No Easter Bunny

I've had these Easter photos sitting in a draft for days now waiting to be struck with eloquence. But eloquence hasn't struck so here is the prosaic version...

Molded Cakes, Passover and Lenten Candles

When the children were small and we were just starting the church in Ajigasawa, my husband said (over and over and over and at every opportunity) that Easter should be celebrated in a bigger way than Christmas. This proved somewhat of a challenge at first. When it came to the traditional routes of celebration, my father ruled out the Easter Bunny (pagan), my mother ruled out Easter Baskets (bad for your teeth), and my husband objected to fasting for Lent.

So I invented Lenten candles. At least, I think I did. I've never seen them anywhere else. The first year I dipped white candles in melted purple crayons - one for each week of Lent - and we ate supper by candle light every night for 40 days while working through the I AMs in the Gospel of John. ( I AM the bread of life, I AM the light of the world, I AM the gate, I AM the good shepherd, I AM the way, the truth and the life, I AM the true vine, I AM the resurrection and the life.)

Good Friday Last Supper Celebration of Crackers and Grape Juice

(I was pregnant and feeling rather green!)

Before coming to Japan, John, Luke and I lived in the Jewish section of Toronto (at Bathurst and Wilson) and so eventually we decided to add a Passover celebration. (I had bought a candlestick and several books of Jewish Celebrations.)

The Elliots first attempt at a Passover/Last Supper Celebration

This Year's Celebration

Somewhere along the line when I was out trying to buy purple candles (without success - we did crayons again that year) I stumbled upon 3 German cake molds: a hen, a rooster and a lamb. So now we've added cakes to our celebration.

We have the hen on Palm Sunday to remind us of Jesus grieving over Jerusalem "How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing."

The rooster on Good Friday reminds us of Peter and how easily we deny our Saviour.

And, of course, the lamb on Easter reminds us of Jesus, "the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

In 1994, we started the English Worship Service in Itayanagi with the Ghents and so now we celebrate the Passover/Last Supper twice - in Japanese on Friday and in English on Saturday. It's not as repetitious as it sounds because my sister prepares the Itayanagi meal and her style is quite different from mine. (We did bring a rooster cake though!)

Saturday in Itayanagi

This year there was a song service after the Itayanagi Passover which made it extra nice.

Sunday morning Mary wakes us up by calling out "Christ has risen" like my father used to do - only he said it in Greek! And we reply "He is risen indeed!" I didn't take any photos of our Sunday morning breakfast with the Sunday School in Aji this year but our breakfast is also a somewhat personal tradition.

After much describing of services I have attended and hinting at what would be nice to immitate ...I finally gave up. There isn't a chance of getting our present Aji congregation psyched up for a Sunrise Service! However, they will come for breakfast at 8:30 or 9:00AM. So every year we have fish and French bread for breakfast at Sunday School on Easter morning.

The first year we ate breakfast at the beach - an exhilerating experience in the sharp spring wind - but we are wimps and it has been at the church ever since.

Last year Sarah instituted a new custom for our family. She stuffed all the texts from Handel's "Messiah" into beautifully decorated Easter eggs and our family opened the eggs and read the texts together. (Which, of course, led to listening to a recording of the music!) It was so special that we did it again this year.

A few of this year's Messiah stuffed eggs.