If you can believe it, it's time once again for Karsa. You may have no idea what that means, which is why I'm writing here today.
The rumors are true: today is Karsa. What's that you say? Well I'll tell you!
For those of you who haven't heard Fernando's Mormon jokes, my family belongs to a tiny tiny ancient Eastern religion known as Mandaeanism. There's a pretty decent article on Wikipedia, but the basic idea is that it isn't an offshoot of anything, despite the importance of John the Baptist; it's the only Gnostic faith still being practiced in the world; it may in fact pre-date Judaism (there are experts looking into it); and there are like, I don't know, 40 of us in the world. You haven't heard of it, and it's not surprising.
Karsa comes but once a year. The setup is actually pretty cool. Earth is guarded by untold numbers of angels. Millions of years ago or whenever these things happen, you know, all the angels left Earth and ascended to heaven to ask god (Haai Zaaken) how the world works. This exchange is printed in one of the Mandaeans' holy texts aptly titled The 1,012 Questions, and it's pretty awesome to read. There are things like Why is the grass green or Why is the sun so small and the answers are all correct, in modern scientific terms. I personally don't think there's anything mystical to it; ancient Babylon was after all home to the world's first scientists. It's just really great to think about my heritage in that way.
Anyway, back to Karsa: humans, being as we are slightly clueless and extremely accident-prone, find ourselves completely open to attack from the evil beings who also inhabit Earth and who sadly do not have a convention of their own to attend that day. As a result, we do not leave our homes for 36 hours, just to be on the safe side. No one is allowed in from outside (exception can be made if you are a Mandaean and have not crossed a body of water), and you're not allowed to touch plant life or use running water. In our house we still use water, but not excessively -- no showers, but if you think about it, who are you try to impress? You're not going anywhere.
Most people get confused on this point: the belief is not that this happens each year. Rather, it's something that's done as a tribute to the time it happened. I compare it to the lighting of the candles at Hanukkah.
My mom really digs on this holiday because it means Bessam and I are mandated to hang out with them for a whole day.
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