When our friends asked what our Easter traditions were, my immediate reaction was, "total exhaustion, following a glorious church service for which we had a good deal of responsibility, and into which we had put an enormous amount of time in preparation. That was the truth for many of our favorite Easters, and it left little time and less energy for other traditions. We had some, such as decorating eggs, having an Easter egg hunt (though not, as had been in my childhood, with the decorated eggs, as in Florida the real, hard-boiled eggs spoil too quickly in the often hot Easter weather), Easter baskets full of candy (jelly beans for me, SweeTart eggs, chicks, and bunnies for the girls, and chocolate for everyone; I couldn't interest anyone in marshmallow chicks). More often than not, we shared the day with friends, in not-too-energetic pursuits. As far as meals go, my family's Easter tradition was ham, and Porter doesn't care for ham, so we never really settled on anything in particular. "Easy" was a good criterion.
We certainly did not have the tradition of spending Easter at a château in France, but I could get used to that! We awoke to a big, chocolate chicken hanging (in a basket, nothing morbid here) from Janet's doorknob, and of course the Fairy Princess had her own wonderful Easter basket.
This may be a good place to mention that Janet and the Fairy Princess fell in love with each other almost immediately, and it was painful for both of them when we left. It helps that the FP is not only well-behaved and charming, but that she also plays the harp! Did I mention that this castle came equipped with a harp? The two of them had great fun inspiring each other.
We went to church. Not the big, fancy, English-speaking church in Paris, where we would have experienced all the beauty and glory of the biggest holiday of the church year. Not even in the cathedral at Laval. But in a small French Catholic church in a nearby village, and even though I believe the service wasn't much different from other Sundays (though with more joy and a few more Alleluias), it was certainly special for us, because it was, of course, all in French. One advantage to being an Episcopalian is that the Catholic Liturgy is not so much different; we were able to follow along quite well. Even our exposure to contemporary praise songs helped; I'm finally learning how to fake the tune when all the bulletin provides is the words. Even when they're in French. (Or Japanese.)
Remember what I said about my French being absolutely minimal? It's true, and Porter's is even less. But the priest deserves a lot of credit for clear diction, as we were able to understand a great deal of the words. Of the words, mind you, not the sense. In, say, a ten-word sentence, I might have understood five or even more of them, but the words I couldn't figure out were the key to the meaning of the sentence itself. Oh, well, I was just happy to be able to understand enough to feel like a worshipper rather than a spectator.
Our hosts have an Easter tradition: a big party with an egg hunt and a buffet full of incredible food! I won't show many pictures, because so many have people in them, and I don't like to show people unless I'm pretty sure they won't mind. But here are a few.
Our contribution, with help of course from the Fairy Princess, was the deviled eggs; I had brought our recipe with that in mind. It was our hostess's brilliant idea to dye the whites, though!
There were five children for the Easter egg hunt, which was just the right number. We all agreed that the Easter Bunny (who curiously goes by the initials wpw) did a great job. Afterwards we enjoyed the fabulous buffet, and conversation with interesting people from as far away as New Zealand and as near as down the road a piece.
When the guests had all left, we approached that state of exhaustion that I mentioned as our own Easter tradition. Porter and our host enjoyed watching Manchester United cream Roma in a very exciting football (aka soccer) match, while Janet and I joined our hostess in relaxing conversation. The Fairy Princess, being a highly intelligent creature, was asleep.
