Beyond the Red Door

Hubby did a paint estimate for the neighbor tonight. He wants his windows and doors painted, with the front door to be painted red.

I love red doors. It was tradition years ago that the front door would be painted red when the mortgage was paid off. Mind you, our front door is red -- not brilliant red like I'd love to have, but a brick red, which will do -- but fear not, our mortgage is not paid off for another ten years or so. I don't know if the neighbor's house is paid off either, but when I went looking at the tradition behind red doors, I found out a lot of stuff.

Doors are painted red around the new year in China, to ward off evil spirits and bring happiness. (This may be why the neighbor wants red, as he's into Eastern religions.) In the Catholic and Anglican churches, red doors symbolize Christ's blood, or the lamb's blood painted over the door in Passover -- definitely not what it symbolizes in our house, because we won't talk about animal blood of any nature around the PETA daughter, even if it's a holy thing. 'Nuff said on that, before she sneaks up over my shoulder and starts a diatribe.

I remember that my sister loved the doors in Ireland, when she was there. She loved how colorful they all were. The doors in our neighborhood aren't necessarily colorful, but they are all different. Ours has a rounded top, a la Hobbit houses, that's too cute to describe.

OMG Dan just came in and asked what I'm doing, and I had to explain the blog concept. He's never read the blog, though he knows it's here. Doesn't have a clue what a blog IS, but knows I have one, whatever it may be. He's fairly Amish, but we're working on it. The red door is a start, of sorts, I suppose.

And so, in thinking ofthe doors of Irvington, Ireland, and everywhere in between, I went to the bay and found this mini poster of the colorful doors of Ireland, from Emerald Isle Gifts. Looks beautiful, no? Perhaps I will have to go and visit one day -- and perhaps I will meet a ghost or two like my sisters did. Meantime, I shall enjoy my round red door and my porch swing. And the mortgage payment that goes with it. And if you want YOUR door painted red - or any other color - and you don't sleep with YOUR painter, check out the hub's website. Especially if you live somewhere exotic, and you want to pay for him (and his assistant, wink wink) to travel to you.