Celebrating Easter

Sunday 31st March, 2024

Easter follows Lent, the period of 40 days before Easter, which traditionally is observed by acts of penance and fasting. Easter is immediately preceded by Holy Week, which includes Maundy Thursday, the commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples; Good Friday, the day of his Crucifixion; and Holy Saturday, the transition between Crucifixion and Resurrection. Liturgically, Easter comes after the Great Vigil, which was originally observed sometime between sunset on Easter Saturday and sunrise on Easter Sunday. In the Roman Catholic tradition the vigil has four parts: the celebration of lights focused on the Paschal candle; the service of lessons called the prophecies; the administration of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation to adult converts; and the Easter mass. The use of the Paschal candle is to denote the appearance of light out of darkness through the Resurrection. The easter egg itself became a symbol of the Resurrection. Just as Jesus rose from the tomb, the egg symbolizes new life emerging from the eggshell.

I reached the New City Church alongwith Haripriya at 10:45 am for the Easter Sunday service. Everyone was dressed in their ethnic best, especially the tiny tots in their pretty little outfits. There was no screen display today since the tv broke in morning, so we had the printouts to the rescue. 

The music rehearsal was going on and people were coming in and wishing Happy Easter. The service started at 11 am with 30 minutes of prayers describing on Jesus resurrection. It was followed by the sermon from the pastor. Today's topic was "Peace be with you". It included the nature, progression and power of this peace. Frankly speaking neither I nor Haripriya was at peace, due credit to the personal storms in our lives. Having listened to the peaceful speech, we would try to make peace with our situation. The service ended with communion and a grand group photo. While everyone was adjusting to fit into the frame, a little boy jumped in my lap, with such an innocent smile. Those few moments were enough to trigger the mother's love, which is hidden inside every woman. Had things fallen into place in the past, I would have had my own baby. Post the photo click, I had nothing but to look for the little boy, while Haripriya was busy talking to a few friends. We left the venue at 12:30 pm and had lunch at Amazonia. 

The restaurant ambience was good but the food was not so good, or should I say we were too stressed to enjoy the lunch. 

Well in short it was not an Egg-citing Easter rather an Egg-less Easter.