[Sca-cooks] Feast Ambience - incense

[lilinah at earthlink.net]

I can understand the desire to use incense at a Near Eastern feast.
And frankincense would be a likely candidate.

I will expose myself to slings and arrows by spouting off personal
strong opinions about burning sage, however.

The use of sage as an incense is, i believe, related to expanding
newagey stuff. Certain groups of Native Americans burned and still
burn "sage" for various reasons. And thus it has been incorporated as
a "cleanser" and "purifier" of space and place by a wide variety of
ritualists at least since the 1980s.

BUT the Native Americans in question are NOT burning salvia (in which
family is cooking sage)!!!

Rather, they burn the leaves of several plants *called* sage, but
which are really artemisias - white sage, mountain sage, and
sagebrush among them. These "sages" are bushes with very pale
whitish-green leathery leaves that grow well in arid environments.
There is a *vast* difference in fragrance - i much prefer artemisias.
I think burning salvia smells icky (and i like the smell of burning,
uh, hemp...).

Also, i don't have as strong a reaction to burning artemisias as i
have to burning salvias. I have asthma, but it isn't extremely severe
- although i can get really really bad if multiple cats are combined
with long exposure to incense and a multitude of burning candles,
such as at a ritual in someone's home.

My daughter, who has more severe asthma than i have, has a very
strong reaction to burning salvia, such that we've left rituals
before they began when folks refused to not burn sage after i
explained that it would make her stop breathing. In fact, the
dunderheads airily-fairily said that it would be good for her. Bah!

What i hope to do at my Moorish-inspired Mediterranean Tour Feast is
pass around bowls of rose and orange flower scented waters for hand
washing at the beginning of the meal, not too logistically difficult
with eight to ten  tables of eight diners.

Anahita