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Cynthia, I am glad you gained such pleasure from the service at your church.
Lindy, what lovely memories and what a wonderful woman your Aunt by marriage sounds. I hope she stays well enough to enjoy many more years with her family. Will you still have a blessing at your home or did that finish when you moved?
Enjoy today and the family meal too.
love
Lizxx
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What wonderful memories Lindy and so interesting.
I too will be celebrating Easter Day.
Tonight we went to church for the Easter vigil on this most holy of nights.
After the starkness of Lent and the chill of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, we were met with beautiful flower arrangements and smiling people. We were all handed a small candle which would be lit from the large pascal candle as 'the Light of Christ' was passed among us. Our response would be "Thanks be to God".
In our previous church the service was held later when it was evening and the church was in darkness. The priest would come down the aisle stopping at the end of each pew to light the candle and that person would then turn and light his neighbours.....and so the Light was shared among us.
...............The flickering candles were mesmeric and held you spellbound.
................................The atmosphere was electric.
We renewed our Baptismal vows and left on an uplifted note of joyous music.
I am looking forward to the service tomorrow when the church will be crowded with folk. I look after the pre school age so I shall be worn out at the end of it!! But so worthwhile.
A Happy and Joyous Easter.
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Lindy, thankyou for sharing that with us, l hope you and your family have a lovely day tomorrow, "Happy Easter".
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Monday is not a holiday over here and tomorrow we celebrate this special occassion. I am making kid (goat) in the oven for Sunday lunch which is a tradition that I learned from my OH's family.
Memories of when my children were small come flooding back.
My Daniel was three months old when we arrived in the north of Portugal to a then small village.
Bread was delivered door to door and the local supermarket was where everyone picked up their mail.
I remember my first Easter there as if it was yesterday. We lived in a rural area surrounded by OH's family, apparently what was once a huge family farm decades ago had been divided and subdivided into smaller lots with each generation. Having narrow dirt roads, at the time not many people had cars. Everyone knew everyone else's business and poked their noses where they were not wanted, but that did not seem to bother the locals.
On Easter Sunday one of the priest from the local church would make his may down from the village which was way up on the top of the hill to visit us rural folk.
If you wanted your house and family blessed, from the main track or dirt road you would leave a trail of branches, shrubs, and flowers to your front door. So the priest would know which houses wanted blessing.
We lived next door to my outlaws and across the road from my FIL's older sister who is a wonderful person and helped me more then a Mother, taught me to cook Portuguese style, educated me in local legends, history and poets, with the help of OH's cousin who spoke a bit of English and a bilingual dictionary.
To cut a long story short the priest arrived blessed her house and ours, with her guidance I had also scattered flowers and branches to our front door.
What I failed to notice that after the priest had blessed the Aunt's house she had slipped him a small envelope . I could not understand why after he had blessed our house, he still hovered around and did not immediately move on. It was only afterwards that it was explained to me that if you could afford to you made a donation for the blessing. I was so very embarrassed and made sure that for the five years that we lived there I too had a small envelope to donate to the needy.
This wonderful woman whom I address as Aunt turned 91 on the 31st January, is a bit forgetful as to who is who in the zoo, but remembers me when I phone her. Her eyes are not so good as they used to be but she still devours books, crochet's without even having the need of her eyes. Sadly, she no longer cuts and designs wedding gowns without a pattern as she used to do twenty years ago. A woman without schooling, except for the first four years of primary school. Has a magical talent in her hands and will always be in my heart especially over the Easter holidays,
Happy Easter Sunday Everyone.
nite nite
Lindy
xx
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