First off, Happy Easter Monday!
Here it is a large occasion and the stores are also closed, so were closed Friday, Sunday (as usual) and Monday. It takes lots of planning to get used to here.
I wanted to talk a little about the service I went to on Saturday night, that is when the first Easter celebration is.
They began with a dark church, and a Easter fire outside, which I could see through the windows, just the flickering flames. Outside there were people and they told the Easter story. I didn’t go outside because we were saving seats inside the church, which was so packed, more so than Christmas I feel. And after everyone came inside, then they brought a huge candle with the flame from the Easter fire. This Easter Candle then was used to light smaller candles, which then lit the candle on the rows and then each neighbor lit their neighbor’s candle, so that everyone had the flame of the Easter fire in front of them, if they brought a candle. The whole church is still dark, and so some of the service takes place with only the light from our little candles.
This was such a beautiful sight, seeing the church light up candle by candle. It happened quite quickly, but it still happened in principle one by one.
I’m not one to get mushy about religious functions, but this sight tugged a bit of my heart string.
I forgot my charger at home, so I couldn’t post till now, when I had to work stuff out, so this is post was written today and posted today, which hasn’t happened in a while. Usually I have posts written in advance. So also a special Easter gift too I suppose.
Happy Belated Easter!