by Alice Rush
I FEEL like the Netherlands has the right idea with the celebration of Easter, or Pasen. I saw so many lovely pictures on Facebook the last few days. Nice family and friend gatherings, cute decorations and signs of spring, blooming bulbs everywhere, and various religious services taking place. Plus, the time to celebrate it all over two days.
It has been an awkward holiday for me, growing up Christian, but also celebrating with eggs, candy and chocolate rabbits when I was a child. I still wish I could find the decorated sugar eggs that were made back then, a diorama scene inside, and the whole thing was edible. The basket for Easter was the same every year, and I think my closest sister still has it, as it started with her since she is 12 years older than I am. That basket turned up at the side of my bed overnight, and all the goodies inside were for fun after church. Even church was exciting at Easter. My blissfully ignorant 5- or 6-year-old brain reveling in my new patent leather shoes, tights, and a new dress, all because it was Easter.
AS I GREW into my teen years, I had trouble reconciling a spring holiday full of joy with such a dark day in biblical history. I preferred to celebrate spring, adorable bunnies, and all things new. In Maryland that included fresh green shoots of flower bulbs and buds or blooms on the trees. Ah, the cherry blossoms! This is why it makes sense to me to celebrate over 2 days instead of just one. One day can be secular and the other more sacred. The United States used to take Easter Monday day off, but that went away when federal holidays could not involve religious beliefs.
Here in Maine, especially this year, I’m winter weary and there is no relief with the Easter holiday. I did not feel like cooking and dyeing eggs, or even simple decorating, much less cooking this year. There are buds in our trees, somewhere. I see red in the wood of some of the branches, so I know new shoots are on the way. For now though, I’ll have to keep holding out hope for spring. I’ll be celebrating when the 2 days of snow pass by later this week. Then I will have my holiday celebration, watching it melt and seeing spring on the way. A Roman Orthodox Easter might work better for us in Maine. I read that the celebration is May 5th.
* Alice is a Maine realtor and a licensed helicopter and fixed wing pilot. She first met her Dutch husband in Maryland in 2005, and married him four years later.
