The Maternal Pelican

Thanks to Dad, I am very sadly no longer in the dark about why the Pelican is a symbol of maternal affection.

Apparently, folks used to think that pelican mothers would rip chunks out of their bodies to feed their little offspring, making it a common symbol of the Eucharist for the Catholic Church (which makes it seem very out of place in  a Protestant church, by the way) and also, apparently, making it important in Free Masonry.  About  7 o'clock this morning, as I was getting ready to do some homework, I innocently opened up an email link from Dad and found this lovely picture to illustrate this point.

On a less cheerful note, an older tradition, going back to the Romans, was that the father pelican would, when annoyed by the flailings of his little offspring, club them to death with his head.  The mother, who apparently forgot how annoying they were after a couple of days, would bring them back to life by bleeding on them.  The Catholic education website, however, only tells about the bringing back to life part of the story.

Who knew?