Quarantina - 40 days

Quarantine: the etymology of the word originates from the Italian quarantina, meaning “forty days".

The period of “forty days” has been associated with a time of separation and subsequent renewal throughout literature and history - during the Bubonic Plague in the Middle Ages, ships would be isolated for forty days before sailors could step ashore, the great flood in Genesis lasts ‘forty days and forty nights’, a period of forty days is said to have passed between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, and, according to Gerald Massey, “forty days was a length of time in Egypt that was reckoned for the grain in the earth before it sprouted visibly from the ground. It was a time of scarcity and fasting” which, after it was over, quickly turned into a time of rejoicing “over the germinating green shoot springing from the earth.” Our quarantine could also be our “forty days”, a time to withdraw, to renounce, to give, and to wait and know that the promise of renewal and goodness will follow. After the forty days - the sailors stepped ashore, new life began on earth in Genesis, the Egyptians’ grains sprouted and the time of fasting was over.

Thought of the Day

Our quarantine could also be our “forty days”, a time to withdraw, to renounce, to give, to wait and know that the promise of renewal and goodness will follow.

-Gabriela Milkova