T sign

Aaron had his first choir recital this weekend. He was very excited and pleased with himself! Here he is in his cool outfit, and lining up with his classmates at the church where they performed.

They sang Christmas songs, which Aaron is making peace with. There is a video of him here: it's password-protected, but just message me and I can share it with you. His part starts at 6:30, and he is in the front row on the right end.

The recital was held in a church, as they all are. As I was walking Aaron in, he said, "Mommy, what is that T sign they have all over?" I didn't know what he meant by a T sign. Then I realized he meant the cross. Oh. I admit I felt a tiny blush of pride, having gotten him all the way to age seven without being entirely infiltrated by ambient Christianity. But of course I think kids should know this kind of thing:

Me: That's called a cross, and it's the symbol of Christianity, like the Star of David is for us. It tells you this is a Christian place.
Aaron: Okay, but why is it that shape?
Me: Let's get inside and I'll tell you all about it.
[This is my usual tactic for when I am asked a big question - I come up with some plausible two-minute delay, which helps me get my thoughts together. Once we were inside:]
Me: So you know about Jesus.
Aaron: Yes, right, the baby Jesus.
Me: Probably the number-one thing that makes Jesus so special for Christian people is that they believe that when he died, he took away everyone's sins. And the way that he died, actually it was pretty mean and nasty. People killed him, and they killed him by nailing him up on a big pole with another pole across it to nail up his arms. That's the cross shape. It's a terrible way to die and very sad. But looking at that cross shape reminds Christian people of what is special for them, which is that when he died, he took away everyone's sins.
Aaron: Oh! Okay.

Conveniently, we were at a Catholic church, so there was a great big giant crucifix over the altar illustrating what I had described. I'm guessing it was twenty feet high. There were also statues around the periphery depicting various scenes from the end of Jesus's life. Jordan and Dale and I had seats near one rather graphic crucifixion scene, complete with bleeding heart and weeping ladies. Jordan was disturbed. "I don't like looking at that one," he said, "It's creepy." We don't do much with suffering in our strand of Judaism, so this might have been unfamiliar on several levels.