Traditions

Traditions both secular and sacred occur this time each year with our family. Though with our boys on their own, Wendy and I attend Palm Sunday mass by ourselves. Anyone familiar with Catholic church tradition knows that the mass on Palm Sunday is the longest in the church year.

One reason for this is that the passion of Christ is recited at length from the Bible with speakers taking the parts of various characters from the liturgy. The congregation stands through all of this, not that easy for those at the early mass, many of whom are elderly.

This past Sunday we had no sooner begun the recitation when the choir interrupted with a short hymn. This was new. I don't remember singing ever being part of this reading. It meant we would be standing a little longer. After a few more paragraphs were read, the choir interrupted again with singing.

"Pow!" came a noise behind us. An older gentleman had swung his missalette against the top of the pew in front of him. It could have been an accident, as he struggled to balance his swarthy frame. Or it could have been an editorial comment against tampering with tradition with the addition of hymns. All I know is that the sound of his booklet whacking the top of the wooden bench in front of him reverberated loudly throughout.

With our children grown, we're past some of our other family Easter traditions as well. The Easter egg hunt in our house had been an annual tradition for many years with our boys and their cousins. I've always felt neglectful as a dad that I never found a large public Easter egg hunt for our kids to participate in when they were growing up.

Remember those? I'm sure they're still around. I won a softball once by finding a lucky egg. That wasn't easy as you were often competing against dozens, sometimes hundreds of kids.

Once, I recall being among a huge gathering of kids at a local fairgrounds where an Easter Egg hunt was going to take place. The organizers were doing their best to hold back the throngs of youngsters who could see the brightly colored eggs in the distance.

Close to the appointed time for the hunt, one of the volunteer adults wanted to get the attention of a fellow volunteer. "Hea, JOE!!" he called out loudly to be heard over the voices of the exhuberant youngsters.

Joe?? The gathered kids knew he really meant "Go!!" Away they ran like a herd of charging elephants. Though the volunteers tried to stop the mad dash as it wasn't the appointed time, they probably would have had more luck stopping a herd of charging elephants.

That left Joe and his buddies to explain to a couple angry parents why their children were held back while others were given a head start. My guess is if this group sponsored another Easter egg hunt the following year, Joe stayed home.