Tea Anyone?

When we were on the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence we stayed with a Japanese couple who run a Bed and Breakfast and celebrated restaurant. Their English was very limited but they welcomed us to an exhibit of his paintings at the Musee de la Mer (they are both artists) and an invitation-only Japanese tea ceremony at the same location. Ruth is with our host and some of her origami.

I had heard of these ceremonies but neither of us had experienced one so of course we attended. It was a remarkable experience of a ritual which is centuries old. We were fortunate that the woman who conducted and explained the ceremony was an Anglophone from New York city whose words were translated into French. While the ceremonial experience in which a small sweet cake is consumed first, followed by bitter green tea, predates European contact by centuries, in the mid-sixteenth century Jesuit priests made a Christian connection which remains. It is a synthesis of Buddhist and Christian sensibilties and there is resonance with the eucharist, or what we call communion. The sweet and tea were brought to us individually and with great dignity and reverence.

The guest tailored the tea ceremony to reflect the sea which was all around us. Her kimono, the colour of the Japanese calligraphic image, the table cloth, and water in the pitcher were all meant to convey our proximity to water.

We felt fortunate to have been invited to something we really knew nothing about and have it explained. It happened on a Sunday afternoon and there was a sense we had worshipped.

Have you heard of these tea ceremonies?