To Celebrate Easter...

I am posting some of my favourite Virgin Mary food simulacra, below...

Simulacrum (from the Latin word for 'likeness' or 'similarity') is a catch-all term that encompasses everything from photorealism to trompe l'oeil and pop art, but it is most often used to denote religious representations, and though it's been in use since the 16th century for the last century or so it's gathered a more negative connotation: am image without the substance of the original.

In fact a more precise (not to mention obscure word) to describe these images is probably pareidolia, defined as a false perception of imagery due to what is assumed to be the human mind's over-sensitivity to perceiving patterns in what we see.

Interestingly, Christian pareidolia almost always tends to human imagery (the face or form of Mary or Jesus) while those reported in the Muslim world tend to letter forms from the Arabic alphabet (eg. the Arabic script for the word Allah was purported to be visible in a satellite photograph of the 2004 Asian Tsunami.)

But not for a moment am I suggesting that these images are false. For at the end of the day, who can truly say? Here's hoping that in 2015 there will be plenty more THINGS WE COULDN'T EXPLAIN...

Happy Easter and happy reading to one and all.