It bothers me a little bit, that there are all these cultural ways to celebrate Mardi Gras/Carnival, but then Easter can come and go without even realizing it. It bugs me that we don’t seem to have as many customs or traditions related to the celebration of Easter, as we do with Carnival or Christmas.
Easter bothers me sometimes because I feel very joyful during Easter, but there doesn’t feel like much of an outlet for that joy. I would love to pull out all the stops for Easter, but have no idea how to do it.
Granted, this post is a little ahead of its time, but it makes me sad that another Easter will come and go without a good party, if that makes any sense.
Why are you not doing something? Do you mean that your parish has little to participate in or that you don’t know anything to do as a family? I have not been Catholic for many years, but I’ve seen lots of traditions to participate in for Lent and then Easter.
Our parish tones down the music and everything for Lent and we have a week-long mission during Lent to help the entire parish prepare themselves for Easter. No other parish activities are allowed to conflict with the mission and it is usually packed every night.
We have Stations of the Cross every Friday of Lent followed by our parish fish fry where the teens serve to help raise money for their annual mission trip to Mexico. Different adult ministries help them each week by running the kitchen and setting up the dining room. We have major stuff for Holy Week from Thursday through Sunday. Some people choose to sit the traditional vigil through the night during this time. We have a passion play that has been completely acted by our high school students for the past several years. They used to do living Stations of the Cross.
Easter is WOW beginning with an amazing vigil mass!! The large fire is lit and the people being received into the church light their candles from it and then process in with their candles and sponsors to symbolize the light of Christ entering the church. Mass begins in candlelight and the music is the most beautiful of the entire year, including Christmas. Watching the adults being baptized and confirmed is inspiring every year. Even though mass takes many hours, it is always packed. We have parishioners from all over the world who deck themselves in traditional festive garments from their homelands for Easter which is very beautiful and affirming of what a universal church we have.
Our teen mass moves from 4:30pm Sunday to sunrise on Sunday. We have trumpets, etc to play triumphant music at all the masses. All of the people belt out the Gloria with gusto. I sang every mass from Thursday through Sunday, so I know that each was different but equally great.
Before our permanent church building was completed, the sunrise mass was outdoors with the people facing East so that the sun would rise just about the time of the consecration. Amazing!! People would show up at 3:30am to set up outdoors. The parishioners would bring their own chairs and blankets and arrive 60-90 minutes early to get a place while shivering in the cold. After mass everyone would go inside the hall for hot drinks and doughnuts to visit before heading home for breakfast.
I hope that if your parish does not have much planned that you will step up and volunteer to get something going. It only takes one person to gather a few friends and get something planned. Our parish started that way with each activity and then they just grow from year to year.
