As I sit writing this, I look out my window and see more rain pouring down. Fortunately, this is just a shower, the big rains are supposed to be here over the weekend. Not only is it raining, but a cold front is on its way.
Easter is this Sunday. It’s a movable feast with no fixed day on the calendar. Long ago the date was set as the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or just after the spring equinox. So, we celebrate Easter between March 22 and April 25, depending on the full moon.
Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Christ in various ways. Russia introduced decorated egg as did the elaborately painted ones from Eastern Europe. Germany gave us the Easter Bunny. And Americans have countless numbers of ways to celebrate, some religious and others secular. Unfortunately, no celebrations will be held this year, except in the home of each family.
The holiday first became an event in New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. New York City began the Easter Parade, a time when families dressed in their new finery and walked along Park Avenue. Easter lilies became the flower of the day. Children gathered for Easter Egg hunts. The best known was the one on the lawn of the White House in Washington, DC.
In parts of our country families rose before sunrise, went to a dedicated site to participate in Sunrise Services. Along the way Palm Sunday became an entry to the entire Holy Week. On Palm Sunday, churches allowed children to place palm branches or fern fronds on the way to the alter. The branches or fronds were dried out and stowed away until the beginning of Lent, another religious holiday in late winter. The dried leaves were crumbled before a little oil was added. The pastor or priest used the concoction to put a cross on the foreheads of members.
Maundy Thursday and Good Friday occur toward the end of Easter Week. Maundy Thursday begins held just as the sun goes down to celebrate the last meal Christ had with his disciples. The following day is Good Friday, when the followers of Christ discovered his resurrection. And Sunday is the greatest day of all, the most important holiday in Christianity.
But people who lived in the American South, and their children, and their children had another event that while not religious, seemed to always come around Easter. An Easter Cold Spell arrives in the rural South every year. It still happens. If tender plants were already in the ground, more than likely they would get a light freeze and need replacing.
Many times, a rain and norther arrived about Maundy Thursday. It had been beautiful weather on Palm Sunday. But the rain seldom stopped for a few days. Women and girls had new spring outfits, sometimes even with hats and gloves. Boys and men had to dress up, also. But with the rain, some Easters everyone bundled up. No little girl wore her new black patent shoes; the mud ruined the shine. No outside Easter Egg hunt.
While most of us will stay at home to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, our Easter rituals will be very different. Human beings have passed through trauma before; we certainly will this time. Stay In and Stay Safe. We survived polio, the summer heat of 1980, Spanish Influenza, multiple epidemics. We’ll make it this time. Happy Easter.