Growing up in the Midwest, Easter Sunday was a one-day celebration full of hidden Easter baskets, chocolate bunnies and colored eggs made the day before. In the “good” ole days, we dipped hard-boiled eggs into water and vinegar that was splashed with a few drops of food coloring, then scooped the eggs out with one of those wire holder thingies and carefully wobbled the eggs to the drying rack. If you dropped the egg, it went into a funky-colored egg salad. Back then, food coloring was still non-toxic, gracias a dios.
Easter dinner was always a baked ham slathered with yellow mustard and punctured with whole cloves, accompanied by the obligatory scalloped potatoes and asparagus. In those days, my brothers were fun-loving and mischievous, which helped ameliorate the sting of our family dysfunction, which was, to put it politely, acute. Now, sadly, the boys have become an integral part of the generational trauma. Sigh. And as for church services back then? Not so much for my Presbyterian-in-name-only family.
Down here in Costa Rica? The Easter holiday is as important as Christmas and lasts much longer. For most, for a whole dang week. It’s a time of family reunions and downtime, with a lot of parades, multiple masses and special meals, like empanadas de chiverre and seafood. The tradition of abstaining from eating red meat, while religious-based, warms my little plant-based heart. Many Ticos display purple flags and decorations to remember the purple robes of Jesus. And in more recent times, many Ticos head to the beaches, filling the beach towns to capacity, where we live.
A little known fun-fact, at least for me, is that Easter is a “movable” feast. It falls on the first Sunday after the full Moon that occurs on or after the Spring Equinox. Who knew? Generally, for us, Easter is a week that we choose to stay home to avoid the “crowds”, knowing that as soon as the rains start in a week or so, the crowds will thin out and our life will revert to some kind of norm, whatever that is. Pura vida!
Judy Richter 