Adventist is one. And I believe the Jewish sabbath is on Saturday, but that would be temple and not church." (The employee in question belonged to the former). When I included Judaism they looked at me in confusion as if I were speaking Greek.

The same woman who could not comprehend religious services on anything other than a Sunday turned to her Latina coworker and asked, "So do your people do anything for Easter?" My jaw must have dropped because she scrambled to say, "When I say 'your people' I don't mean Mexican, I mean you Catholics. Don't you only eat fish or something for like three days before?" Not that "you people" in regards to one's religion is any better, I said sarcastically, "Nice backpedal." And having been raised Catholic, I added, "Many people give up meat for Lent, which is the 40 days preceeding." I did refrain from lecturing her on the numerous ways Catholics commemorate Easter, let alone how she shows her ignorance in general by Othering her coworkers. Then again, I lacked sufficient caffeine levels to think that quickly.

Considering different Christian denominations were so alien to her maybe it's a good thing that I didn't mention that some Unitarian Universalist churches hold services on Saturdays, let alone us Pagans who don't have a weekly sabbat at all.