Tabernacles Everywhere

The God of the New Testament dwells less in holy tabernacles maintained by his chosen than in his believers who have chosen him. Early Christians held festivals on the new moon, when the stars were clearest and the nights too dark to be of use. Some of its faithful adhered to the old ways and gave burnt offerings or kept kosher but they now also worshipped a God in three persons. Their God had borne a son through a mortal woman. His death had absolved them of their obligations, but they traded them for midnight worship services around their martyrs' graves.

Honor grew to veneration and the church acquired a communion of saints populated by local figures both mythic and mortal. Some took the shape of local gods who were worshipped at wells or springs, and in sacred groves. People deify what is integral to their existence; smashing every altar would amount to annihilation. Appeals for a good harvest were still brought to the resident intermediary and the first fruits of that harvest were still brought as thanks. From this fertile ground grew all varieties of Folk Catholicism and Folk Orthodoxy, rich with the cultural memory of indigenous practices just beneath the surface and in that regard it is not alone.