Pasen – Easter

Eieren.

Easter has always been something I’ve celebrated – for many reasons.
Firstly, growing up in a Catholic household and attending Catholic school made it hard not to celebrate it. For Catholics, Easter is the most important festival of the religious calendar, bigger even than Christmas. As a child hanging out for the chocolate the build up seemed to last forever. First you had to get through those six long weeks of Lent, whilst giving up something that you really liked, usually sweets, and adding some of your pocket money to the extra Lent appeal at church each week. You’d get dragged along to do the Stations of the Cross which were very serious but for us Gilby children the main focus was getting through them without making each other laugh out loud in a very quiet church.
Finally you’d make it to the big one – Holy Week. The eggs were oh so near but first we had to go to church just about every day for that week. Palm Sunday kicked everything off with a bit of branch waving. Then it was Holy Thursday mass for the reenactment of the last supper and the washing of the feet – again the focus was stifling the giggles. Good Friday at 3pm was the mass marking the crucifixion of Jesus. I used to find this one particularly stressful as it involved everyone filing up to the altar to kiss the feet of Jesus nailed to the cross – obviously not the real JC but a smaller replica. I’ll never forget the pounding heart and sweaty palms as I made my way to the front, certain my kiss was going to be horribly misplaced and end up somewhere deeply inappropriate like his groin! We were so superstitious about Good Friday, always convinced that at exactly 3pm the skies would get dark and cloud over. We’d nod intelligently and murmur “Jesus is dead” to each other. Even now I often find myself looking skyward around 3pm on Good Friday, checking for grey clouds, and I’m sure I’m not the only one in my family who does!
Saturday night was the Easter Vigil. I quite liked this one because it began in total darkness outside the church and then one by one we’d all light a candle and go into church together. There was always something eerie and beautiful about it. And the added bonus of the Easter Vigil meant that because you’d been to church on Saturday night you didn’t have to go on Sunday morning and could simply loaf around eating eggs!
When I became a teacher Easter was still part of my life but in a very secular way as I taught at, what we in NZ refer to, as a state school. Easter provided many opportunities for art and craft, stories, songs, poetry and of course a few eggs for the oh so hardworking and much loved teacher!
Easter became even more special when Olive was born. She arrived nine days early on Holy Thursday evening (you can rest assured I wasn’t thinking about feet washing or last suppers as my eighteen hours of labour reached it’s climax so to speak!) Olive’s birthday often falls on or close to Easter. When she turned three her birthday fell on Easter Saturday and we had an Easter egg hunt in the garden and a cake in the shape of the Easter bunny.
At kleuterschool, Olive and Edie did lots of Eastery things and on the last day of term had a big easter egg hunt and came home with baskets they’d made themselves with chocolate eggs inside.
Because I was feeling like rubbish at Christmas time I decided to make more of an effort for Easter. Here are a few photos of some of the Easter things we’ve been up to.

Easter basket 1.

And number 2.

They do not know about Hot Cross Buns in Belgium!! Had to make our own - Nigella again.

Searching for eggs at the APC hunt.

I put this in just because I like it!

Hunting high and low.

Blowing eggs to make decorations for our Easter tree - we blew ten and not one was broken!

Probably should have dyed them before blowing.

Ready for the fancy decorations.

Ready to hang.

The finished Passboom.

An Easter display at Wijnegem - a shopping mall not far from the city.

Inspiration for next year's Passboom?

So Easter 2011 is promising to be another special one. We are moving into our new apartment in the city on Good Friday – surprisingly not a public holiday here. I’m sure there will be a church close by with an Easter Vigil service on Saturday night so I might yet make a visit to church.
And then on Easter Monday the girls and I fly to Florence to meet my sister and brother in law and my two nephews. My first family in almost six months – as you can imagine I am a tiny bit excited! We will be together in Tuscany for 5 days and then the McKenzies will have a few days with us in Antwerp. A very happy Easter indeed 🙂
Wishing you all a very safe and happy Easter. Take care if you’re driving and eat lots of chocolate – I plan to! xxx