Happy Easter!!!
When I was very young, yes, my mom and I DID go to Mass. But like all churches, Easter Sunday Mass (and Palm Sunday too) was always crowded. To the point that seniors often passed out during service (the church DID have high ceilings, but wasn’t an old Cathedral from the 19th century. In a way, it was very UNCatholic-looking, resembling more of a midcentury Evangelical Protestant church! The building was built in, I believe, the 1960s). After a few years, we stopped going. Sitting in a crowded room for nearly 90 minutes or so just wasn’t for us. Not for my mom and not for me, who had, at the time, recently been diagnosed with epilepsy. I mean, why risk a seizure, right?
Fast forward to my husband and I getting married. We became an interfaith family and for the most part, just did things commercially for Easter. We got chocolate bunnies and eggs. Even though I’m unlikely to eat much of it. I like chocolate, but I’m very specific what’s IN chocolates. Not only from an ethical perspective, but also its ingredients (preference: very dark and as little additives as possible. I LOVE Chocosol for that reason. I mostly get their bars. In fact, I didn’t even KNOW they had an Easter collection until, well, today!). And now that we have a child, yes, the Easter Bunny DOES visit (well, some years, anyway). He receive a lovely basket with more than enough chocolates as well as some non-candy items.
We had thought about going to brunch today, but decided to stay home. After all, we had an early Easter Dinner (see below for a picture of our yummy dessert. And yes, these two tiny cakes were shared between several adults AND our five year old!!). with family yesterday. Do we REALLY want to back to back heavy meals? My stomach certainly can’t handle it! It was either or, to be honest. And yes, it was a lovely dinner, catered by Pusateri’s, one of our favourite local grocery/gourmet food stores! The one closest to us is moving/closing so we’ll have to go further for Thanksgiving in the fall (we get their holiday catering for Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter). I DO like their main uptown flagship on Avenue Road and Lawrence (and it was a frequent after school stop when I was in high school since it was on the way home!), so maybe we’ll go there more often. And order delivery.
Anyway, since this year, Passover and Easter aren’t close in dates, we didn’t have bi-faith celebrations (i.e. no Eastover this year). Oftentimes, Seder and Good Friday coincide, so no brisket or matzoh ball soup for me those years (I don’t exactly fast on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday, but I DO observe Fish Fridays during Lent). I never really explained to my son why I do this. He just kind of…accepts it. He doesn’t ask, even though he is very observant and curious about other things. He’s also not too curious about his origins (as a donor-conceived child), despite us having read books on the concept. For a child his age, he just doesn’t seem interested. He hasn’t been flagged for neurodivergent just yet, but sometimes I wonder (though his teachers don’t seem too concerned). I’ll probably bring this up again at the next parent-teacher conference.
Okay, I’m blabbering. Again, for those celebrating, I hope you’re having/had a wonderful Easter Sunday! What are YOUR Easter customs and traditions? Does it involve chocolate? Dyeing eggs (I haven’t done that since I was little. I found it really messy)? Egg hunts? Brunch? Dinner? Church? All of the above?