Western Christians celebrate Easter tomorrow, Sunday, April 5, but Eastern Christians celebrate next Sunday, April 12. Raised on Western traditions, I converted to Greek Orthodoxy when I married my husband 30 years ago. Every year, I find myself torn between the two Easters.
My first Easter, April 2, 1961--my mother (very pregnant with me), with my father and his sister!
My 'real' first Easter (above) with my father's parents, my Opa and Oma, at their home in Baltimore. They were Catholic, and when my parents divorced, I celebrated Catholic traditions and customs with my Oma and Aunt, but Methodist traditions with my mother's mother, whom I called Mom (below).
Some years the date of Easter for both Western and Eastern Christians falls on the same Sunday. For a really concise explanation of why this is normally not the case, I found this great article, A Tale of Two Easters: Why one faith and two celebrations? Though my children (below) would usually have off from school on Good Friday (however, public schools in the U.S. call it a Spring holiday), we would get dressed up for the exultant Matins of the Resurrection at Easter midnight from one up to five weeks later at the Greek Orthodox church.
In complete darkness at midnight, the priest takes light from the vigil candle, and gives it to the faithful, who are all holding candles. When we lived in Greece, and for a few years after we moved back to the U.S., my children's godparents would give them specially decorated candles. Just last year in Orlando, it was a clear night as we headed outside the church with our candles for the proclamation, Christos Anesti...Christ is Risen. We always bring the light home with us and trace the cross above the door to bless our home. When we moved to Orlando, we decided to start our series of crosses across the garage door. Last year, I took this picture (below) before we moved temporarily to the Netherlands.
I found a wonderful article today entitled Rita Wilson's big fat Greek Orthodox Easter, and love the lines she uses to describe Greek Easter, "We don't do bunnies. We don't do chocolate. We don't do pastels. We do lamb, sweet cookies, and deep red." Greeks dye eggs red to symbolize the blood and sacrifice of Christ (deep red color best obtained using brown eggs), and rebirth and new life (the eggs themselves); this is traditionally done on Holy Thursday. Below is my basket of eggs from last year, ready for the game. Note: Because I'm torn between the two Easters, I do have pastels! |
After the meal, everyone picks an egg. Based on past years' performances, everyone is searching for just the right egg! Then, people pair up and start to play. First, you use either both pointy ends, or both round ends. One person holds the egg directly above the other person's egg, and hits the other egg. There's a winner--the person whose egg does not break!
Then, you turn the eggs around, and the other person gets to be the hitter! Again, another winner! Now, if both of your sides broke, you're out of the game. If you have even one side unbroken, you continue. If your pointy end is unbroken, you find someone else with an unbroken pointy end, and vice versa for the unbroken rounded ends. The game continues until there is one winner, unless, like last year at our house, there were two winners--one with a pointy end unbroken, and another with the rounded end unbroken! In all my 30 years of playing this game, I never saw this happen before!
Now, Rita Wilson did mention lamb, and the photo (above) is of my husband turning the lamb on the open fire in Greece over 25 years ago--no motor, and unfortunately, a rainy day. We were all at his grandparents' village to celebrate Easter that year. Easter is the most important feast of all the feasts to Greeks. Regardless of which day or days I celebrate, since I'm torn between the two days for the same feast, it is a holiday that brings me closer to my faith each year, and brings back fond memories of Easters past. For this reason, I'm very content that this post is my first of many Celebration Saturdays on my blog! If you celebrate Easter, Vrolijk Pasen (Happy Easter in Dutch)!
No connection with Disney World (theme for this week) with this post, but if you do find yourself at the Magic Kingdom during the Easter season, you can view both the Easter Parade and the Easter bunny!