Spring

Let me explain the story behind today's cartoon. First, some background:

* * * Friday was Purim in Tel Aviv. And local Christians were celebrating "Good Friday".

The next day was a lovely Shabbat.

As the Sabbath went out I attended a party given by some Indian friends to celebrate the Indian Festival of Holi. At the Holi party my face (and everybody else's face) was smeared with some kind of colorful paste that looked like "warpaint".

That night I had a late dinner at a local bar that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. I didn't bother to wipe off the red "warpaint" because, hey, it was still Purim! On Sunday Jerusalem had its Purim celebrations. And the world saw Christians enjoying a peaceful Easter Sunday in that city.

Shabbat was March 22, the first day of Spring, and the weather has been, to my taste, lovely. The first day of spring is also Persian "new year" and a Zoroastrian holiday called Na Rooz (Also spelled Norouz, Narooz, Norooz, Nawruz, Newroz, Nauruz, Nawroz, and Noruz). The Baha'i calendar starts with Na Rooz, and I've been invited to the "Official" Baha'i Na Rooz celebrations to be held in Jerusalem tonight.

* * * I usually start my day by trotting over to my local cafe and downing a cuppa' coffee and perusing the morning papers... looking for topics for the day's cartoon. But somehow, this morning, I just could not force myself to go. When I realized why, I decided to do a cartoon about it.

So I haven't read the papers, and I'm still in a good mood, and hey, it's a lovely new Spring day, and I mean to enjoy it.

Oh, and Happy Na Rooz!