Maybe I will have to go back to Belshazzar…

The last topic for our writing group was Feast, and at first there seemed a dozen things which sprang into my mind as I am very interested in every aspect of feasting – thinking about and deciding what to cook after looking through various recipes in various cookery books, buying the necessary ingredients and sometimes seeing different things which could e added to what I’m about to make, preparing and cooking, serving and eating – feasting is a hobby and a pleasure! However, that didn’t sound very original, and to be honest, not very challenging.

A memory from Sunday afternoons at Sunday School when I read the Bible to pass the time, brought thoughts of Nebuchadnezzar – didn’t he have a great feast? Wasn’t it at his feast when strange words were inscribed on the walls of his palace? Am I thinking of another Bible story? It seems there were two Kings of Babylon with that name, Nebuchadnezzar I who reigned from about 1121 BC to 1100 BC, and Nebuchadnezzar II who was born about 642 BC and lived to be eighty, reigning from 605-562 BC is the more famous – but did either of them have a great feast? Well no, in fact I am totally wrong, it was Belshazzar who had the feast, of course it was! Belshazzar was a descendant of Nebuchadnezzar, however so maybe that’s where my muddle arose.

Belshazzar was drinking from a vessel looted from Solomon’s destroyed temple and a hand appears and writes on the wall  “mene, mene, tekel, upharsin!” Terrified, he has to call Daniel to interpret them. I don’t think I’m familiar enough with the story to write about it – and also, I think it would be too long to share with my writing group, so back to thinking about a feast and what to write. There’s a seventy-five year-old actor called Michael Feast who’s appeared on the theatre and on TV, but I only know his name, I’ve no thoughts about him at all. There are cookery books with Feast as their title, a film of that name, and many restaurants… nothing is striking me with inspiration. Maybe I will have to go back to Belshazzar… My featured image is from the Bible I was given as a Christening present!